But I Hear There Are New Suns
2023
Presented with Union Pacific Gallery in London’s East End, these landscape portraits are an exploration of power, suffering, and potential as it is written in the land and plant life of the Southern United States. At the center of this exhibition is a call and response narrative between sugarcane and four o'clock flowers. The sugarcane points to the history of colonialism and slavery; representing the inhuman drive to turn land into profit no matter the cost to life and land. The four o’clock flowers, popular in the private gardens of sharecroppers at the turn of the century, represent the private restorative labors we hold for ourselves. Invisible texts pulled from Ralph Ellison, Octavia Butler, and Baldwin are painted across the surfaces and speak to the power/danger of hiding in hibernation, as well as the radical optimism necessary to imagine a better future.
Oil and acrylic on canvas
Oil and acrylic on canvas
Oil and acrylic on canvas
Oil and acrylic on canvas
Oil and acrylic on canvas
Oil and acrylic on canvasx
Oil and acrylic on canvas