African-American Artists Beginning to Educate Americans About African-American Art (ABEA)

Press Release
March 15, 2006
Contacts:
Linda Cooper, WAAWC Operations Manager, 414.933.1652
Evelyn Patricia Terry, Curator, 414.264.6766
Della Wells, ABEA President, 414.264.5459

CLOSING RECEPTION FOR UNCLE TOM TO PEEPING TOM: RACE AND GENDER MATTERS
Curated by Evelyn Patricia Terry
Representing African American Artists Beginning to Educate Americans About African American Art or ABEA
Day After Thoughts on How the Event Went

MARCH 31, 2006
at the
Wisconsin African American Women’s Center
3020 West Vliet Street
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
7 – 11 pm

ABEA and WAAWC invites to attend a special closing reception featuring spoken word by four poets, Tiffany Miller AKA Cover Girl, Carmen A. Murguia, Darlin Nikki and Charlesetta Thompson. Additionally, an open mic also compliments the art exhibition, Uncle Tom to Peeping Tom: Race and Gender Matters curated by Milwaukee-based professional artist, Evelyn Patricia Terry. The exhibition features the work of fifteen artists selected from an international call out. They are Milwaukee-based artists Tamiko Dargan and Della Wells, and Chicago-based artists Tiffany Nicole Slade, Ann Tyler and Constance D. White. Other artists in the exhibition are Talleah E. Bridges, Los Angeles, CA; Mariana BrooksMueller, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Heather Davis, Philadelphia, PA; Mary Foster, Saginaw, MI; Helen R. Klebesadel, Madison, WI; Vicki Meek, Dallas, TX; Mary Reid Kelley, Northfield, MN; Deborah Roberts, Austin, TX; Camille Ross, Hanover, NH; and Tonja Torgerson, Minneapolis, MN.

The event is free and open to the public.

This is an art exhibition collaboration, conceived by Linda Corbin–Pardee, Program Manager of the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee Union, between The UWM Union Art Gallery hosting the exhibition “Blessed - The Work of Joyce Scott;” consulting arts organization African-American Artists Beginning to Educate Americans About African Art; and the Wisconsin African American Women’s Center hosting the companion exhibition Uncle Tom to Peeping Tom: Race and Gender Matters. Funding for these projects was provided by the UWM Union and the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Mary L. Nohl Fund.

Funding was provided by the UWM Union, the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Mary L. Nohl Fund, ABEA, and WAAWC.

ABEA’s Mission Statement

The primary mission of African American Artists Beginning to Educate Americans About African American Art (ABEA) is to function as both an advocacy and educational group. ABEA is comprised of artists and art supporters dedicated to contributing to cultural enrichment by educating communities about African - American art and artists, promoting African - American artists and additionally providing opportunities for all artists to work together for prosperity and growth.

Wisconsin African American Women’s Center

Wisconsin African American Women’s Center (WAAWC) is a community based 501 (C) (3) organization that was founded in 1997 by a diverse group of professional African American Women. Thirty-six African American women collaborated and combined their money to finance and refurnish the building because they believe strong families build strong communities. WAAWC’s mission is to empower and enhance the community through educational and economic development.

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Union Art Gallery

The UWM Union Art Gallery is designed to accommodate exhibitions of artwork, to act as a center for all areas of the visual and performing arts and to support the growth of the fine arts community at UWM and is located at 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd, Milwaukee, WI.† It also provides an out-of-classroom learning experience for the university students and faculty as well as an outlet for the university and community to interact. The Union Art Gallery exhibits national and regional exhibitions of art, as well as work created within the university community. Find gallery hours and updates online at http://www.aux.uwm.edu/Union/.

Exhibiting Artists

Talleah E. Bridges, Los, Angeles, California
“Is there such a thing as a female vs. a male sensibility?” is a question Talleah E. Bridges of Los Angeles, California strives to answer as she defines her aesthetic and investigates her vision of subtle sensuality. An Unfurling Indulgence is one of the artworks resulting from Bridges’s exploration of the nude in photography with her body as subject matter. Enlisting the assistance of fellow photographer and friend Charles Watson, the resulting work avoids images that are “too literal” and “blatantly sexual” in favor of the “subtle” and “sensual.” Exploring fine art photography since high school, independent photographer Bridges also works in documentary production. Since 2001, she has been at†PJ†Productions and is now an associate producer.

Mariana BrooksMueller San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Mariana BrooksMueller of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico explores the impact of death and fate on Mexican women using photomontage. Societal beliefs determine whether a Mexican woman has died a “good death” or a “bad death” Beautiful, public memorials, with full religious rites, result from a “good death” declaration. A “bad death” declaration, from rape/disfigurement preceding murder, suicide for love, or border crossings means religious funerals are disallowed and burial in unmarked graves becomes the fate. BrooksMueller, whose multiethnic family connections to Mexico go back to 1840, has been an artist and author for thirty years. Exhibiting internationally, she holds a Master’s Degree in Printmaking from the University of Kansas and a Doctorate in Psychology from Fielding University, Santa Barbara, California.

Tamiko Dargan, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Searching for meaning through observation, examination, repetition, and pattern, Tamiko Dargan of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, utilizes printmaking techniques. Feeling that our
society has created levels of alienation, her artwork explores individual identity as well as a universal identity and what it means to be a black woman in the twenty-first century.
She juxtaposes vessels, European dress and African symbols, reconstructing them into artwork that makes sense to her and separates her from a voyeuristic culture that obsesses over the female form on a daily basis. Dargan received her BFA in photography from the University of South Florida. She began studying printmaking at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2003.

Heather Davis, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Heather Davis of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania explores race and gender issues in her collages utilizing her family history and the tall tales of African and African Americans. Auntie Sarah, a dark girl with wooly hair, represents Davis’s maternal lineage. Auntie Sarah is docile and a child demonstrating mammy-like characteristics. Seffronia, a blonde girl with Caucasoid features, represents Davis’s paternal genealogy. Her artwork, Ninety-four Women, Forty-Eight Years, explores the lynching of women, which is greatly overlooked. This piece is an acknowledgment of the tragic death of Mary Turner. Davis attended Florida A& M University for her undergraduate degree and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for her MA. She is currently a professor of Fine Art at Cheyney University.

Mary Foster, Saginaw, Michigan
Photography allows Mary Foster from Saginaw, Michigan to capture the true essence of matters touching the souls of black women. In this series, she perceives and understands the reality of subjects not experienced visually, but intimately. Her image is the main subject for the black and white self-portraits she creates. Superimposing handwriting over photographs, the self-esteem of African-American women is her motivation. She describes her handwriting as sometimes timid, fluid and even; and other times it is careless, bold and overwhelming. Foster has been a practicing professional artist and educator since 1992, with a BFA from Saginaw Valley State University, in Michigan. She began working on a MFA at central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan in 2004.

Helen R. Klebesadel , Madison, Wisconsin
Irresistibly drawn to the erotic, Helen R. Klebesadel, of Madison, Wisconsin, evokes female sensuality in her watercolor installation. Intended to become a 999-image installation, 104 Blessings from Audre, Judy, and Georgia is spurred on by Audre Lorde’s essay suggesting that female sexuality has been purposely suppressed as a means of control. Independent of any context, but its own lived experience, each individual image is a portrait of a plum, peach, or apricot, with a slice removed to reveal a portion of its pit. As an activist and an educator Klebesadel exhibits her work internationally. She taught studio art at Lawrence University from 1990 until 2000, when she became Director of the University of Wisconsin System’s Women’s Studies Consortium.

Vicki Meek, Dallas, Texas
The mixed media works of Vicki Meek, of Dallas, Texas, from her Cut From the Same Cloth series, honor eight Black freedom fighters spanning several generations.† A spiritual calling, not necessarily “religious,” motivated the eight. Their portraits on white paper are juxtaposed with their “spiritual portraits” - the Yoruba Orisha - using text from their memoirs and the Yoruba text translation “I am a spirit; I come down to greet you.” Nigerian strip cloth, sixteen cowrie shells, oak panels, and brass are also used. Meek exhibits nationally and has been director of the South Dallas Cultural Center since 1997. She received a BFA from Tyler School of Fine Arts, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania and a MFA from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Mary Reid Kelley, Northfield, Minnesota
Wishing to understand race and educate herself, the drawings and hand-colored ink jet photo of Mary Reid Kelley of Northfield, Minnesota, are influenced by the historical and mythological context of the Civil War. Her interest in American history and in the history of her family, who fought for the Confederacy, and her feeling that racism and other issues must be traced back to their roots, to be understood, fuels her work. For Reid Kelley, the burden of history’s injustice lies not only with the oppressed, but with the larger society as well, as does the duty to educate. Born in South Carolina, where she lived until moving to the Midwest in 1995, she graduated from St. Olaf College in 2001.

Deborah Roberts, Austin, Texas
Working with transferred monotypes, gouache, and acrylic, Deborah Roberts of Austin, Texas, examines the societal viewing of African Americans in her mixed media artwork. She rooted her artistic career on challenging the abundance of images negatively portrayed by media. The dual image of two women holding each other in a circumscribed circle is a repeating motif in her artwork, allowing her to reclaim the sexuality and aesthetics of the black body and remove society’s filtered gaze. Roberts earned her BFA at the University of Texas in Austin and participates in both group and solo exhibitions in corporate, museum, and gallery venues. Her artworks are included in numerous private collections including Drs. Bill and Camille Cosby, Dr. Johnetta Cole and Oprah Winfrey.

Camille Ross, Hanover, New Hampshire
While visiting the DuSable Museum in Chicago in 2000, Camille Ross of Hanover, New Hampshire, discovered Frank Green’s 1869 book, Ten Little Niggers, which inspired her mixed media recreation of that document. Appalled that this book, containing such violent and ignorant†depictions of black people, was given to white children; she became interested in minstrelsy, black Americana, and stereotypes after seeing the movie, “Bamboozled.” Remembering that the original blackface actors/singers were white, she “black faced” white dolls and dressed them in tattered clothing simulating plantation wear and constructed her version of the book to bring it to life. In 2002, Ross earned a BFA and Certification in Coaching from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. She is assistant coach at Dartmouth College.

Tiffany Nicole Slade, Chicago, Illinois
Greatly influenced by the ostensibly ‘primitive’ paintings of Jean-Michael Basquiat, Tiffany Nicole Slade’s journal entries became grotesquely imaginative material for later
paintings and drawings. Scribbled text references her battles with her body’s dis-ease and her struggles as a Black woman, mother, lover, and autobiographer existing in a predominantly white city, university, and fine arts program. †The painting Pray for the Woman You Are, explores childbirth, self-esteem, and self-acceptance. †Slade is pursuing a MFA in Writing at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), where she was awarded the 2005–2007 Trustee’s Merit Scholarship. †She earned a BFA in Painting at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee in 2003 and a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Writing at SAIC in 2005.

Tonja Torgerson, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Tonja Torgerson lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, producing silkscreen prints that respond to and critique the shift away from feminism among her peers. As a young woman, she views the recession back into roles and restrictions that yesterday’s feminists worked so hard to overturn, as a startling and dangerous development in modern society. Using images of women from social networking websites, she pokes fun by investigating the concepts of “narcissism,” “vanity,” and the latest hip trend of the “New Domestics” or playing housewife. In her artwork, the phrase ”Look At Me” is superimposed over a female image as Torgerson uses satire to focus on appearance. Beginning to exhibit nationally, Torgerson is pursuing a BFA from the University of Minnesota.

Ann Tyler, Chicago, Illinois
Ann Tyler, of Chicago, Illinois, constructs artist books focusing on issues of violence. One book in the exhibition merges the narrative structure of many lynchings with a children’s tale. Tyler approaches her themes from the perspective of both victim and perpetrator. As a woman and lesbian, she brings her own experiences as the recipient of violence. As a Caucasian, she brings the history of white perpetration of violence towards people of color.† Tyler is a Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collections of the Tate Gallery, London, the Smithsonian Collection of Prints and Posters, Washington, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

Della Wells, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
“African-American women maneuvering through America’s madness” provides the impetus for drawings in the Little Colored Girl Series by Della Wells of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Though often devalued by those who perceive her as faceless and unimportant, dogged strength and determination drive the “Little Colored Girl” to combat the legacy of American racism and sexism in societal collisions with the clowns, fools, and other assorted nuts that run our political, economic and social systems amuck. A self-taught folk artist, Wells is represented in over one hundred collections throughout the United States. Her work has been featured at the Kohler Art Center, Museum of Science and Industry, and Alabama’s Kentuck Art Festival. In 2005, she received a Greater Milwaukee Foundation Mary L. Nohl Suitcase Grant.

Connie D. White, Chicago, Illinois
Through the collection, configuration, and reconfiguration of graphic and written language, Constance D. White, of Chicago, Illinois, looks at the historical and cultural phenomenon of lynching in the U.S.† – specifically of African-American men and women. Her ink jet prints look at lynching as an act of torture intent on destroying African-American identity and community, through destroying the body. Her artwork, Reconfigurations, exposes attempts to obscure the subject through systems of representation that reconstruct reality, by combining lifeless victims with lively caricatures from commercial and popular culture. White is adjunct Associate Professor of Visual Communication at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2005 she received a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, and exhibited at WomanMade Gallery in Chicago.