Dynamic Exhibit Explores Black Women Artists

By Jake-ann Jones
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Verde: Poetics of Shade
a Dynamic exhibit exploring Black Women artists 

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Through July 24
Tampa Museum of Art
Details here

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A dynamic display of contemporary Black women artists, including Shannon Elyse Curry, Kendra Frorup, Nneka Jones, Jodi Minnis and Princess Smith, is currently on view at the Tampa Museum of Art (TMA) in Verde: Poetics of Shade.

Taking its title from contemplation on the color green and its various emotions and feelings, the exhibit considers several shades and symbolic messages evoked from the color through the mediums of painting, sculpture, ceramics, and embroidery on canvas.

Shannon Elyse Curry (American), Twilight, 2015, Mixed medium on canvas, 48 x 72 inches

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The exhibit is a partnership between the TMA and the Tampa Chapter of The Links, Inc., an international nonprofit established in 1946. With a membership of over 15,000 women of color and chapters in 42 states, the Bahamas and the UK, The Links is one of the oldest volunteer service organizations, carrying the mission of “enriching, sustaining, and ensuring the culture and economic survival of African Americans and other persons of African ancestry.”

Casey Curry, Tampa Links’ Arts Committee Chair, shared that the exhibit came about when she and the committee vice-president reached out the museum with the idea of curating a show that would celebrate and showcase women of color. It took three years for the organization’s arts initiative to result in the current show, which, Curry acknowledges, had “many iterations, twists and turns.”

The five selected artists live and/or work in the Tampa Bay area, and explore topics including family ties, childhood, racism, identity, self-love and childhood.

Shannon Elyse Curry Self Portrait 10 – photo by Jake-ann Jones

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Shannon Elyse Curry
, is California-born artist living in South Tampa. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Studio Art and Art History as an honors scholar at Atlanta’s Spelman College, studying under Dr. Fahamu Pecou. Her paintings are evocative, somewhat surreal, and evoke the mystery of feminine energy.
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Kendra Frorup, A Light Sense – photo by Jake-ann Jones

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Sculptor Kendra Frorup hails from the Bahamas. She received a bachelors degree in Art from the University of Tampa and an MFA from Syracuse University. Her smaller sculptural creations feel classic and startling, delicate and powerful, all at once – while a large-scale piece that places dozens of china plates along a cloth-draped wall seems to contemplate familial culture.
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Nneka Jones (Trinidad and Tobago), Destroy the Myth, 2021, Embroidery, 16 x 20 inches, Tampa Museum of Art, 2021.035

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Nneka Jones
mixed-media self-portrait Destroy the Myth features hand-embroidery on a canvas that focuses on her partially drawn face. Of the work the Trinidad and Tobago-born artist shared, she says –
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This nontraditional portrait is a thought-provoking work of art that strips away the layers of negative stereotypes and projected opinion on the identity of a black woman to reveal an incomplete silhouette, particularly in the areas of the hair and skin. 

Black women, particularly dark-skinned women, throughout history have faced discrimination against their skin tone, racial features, natural hair, and have even been labeled violent and loud. This has created a lack of self-confidence and the notion that dark skinned women are unable to be feminine, professional or represent the face of beauty. 

However, this hand embroidered portrait emphasizes the reconstruction of black identity and the destruction of all other myths and stereotypes. The powerful gaze reinforces that she has had enough and will allow herself to heal and rebuild slowly falling in love with her skin, hair and features again.

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The work has been added to the Tampa Museum’s permanent collection and exemplifies Jones’ concerns for the protection of women and girls, as well as social, racial and environmental injustice. You can read her artist statement on this work here. Jones holds a BFA in Art from the University of Tampa.
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Jodi Minnis, It’s Not Mine to Hold, Version 2 – photo by Jake-ann Jones

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Jodi Minnis
is a multidisciplinary artist born in Nassau, Bahamas. Her installation, titled It’s Not Mine to Hold, Version 2, is a startling alignment of Black Mammy figurines standing at attention like stalwart soldiers, provoking ideas on the intersection of gender, race and culture in relation to Bahamian and Black women. She is an MFA graduate of The College of the Bahamas with a BFA from the University of Tampa.
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Princess Smith (American), Black and Gold, 2021, Print, 18 x 24 inches

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Princess Smith,
a Los Angeles-born artist, offers portraitures that evoke powerful feelings of self-worth, self-love and self-realization. Featuring girls and women who stare boldly from the canvas and feel fully in control of their personhood, her work is uplifting and empowering. She holds a bachelors degree from the University of Tampa and an MFA from the University of South Florida.

Shannon Elyse Curry (American), Elemental, 2021, Acrylic on tempered glass, 36 x 42 inches

 

The exhibit invites viewers to consider a variety of motifs for shades of green in its poetic descriptions. . .
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Chartreuse

Provocation, politics, social justice, excitement. These works explore current as well as longstanding societal issues and norms. They represent excitement, change and joy amid the turbulence. Chartreuse begs us to dance in the storm.
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Sage

These works speak to wisdom, self-awareness, healing, protection and native cultures. They represent history and places of origin.
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Princess Smith (American), Reflection, 2018, Print, 30 x 40 inches
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Olive

The symbolism here represents the beginning. We explore peace, promise, fertility, prosperity, immortality and success. As well, the olive tree is linked with the renaissance and the light.
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Moss

Serenity, quiet, shade and whimsy speak through these pieces. Here we imagine, dream, and explore mother earth and calm. Tranquility is represented as well as the whisper that is a smile and not laughter.
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Nneka Jones (Trinidad and Tobago), Destroy the Myth, Special Edition, 2021, Mixed media, 30 x 48 inches

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While green is the color that inspires the exhibit, it is not used in any obvious visual theme. Rather, the variety of works throughout the exhibit embody a sense of life brimming with power, possibility, self-assertion and joy.
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Verde: Poetics of Shade runs through July 24

Tampa Museum of Art
120 W. Gasparilla Plaza
downtown Tampa FL 33602
TampaMuseum.org, 813-274-8130
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Nneka Jones, Access Denied – photo by Jake-ann Jones

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