Honestly same. Courtesy of the Frye Art Museum
The first show is from LA-based painter Christina Quarles whose fleshy renderings of bodies positioned every which way—on their knees, backs, sides, shoulders—are thrown against patterned backgrounds to create stirring, moody paintings. Her figures' limbs are long, composed of colored tones of pink, brown, and green with paint that drips down the canvas. It's sexy and weird and full of feeling. The self-titled show is a survey of Quarles' work from the past three years and is the largest presentation of hers to date. It also marks the US debut of what the press materials call "a large-scale installation that playfully references trompe l'oeil." In addition to paintings, Christina Quarles will also feature drawings "which will often include text that references vernacular language and popular culture." Dope!
Excited to think about the future. Courtesy of the Frye Art Museum
The other show is a collaborative exhibition between Christopher Paul Jordan—of AMP Memorial Pathway fame—and Arnaldo James called In the Interim: Ritual Ground for a Future Black Archive. Jordan and James have their eyes on preserving Black oral tradition and "the facilitation of intergenerational dialogue" between Black people. In the Interim is centered around a soundproof recording booth where Black visitors are invited to record prophecies, predictions, and musings about the future. These recordings will then be encrypted and stored on a hard drive. When the show closes, the encryption key will be held in a time capsule and buried somewhere on the Frye's grounds to be made publicly available 100 years from now (if we're not all underwater). The show will also include a new series of paintings and photographs from Jordan and James that "address themes of inversion and immersion, evoking the underworld and the otherworldly."
I've not yet had the chance to see either show but will surely write something more in-depth so keep your eyes on the blog, baby.
Christina Quarles and Christopher Paul Jordan and Arnaldo James's In the Interim: Ritual Ground for a Future Black Archive are up at the Frye Art Museum until June 5 and May 15, respectively.
See more top picks from The Stranger here.
