There is a noticeable absence of Black Rhapsody within Western art histories and cultural institutions – a vacancy that is deliberate and part of a legacy that subverts the expression and resonance of Black Rhapsody globally. The Black body is too often saddled as a station of trauma and violence, making rhapsody an anomaly, happening in spite of this assumed “inherent state” of the Black body. Within this model, the perpetual gravity of white supremacy and oppression is implicitly understood as the necessary conceit for fleeting moments of joy before a return to the assumed state of normalcy.
North Star asks: What does the Black body, devoid of the “inescapable” gravity of oppression, look like? What is the Black body in zero gravity?
When You Find Me, 2021
Watercolor, ink and graphite on paper
77 x 51 inches
Dandelions, 2021
Watercolor, ink and graphite
72 x 92 inches
North Star
Exhibition view
San Jose Museum of Art
Ghost Ledger, 2024
Watercolor, ink and graphite on paper
62 × 51 inches
Exhibition view
Cleveland Museum of Art
All I Can Do To Keep From Laughing Is To Cry, 2020
Watercolor, ink and graphite on paper
79 x 81 inches
Italo, 2021
Ink and graphite on paper
72 x 88 inches
If I Let You In, 2021
Watercolor on paper
51 x 55 inches
Exhibition view
Andy Warhol Museum
Land’s End, 2020
Watercolor, ink, and graphite on paper
79 x 94 inches
Almost Everything, 2021
Ink and graphite on paper
79 x 96 inches
Blue Moon, 2020
Watercolor, ink, and graphite on paper
79 x 88 inches
Suspended In Disbelief, 2024
Watercolor, ink and graphite on paper
51 × 51 inches
Exhibition View
Cleveland Museum of Art