Washington County’s African-American Museum and Cultural Arts Center opened its doors for a special summertime art showcase, a first for the institution, but one curator Rosa Brown says is far from the last.
The Thursday night premier was Roper’s official introduction to artist Kurt Garrett, who titled his 25-piece showcase “Inspiring Culture in Color Collection.”
Bearing in mind the name and the location of the artist exhibition, it’s no surprise that each of the pieces depicted great moments in African-American history, African-American figures in action and introspective pieces that spoke to black identity, experience and spirituality.
Each of the pieces told its own unique story, something Garrett was eager to tell visitors about, as well as share a bit about his working process, as well as the mindset and inspiration that went into each work of art.
Most visitors were greeted by a large central painting of an African-American woman wearing a gray business suit who appeared to be free falling or skydiving without a parachute. Naturally, there was more to the painting than initially met the eye.
“She’s actually a combination of the flying African mythos as well as the modern example of the Exodus story… particularly when the children of Israel were pushed against the Red Sea and had nowhere to go,” Garrett explains. “This is an example of a person of color being pushed to the point that they have no choice but to levitate, take flight and do something miraculous with the opportunity.”
While all of Garrett’s paintings demonstrated a deeper-seated significance, many of them were effective by virtue of how quickly viewers were able to grasp what they were about...
