“Memory + Healing + Sustainability” - Group Art Exhibition
West Harlem Arts – a collaborative initiative of The Children’s Art Carnival and Centro Civico Cultural Dominicano – is pleased to present MEMORY + HEALING + SUSTAINABILITY, a new exhibition in dialogue with Afrofuturism philosophy and aesthetics.
MEMORY + HEALING + SUSTAINABILITY addresses the questions: how do you heal when memory is both prescient and present? How do you save the world and yourself and exist as a complete being when the world has torn you apart? Through paintings, collage, mixed-media, photography, and other media, the 18 exhibiting artists seek both to be free in the presence of a post-pandemic world that has divided itself once again while seeking to find roots in this fragile reality where distance outweighs desire.
In a world fascinated with the “self”, life is represented as invisible giants and outlines drawn on sidewalks amongst the tags of those shouting to be remembered. Broken glass windows that once reflected the streets of Harlem are patted into the shape of snowballs that may not last until tomorrow. Tinkers use remnants of treasures no longer in use to create idols. Prayers hidden in the mediation of hair woven into braids, in memories of lines of dance, the symmetry of movement. Chaos yields to the Kusudama that hang from clouds in the sky, black faces swing into the skies. Taking shelter in homes that remain in memoriam. A vision of the future recreated in an imaginary regal, whole, and freed.
MEMORY + HEALING + SUSTAINABILITY will be on view April 23 - July 16, 2022 at The Children’s Art Carnival (62 Hamilton Terrace, New York, NY 10031) and Centro Civico Cultural Dominicano (619 West 145th Street, New York, NY 10031).
Please join us for our in-person opening reception at The Children's Art Carnival (62 Hamilton Terrace) this Saturday, April 23, from 5 - 7pm.
