I had the chance to participate in the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia entitled In Minor Keys by Koyo Kouoh.
“The minor keys refuse orchestral bombast and goose-step military marches and come alive in the quiet tones, the lower frequencies, the hums, the consolations of poetry, all portals of improvisation to the elsewhere and the otherwise. The minor keys ask for listening that calls on the emotions and sustains them in return.
The minor keys are also the small islands, worlds amid oceans with distinct and endlessly rich ecosystems, social lives that are articulated, for better and worse, within much larger political forms and ecological stakes. Here, the evocation of the key and the island extends to an archipelago of oases: gardens, courtyards, compounds, lofts, dance floors — the other worlds that artists make, the intimate and convivial universes that refresh and sustain even in terrible times; indeed, especially in terrible times.”
- Koyo Kouoh
For this exhibition, I showed a selection of paintings from North Star on a hand-painted mural entitled Poetics Of Displacement. Viewers were welcomed to the exhibition through a narrow hallway, which opened into the immersive space of paintings and sculptures. The sculptural work featured in the space is by Ebony G. Paterson.
Exhibition View
Giardini Della Biennale, 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia
Photo credit: Andrea Avezzù
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?
Exhibition view
Giardini Della Biennale, 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia
Poetic Acts Of Displacement
Wall mural
Dimensions variable
Miracle
2025
Watercolor and acrylic on paper
56.5 × 56.5 inches framed
Black Rainbow
2025
Watercolor, acrylic ink, and 24 karat gold leaf on paper
56.5 × 56.5 inches framed
Exhibition View
Giardini Della Biennale, 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia
When I Close My Eyes I See You Staring Back
2025
Watercolor, ink, and acrylic paint on paper
96 × 72 inches framed
Even More Beautiful Than I Ever Imagined
2024
Acrylic ink and watercolor on paper
74 × 93.75 inches framed
Even More Beautiful Than I Ever Imagined
2024
Acrylic ink and watercolor on paper
74 × 93.75 inches framed
Exhibition view
Giardini Della Biennale, 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia
Close Enough To Share A Name
2025
Watercolor, graphite, and acrylic on paper
56.5 × 56.5 inches
Exhibition view
Giardini Della Biennale, 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia
Unknown Unknown 1
2022
Ink, watercolor, and graphite on paper
59.25 × 56.1 inches framed