Superchief Gallery_Black Power-012

Superchief Gallery_Black Power-005

The show’s titular piece is a framed piece of plexiglass with the words “BLACK POWER” screen printed black-on-black by Jorden Haley. Jorden’s process is meditative, without a conscious finished product in mind at the outset. His ornate, repeating patterns of daggers, bones and skulls printed in gold and white on various materials are done gradually, and connected later based on incremental aesthetic choices. He’s heavily influenced by the Catholic iconography of his upbringing and the animal bones his father helped him find in his back yard (his dad even mailed him the skeleton of a dead bird). He’s dressed in a leather jacket, slicked-back hair, fingerless leather gloves… and he’s white.

Ron Wimberly, whose graphic novel “Prince of Cats” (a hip-hop retelling of “Romeo and Juliet”) was recently released by Vertigo, is the unifying force in the trio of artists. He chose Jordan because his art exemplifies and is influenced by American Black Culture more than his own, which he says owes a great deal to his connection with Japanese art and culture. Behind him on the wall are three Japanese masks in blackface and a piece called “Sambojo.” He holds this fascination in common with Coby Kennedy, whose graffiti reputation preceded him before they were together at Pratt. Ron’s time in Japan crystallized his thematic focus on the push and pull of cultural expectations through the lens of mass media. He brings a depth to the popular form of comic-book art that does well to bring to light “the greater conversation in comics” and the universal, but varied images of “the other” and “the outsider” in both language and art. There’s also a good deal of classical mythology and art in his work with a noticeable nod to the style of Ver Sacrum (the official magazine of the Vienna Secession).

Superchief Gallery_Black Power-011

Superchief Gallery_Black Power-006

Superchief Gallery will be hosting an aggressive program of 52 art shows in 2013 as part of their year long residency at the Culturefix space on 9 Clinton St in Manhattan and there’s a bar downstairs. Check them out.

SHOW: BLACK POWER – April 9-April 14, 2013

FACEBOOK EVENT – https://www.facebook.com/events/499466393444505/  

Opening Reception:  Thursday, April 11, 2013 6-8pm
Closing Reception with the artists – Q&A:
Sunday, April 14th from 5-7pm

ARTISTS: Ron Wimberly, Coby Kennedy and Jorden Haley

GALLERY: Superchief Gallery at Culturefix, 9 Clinton St., NYC 10002 (yes, they have a bar too). Find Superchief Gallery online and on Facebook