ON VIEW IN GALLERY 194
Pride Month Exhibit
Gallery 194 I June 13 - July 31, 2024
Reception: June 20, 2024 6 - 8 pm
Calling all art lovers and allies! Are you ready to experience a celebration of LGBTQIA+ artists? Look no further than the CAC’s Pride Month group exhibit, featuring some of the most vibrant, diverse and empowering artwork! At the heart of it all, this exhibit celebrates a bold declaration of pride, love, and self-expression.
This exhibition is on view in our Gallery 194 from June 13, 2024 - July 31, 2024.
FEATURED ARTISTS:
Jovan Bethel a.k.a. ProtèJay - My name is Jovan Bethel, but my artist name is ProtèJay. I am a highly acclaimed painter and artist born and raised in Washington, DC. From a young age, I displayed an innate talent for creativity and self-expression, often drawing and painting vibrant scenes from nature and their surroundings.
Throughout my time as an artist, I have been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including being acknowledged within Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated's prestigious newsletter. Today, I continue to inspire and captivate audiences with my paintings and creation, which can be found in private collections, museums, and galleries within thr DMV area and parts of thenwestern and southern hemisphere. As a truly visionary artist, I remain committed to pushing the boundaries of artistic expression and exploring new avenues of creativity.
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Aspen Bishop - Aspen Bishop, a queer artist based in Brooklyn Park, MD, boldly explores the complexities of identity through the medium of acrylic painting. Bishop's work invites viewers to contemplate the fluidity and fragmentation of self, navigating the confluence of the tangible and intangible, of perception. In each piece, layers of vibrant color and texture are meticulously applied to create a multi-dimensional experience, reflecting the multifaceted nature of the queer experience. Through their evocative imagery, Bishop sheds light on the intricacies of queerness and its intersections with gender, sexuality, and challenging societal constructs and inviting a celebration of individuality. Bishop's work is a powerful and thought-provoking ode to the unapologetic embrace of one's true self.
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Nikki Brooks - Nikki Brooks, a multi-discipline artist, curator, muralist, and art educator, crafts immersive experiences through installations, assemblages, and collages. Born in 1975 in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Spotsylvania County, VA, her multidisciplinary approach encompasses diverse mediums such as digital elements, paintings, sculpted text, and more.
Influenced by artists like Fred Wilson, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Maya Lin, and Adrian Piper, Brooks transforms curated spaces into communal havens, describing them as akin to "walking into one of my collages." Her installations, described as "collages in 3-D, a multitude of voices," explore social activism, urging audiences to interact with presented objects, images, sculptures, and writings.
Guided by the wisdom of strong women in her life, Brooks' commitment extends beyond aesthetics to layered narratives that serve as Pandora's boxes of truth-telling and lived experiences. Whether 2-D or 3-D, each piece invites the audience to interact, revealing core meanings beyond surface beauty. Her art pushes tough conversations, encouraging active participation in critical issues and bridging understanding across societal challenges.
Jainson Cedillo - “I'm an future art educator, I bring in a different perspective in the world of education and art. Being a queer Ecuadorian artist. In my art I always tryin to make art that showcase my culture and my queerness, sometimes separate or together . Try to make art that shows my journey to finding myself and making art that truly shows me without a filter. My art varies from moments where I feel weak to feeling strong for being queer. And hope it inspires students and artist to be themselves no matter the judgement or in what group you fit in.”
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Ricky Chenoweth - My name is Ricky, I go by the stage name of RC online and on social media, I’ve worked as a freelance artist for over 10 years now, and now more of a full time artist as of the last couple months, I work in a variety of mediums and subjects, through water colors, soft pastels, computers and graphics. I specialize in surrealism and pop art, but don’t shy away from commission works as well. The Chesapeake arts center is where I got my start over a decade ago. Here I was able to grow an audience and meet a ton of like-minded people that allowed my creativity to grow. Honestly if you can think of it, there’s a solid chance I can make it.
(DanaidX) The Danaid Collaboration - The Danaid Collaboration (DanaidX) is a Baltimore based duo formed by Hope Brooks and Angela Yarian. Yarian spent 10 years unable to make work because of a debilitating illness, despite holding a degree in art. Likewise, Brooks, a trans woman, photographer and data engineer, also wrestles with her own chronic pain issues. Emerging from a quest to make art from a place that acknowledges present realities, their collaboration resists trying to be different, more abled-bodies than they are. Through an attentive, slow-moving method of making cyanotypes, they embrace limitations as a fertile ground for creative work, and as a possibility for expanding the dialogue on what constitutes a successful art practice and life. DanaidX’s name comes from the Greek myth about the danaid sisters, cursed by the gods to endlessly fill a cistern riddled with holes. Chronic illness makes simple tasks into broken cisterns. DanaidX asks: what if we were able to plug those holes for each other?
Anna Divinagracia - Anna Divinagracia is a Philippines-born Baltimore-based photographer and visual artist. Divinagracia transforms her shared experiences from both Baltimore and Filipino culture into intimate presentations of reality through her lens. She creates a personal nostalgic narrative that explores themes of love, tenderness, family, and home that challenges issues of acculturation and identity as an immigrant. Divinagracia holds a bachelor's degree in marketing from the illustrious Morgan State University and is currently in residency at Creative Alliance in Baltimore, MD.
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Coriander Focus - Coriander Focus is a full time creator, working most in the mediums of photography and written word. Coriander creates between four and eight thousand photos per year and shares her art with her community alongside poetry, short stories, and other creative exploration. Coriander spent her youth deep in the mountains of rural Appalachia where her love of wild places was cultivated. She has since captured that love using fine art photography for more than a decade. She has worked as an artist and has had her work displayed nationally across galleries and shows since 2010. Coriander's other great love is teaching, since 2008 Coriander has taught a wide range of classes from fairy house building to immersive private photography workshops. Notable highlights of Coriander Focus’ recent career have been Sarasvati Creative Space Residency (2022), Exhibition in Motion hosted by the Society of North American Goldsmiths (2018) and Transformation, hosted by RE:ARTISTIE New York NY.(2017)
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Trang Huynh - Thương is a powerful word in Vietnamese. Thương means unconditional love, a love that exceeds one’s personal selfishness. When you add the adverb “bị” in, bị thương means being hurt. My work explores the contradictory meanings of this word, illustrating the intertwined relationship between love, pain and forgiveness. Drawing from historical references and personal experiences of growing up in a Vietnamese Post-War generation with family members on opposite sides, my work dives into this and serves as a catalyst for healing. My 2-dimensional mixed-media paintings portray people with colorful traditional clothing in intimate settings. Colorful linoleum prints of traditional Vietnamese patterns invite a warm welcoming feeling while the highly contrasting color palette represents intense emotions. Rarely meeting the viewers’ gaze, the figures are bound up in moments, interacting with one another amongst a densely layered composition. I create a personal nostalgic narrative that examines my own yearning for love, tenderness and family in relation to generational trauma and forgiveness.
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The Artist Oliver James - “Not many people take comfort in the unknown - even less in the uncomfortable. People would rather stay silent on important issues because being uncomfortable is…well…uncomfortable and ignorance is bliss. Society tells us that it is divisive and impolite to speak about such topics - religion, politics, money, etc. This isn’t by mistake, it’s by design. There is a connection between the silence that is expected of us and how it maintains the environment of control that people in positions of power have built brick-by-brick. This sense of order, in whatever form it takes, is a well-functioning machine created by people in a place of privilege and preserved by the silence of those inadvertently benefitting from the oppressive system.
My work shines a harsh light on the topics we, as a society are too uncomfortable to speak about. I use paint and fabric to give a voice to the things that have been erased from our history books, allowing our ancestors to scream of their oppressors and their oppressive systems. Doing that is a way of questioning the attitudes, fears and unwritten rules which have formed these environments and our behavior within them.”
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Jennifer Lancaster - “Multi-Dimensional Creative. Creating my world thru art in a myriad of modalities. Soul-expression is my love language.”
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Meg Matthews - “MiMuLiLu means 'Milk Mustaches & Living Lupie' and began in 2013 after deciding to focus on health and happiness, which meant learning to embrace my creativity, and my disability, to share my life experiences and creations with others.
For a lifetime I have lived with complex post-traumatic stress, and for over a decade now I have been living with several autoimmune disorders… these aspects of my life guide everything I do, from making a home with Mr Husband to creating art and craftwork. Generally, I am inspired by nature, simple patterns, lively colors, and traditional crafts, but also purposeful and meaningful work” ~ Meg Matthews
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Tori Morgart - “I'm a non-binary artist that grew up by the bay currently working on a watercolor fan series of Steven Universe.”
Krys Redman - Krys Kay is a non-binary artist from Maryland. They are a diverse artist with a focus that leans towards pop art, nostalgia, and exploring the human body and experience through a variety of mediums. Krys most notably finds inspiration in the emotional experiences of themselves and others, as well as their own childhood interests.
Kaely Roe - Kaely is a mixed-media artist, coach, and designer living outside Annapolis, Maryland with her amazing kids and goofy bear of a dog.
Kaely and her kids love putting their feet into the river, listening to birds, and joking around with each other. She and her partner love to spend their days crafting together, turning her living room into a mobile “studio” and covering the couch in art supplies.
Kaely’s love of art deepened in college when she bought a little coffee shop and hung a new artist’s work on the walls each month. In her career as a designer, she has used her creativity for clients and friends but only started experimenting with expressing herself as an artist in the last few years.
She loves to play with colors, shapes, and lines to express her experiences with the challenges of life and often uses the canvas as a journal before laying down the layers of her designs.
Andrew Sunder - “I am a queer artist that focuses on figurative artworks as well as themes on how the artwork relates to people.”
Chenell Turner - “From the whimsical strokes of my childhood to the intricate details of the present, my art is a journey through the canvas of my life. Since I was a child, the love for creating has been my constant companion, an ever-evolving muse that breathes life into my work. Each piece is not just a visual representation but an intimate expression of the emotions I experience in that very moment.
I find beauty in the objectivity of my creations – a dance between form and feeling. Every brushstroke, every color choice is a dialogue with the raw essence of my emotions. Through my art, I invite you to step into my world, to feel the pulse of each piece, and to witness the harmonious interplay between my inner self and the external canvas.
In this space of creation, I celebrate the boundless possibilities of expression, embracing the fluidity of emotions and the tangible beauty that emerges from the subjective dance of creation. Welcome to my gallery, where each piece whispers a story of feelings, emotions and the timeless connection between the creator and their art.”
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