Pics from Mary Don't You Weep/Martha Don't You Moan

Mary Don't You Weep/Martha Don't You Moan

T. Eliott Mansa will be exhibiting new work from the Mother/Son series September 5th 4-6pm at the African American Museum of the Arts 325 South Clara Avenue, Deland Florida 

For more info call (386)736-4004

"Snatched: Loni Jae: Hattie Mae Williams and the Tattooed Ballerinas

These are images from a collaborative Dance/Live Art/Installation by Loni Jae:Hattie Mae Williams and the Tattooed Ballerinas in NYC . It was a wonderful experience; conceptually and aesthetically. It dealt with the over sexualization of women in the media, the separation of woman from her essence and a return to embracing one's inner spirit.

I will have more info from the press release, and more images. In the mean time, enjoy these pieces, they are wonderful!

close up pictures of the paintings

These paintings are from a series I started, the Mother and Child series. In the paintings I portray African American women and their sons as the Madonna and Christ. I use this as a metaphor to explore the ways that African American mothers strive to imbue their sons with a sense of the spiritual, as well as raise them to the best of their abilities in a world that seems bent on destroying African American males.

More pics from the show

more pictures David Castillo Gallery

Pictures from April Show @ David Castillo Gallery; "Allow Me to Re-Introduce Myself"

Allow Me To Re-Introduce Myself

In the Main Gallery
Allow me to re-introduce myself
Rakel Bernie, Daniel Crews, Adler Guerrier, T. Eliott Mansa, Adria Marquez, Aramis O'Reilly
April 11- May 2, 2009
Reception April 11, 7-10pm
David Castillo Gallery is pleased to present Allow me to re-introduce myself, a group show with works by Rakel Bernie, Daniel Crews, Adler Guerrier, T. Eliott Mansa, Adria Marquez, and Aramis O’Reilly.As contemporary art practice begs a cyclical understanding of culture, aesthetics, and politics, so, too does a life well lived. The curatorial act introduces and re-contextualizes artwork even as artists ebb and flow in the pursuit of their careers and development as human beings. Allow me to re-introduce myself espouses art and life in self-perpetuating mimicry at its best. The artists’ works advise Poor Richard that the path to enlightenment is circuitous rather than straight.Rakel Bernie, Adler Guerrier, T. Eliott Mansa, and Adria Marquez endow historic content with personal sentiment. Bernie’s works of collage, graphite, watercolor, and acrylic on mylar explore the dependencies between birds, femininity, and landscape in Scandinavian mythology. Mansa deconstructs the subjects of his oil-on-canvas portraits according to familial and racial histories and their relationships to the future. The language of socio-political revolutions and protests is given a face by Guerrier’s drawing and sculpture. Marquez’s Mop series transforms materials, such as cleaning supplies, associated with working-class professions and generic tasks into highbrow art objects, implying the duality of process, class relations, and gender. Daniel Crews and Aramis O’Reilly bring waking consistency to aesthetics like dreams remembered. Crews’ abstractions engage formalist inquiries into the structure and formation of invented and non-specific language. O’Reilly’s understanding of the language of painting as a medium allows for the evolution of narrative in his palettes and mark-making.Adler Guerrier was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and studied at the New World School of the Arts in Miami, where he lives and works. He has exhibited at the Miami Art Museum and The Whitney Biennial 2008. His works can be found in public collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, NYC, and have appeared in Art In America and the New York Times. Rakel Bernie has exhibited throughout the United States. Daniel Crews studied at New World School of the Arts, Miami, and Hunter College, NYC, where he currently lives and works. T. Eliott Mansa attended the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore. He lives and works in Miami. Adria Marquez attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been shown in the US and internationally. Aramis O’Reilly lives and works in Miami where he teaches at New World School of the Arts.
In the Annex
Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova
A Night Light
April 11- May 2, 2009
Reception April 11, 7-10pm
Entering the David Castillo Annex, one encounters the radius of a single nightlight in the gallery’s far corner and the weight of darkened negative space. Forced to adjust physically to the sharp contrast between a gallery’s expected luminosity and A Night Light, the viewer must also confront their psychological fear of blindness as it relates to personal direction, relationships, and self-awareness. The installation speaks to the private confines of the viewer illuminated by the darkness.Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova lives and works in Miami. He studied at the Ringling School of Art and Design, Sarasota, FL and the New World School of the Arts, Miami. Rodriguez-Casanova was the recipient of a 2007 Reed Foundation Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center and has received prestigious awards including the South Florida Cultural Consortium. He has exhibited in Miami and New York, and his work has been featured in publications such as The Miami Herald, Artnet Magazine, and Art in America.

Allow Me To Re-Introduce Myself (more info)

Allow Me To Re-Introduce Myself

David Castillo Gallery
2234 nw 2nd ave

Opening Reception April 11, 7-10pm

n_____ville, USA

Concrete Proof Seed

Allow Me To Re-Introduce Myself

I will be showing new work at the David Castillo Gallery, in the show "Allow Me To Re-Introduce Myself". The opening will be April 11, 2009. More info coming soon.

Anatomy of a Painting part 3

Here you can see where I developed the nose up towards the same level as the cheeks on either side of it.

As far as the face is concerned, it isn't that much more developed.  Being that this is a shot of the whole painting it is harder to see the face.  I worked on the lips and pushed the shadows on the left of the face so that the new elements would be coordinated.  I applied another layer of color in the hair.  Also in this view of the painting you can see where I laid out more of the grey in the shirt in oils over the acrylic.

Anatomy of a painting part 2

If you look at the left side of the face, you can see that it is more developed than the right. The forehead and the left side of the face have an extra layer of paint.

Here you can see a more of the painting, at the same stage of development.

I worked a little more on the right side of the face, adding another layer of paint.

Here is a closer look. You can see how the lip nose and chin is still in one phase and the rest of the face has been developed more.

Anatomy of a painting

This is the first in a mother/son, madonna and child series. I started this painting on top of another painting that I did a year or so ago. I drew the figure and some background design references with charcoal. Then I began to bring in a base layer of colors into the face and arm.

Here is a close up view, with just a few brushstrokes further along in the process. A little mpre fleshy oil covering some of the preliminary acrylic wash.

Here you can see a layer of acrylic wash to build up the shirt area. Also about a layer more of paint in some sections of the forehead. Alot of the face is still the earliest coloring, but I had already gotten kinda thick with the paint there anyway.

Here I worked on the arms and maybe a few more brushstrokes in the face. The colors arent captured as brilliantly in this picture as the last because I took it in poorer light.