Blessed by the Ancestors, a new exhibit dedicated to local Black artists, is now on view at City Museum. Until February 28, guests will be able to walk around the museum’s fourth floor Architectural Gallery to view a variety of works, including photography, painting, mixed media, and sculptures from 12 Black artists. Curator and artist Brock Seals selected the works to bring recognition to the featured artists and explore the past, present, and future of the Black experience.
“I came up with the name because I feel like [Black] artists back in the day, in the early ‘50s and ‘60s, went unknown. And even before that time, a lot of artists went unknown, but they produced a lot of work that actually inspired a lot of great technology, inventions, and a cultural period. In today’s time, we do get more exposure and more opportunities, and I feel like that is a direct blessing from our ancestors who paved the way for us.” Seals says.
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Seals looked for artists whose work communicates the Black experience without holding back. “A lot of the time, Black artists have to compromise the artwork to be accepted by white audiences,” says Seals. “So I wanted something that was 100 percent them expressing themselves without restraints.”
As visitors look through the gallery, they will see these unfiltered stories. A piece by B.Toyaaa captures the regal side-profiles of Black women in the form of a tufted rug. Naga Safa created a large mixed-media painting depicting two women standing side by side, surrounded by bright orange and red flowers, a yellow-white snake, lounging cats, and a setting sunset. Seals’ own work, “Black American Gothic,” is a colorful and vibrant reimagining of the “New American Gothic” as Black American cowboys.
Seals hopes that this exhibit and the featured artists will inspire young Black artists, in the way he himself has been inspired by artists such as Kenhinde Wiley. “I want them to walk in the exhibit and see themselves and be able to relate to stuff that they see within the artwork,” he says. “I want to inspire them to create and just to feel proud about who they are and where they come from.”
Blessed by the Ancestors runs through February 28 in the Architectural Gallery at City Museum. The exhibition is free with general admission. For more information, visit citymuseum.org/event/blessed-by-the-ancestors/.
