Categories
Curatorial

Products of Empire

Products Of Empire

How do we look at the results of domination? How have the creation and destruction of empires throughout history affected the movements of governments, corporations, and local organizations? Empire, known primarily in its political form, is a construct of dominance between two states but it also represents an overarching master. The artists in the show look to deconstruct the thought of an empire through empirical research in their art-making.

Dates
January 22nd — February 19th

Location
Art Share L.A.

Artists In The Exhibition:

Abel Alejandre, Morgan Barajas, Sharon Louise Barnes, Lavialle Campbell, Chukes, Pam Douglas, Jonah Elijah, Elmer Guevara, Kiara Aileen Machado, Evan Mendel, Zeal Harris, Allison Honeycutt, Kat Oldershaw, and Sam Pace.

Curator:

Badir McCleary is an independent consultant. He holds an M.A. in Arts Business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art (Los Angeles/London) where he focused on emerging art markets. Having extensive contemporary art history knowledge and experience, Badir can tackle large projects with confidence, protecting and tracking deliverables and ensuring high-level success for clients. Badir was the Co-Owner and Director of Gallery 38 (Los Angeles), a project that produced exhibitions for emerging artists of color in South Los Angeles and helped contribute to several public projects globally, helping artists transform communities through visual aesthetics. (​@artabovereality​).

Products of Empire Installation Shot

Artist Talk – Kiara Aileen Machado
Artist Talk – Sharon Barnes
Artist Talk – Pam Douglas
Artist Talk – Abel Alejandre
Artist Talk – Zeal Harris

Categories
Curatorial

Fields, Factories, Fame, and Fallacies

Fields, Factories, Fame, and Fallacies

Dates
August 28th — September 26th

Location
Art Share Los Angeles

Curators Statement

Artists In The Exhibition:

In this exhibition, the artists take a look into the forms of cultural and social reproduction interpreting these forms through materials and experiences. How does each of these categories play a role in the life cycle of humanity? Who are the characters? What are the events? What are the developments? What experiences do we pass along from each culture to advance the larger society? How has the work from the field transferred to large city factories? Where is the relationship between fame and fallacy? At what point does fame become enigmatic? What are the shared values of the art world? Of family? Of life? Marginalized under the media’s eye.

Curator:

Badir McCleary is an independent consultant. He holds an M.A. in Arts Business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art (Los Angeles/London) where he focused on emerging art markets. Having extensive contemporary art history knowledge and experience, Badir can tackle large projects with confidence, protecting and tracking deliverables and ensuring high-level success for clients. Badir was the Co-Owner and Director of Gallery 38 (Los Angeles), a project that produced exhibitions for emerging artists of color in South Los Angeles and helped contribute to several public projects globally, helping artists transform communities through visual aesthetics. (​@artabovereality​).


Categories
Curatorial

Defiance Of Juncture

Defiance Of Juncture

What is defiance? Is it an action? An idea? Is it contained within a movement? An object? How does operating in that defiance define the point in time? How does defiance or the definition of defiance differ throughout time? “May You Live In Interesting Times”, the title for the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019, unknowingly predicted the sentiment of humanity just eight months later.

“Interesting Times” would prove to be an understatement, as the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside numerous uprisings in the country, gave way to the defiance of current conditions in many facets of our society. Analyzing these conditions has allowed for constant dialogue among humanity about the actions of the past and present and eventually how they will affect our future. This has given us the opportunity to create what’s to come.

Dates
July 10th — August 20th

Location
Art Share Los Angeles

Curators Statement

Artists In The Exhibition:

@b4_flight, Leigh Barbier (@spongebarbier), Chelle Barbour (@chelle.barbour), Chantal Barlow (@chantalbarlow), Cody Bayne (@codybayne_official), Daniela Garcia (@dahnniii), Amoura Gonzales (@fuckinlame), Samira Idroos(@samiraidroos), Jessi Jumanji (@jessijumanji), Miriam Kruishoop (@mkruishoop), Carmen Mardonez (@desbordado), Michael Massenburg (@mmassenburg), Amy McCormac (@mccormacamy), Rosalyn Myles (@rozmyles), Duane Paul (@duanepaul), Isaac Pelayo (@isaacpelayo), Antonio Pelayo (@antoniopelayoproductions), Prime K2S (@Primek2s), Leigh Salgado (@leighsalgado), and Mark “Bit” Savage (@phenomenalmark).

Curator:

Badir McCleary is an independent consultant. He holds an M.A. in Arts Business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art (Los Angeles/London) where he focused on emerging art markets. Having extensive contemporary art history knowledge and experience, Badir can tackle large projects with confidence, protecting and tracking deliverables and ensuring high-level success for clients. Badir was the Co-Owner and Director of Gallery 38 (Los Angeles), a project that produced exhibitions for emerging artists of color in South Los Angeles and helped contribute to several public projects globally, helping artists transform communities through visual aesthetics. (​@artabovereality​).


Categories
Curatorial

Portraits Of Yesteryear

Portraits Of Yesteryear

ArtAboveReality is pleased to present “​Portraits of Yesteryear​”, a group survey highlighting contemporary artists across multiple art practices. What do we remember about yesterday? How has it changed? What’s still as you remember it? Many people across the world have lost family members, jobs, and more which allows them to see through different eyes. These portraits are a reflection of a time we used to know – a show of humanity. Yesteryear, referring to a life-changing event is analyzed throughout these images allowing the artist a moment of reflection, and the viewer a chance to gain the artists’ perspective from their visual stories. Curated by Badir McCleary of ArtAboveReality.

Dates
December 5th — January 5th

Location
Online

Curators Statement

“Live the moment. Cherish the present. Anticipate the future. Frame the yesteryear” – Hlovate

Artists In The Exhibition:

Kwesi Abbensetts (@kwesiabbensetts), Amy McCormac (​@mccormacamy​), GreatJoy Ndlovu (@ngreatjoy1), Kemal Celnigir (@streetwiseLA), Elmer Guevara (@3lmski1), Nema Etebar (@nemaetebar), Jonah Jay (@jonah.elijah), Solomon Adufah (@solomonadufah), Erika Dickstein (@hagueNYC), J. Michael Walker (@jmichaelwalker1), Monica Seggos (@monicaseggos), Patrice Robinson (@patdowart), Neequaye Dreph (@dreph), and​ ​Andrew Navarro (@oogumvision).

Curator:

Badir McCleary is an independent consultant. He holds an M.A. in Arts Business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art (Los Angeles/London) where he focused on emerging art markets. Having extensive contemporary art history knowledge and experience, Badir can tackle large projects with confidence, protecting and tracking deliverables and ensuring high-level success for clients. Badir was the Co-Owner and Director of Gallery 38 (Los Angeles), a project that produced exhibitions for emerging artists of color in South Los Angeles and helped contribute to several public projects globally, helping artists transform communities through visual aesthetics. (​@artabovereality​).

The exhibit will be on view to the public on the KunstMatrix (@kunstmatrix) platform ​from December 5th through January 5th (​Live Exhibition: https://artspaces.kunstmatrix.com/en/exhibition/2701775/portraits-of-yesteryear​). Stay updated with the exhibition on social media via the hashtags #ArtAboveReality, #PortraitsOfYesteryear. Please contact [email protected]​ for more information. Exhibit information available upon request. All images are subject to copyright. ArtAboveReality also partners with @artmoney for all of your art collecting needs.

“Live the moment. Cherish the present. Anticipate the future. Frame the yesteryear” – Hlovate


Portraits Of Yesteryear: Artist Talk – Amy McCormac 
Portraits Of Yesteryear: Artist Talk -Patrice Robinson and Monica Seggos 
Portraits Of Yesteryear: Artist Talk – Erika Dickstein and Nema Etebar
Portraits Of Yesteryear: Artist Talk – Elmer Guevara and Jonah Jackson
Portraits Of Yesteryear: Artist Talk -Andrew Navarro
Portraits Of Yesteryear: Artist Talk – Neequaye Dreph Diane and Greatjoy Ndlulovu

Categories
Curatorial

Metropolis: A Snapshot of Art Making in Los Angeles

Metropolis: A Snapshot of Art Making in Los Angeles

ArtAboveReality is pleased to present “Metropolis: A Snapshot of Art Making in Los Angeles”, a group survey highlighting eighteen contemporary artists in the city of Los Angeles. What really defines a living and working artist in Los Angeles? What does an artist look like? How are artists able to manage expectations with new visibility? This exhibition takes an anthropological and sociological view on the creative practices of artists of color in the city. This re-engagement with artists and their workspaces allow the viewer a firsthand view of the creative process. This exhibition is dedicated to the loving memory of former California African American Museum Curator Vida L. Brown.

Dates
Nov 16 — Dec 10, 2019

Location
Bruce Lurie Gallery, Los Angeles

Exhibition Information

Artists In The Exhibition:
Chelle Barbour, Sharon Barnes, April Bey, Steven Cogle, Adrienne DeVine, Charles Dickson, June Edmonds, Al-Baseer Holly, Pamela Smith-Hudson, Overton Loyd, Man One, Michael Massenburg, Norman “NOMZEE” Maxwell, Sam Pace, Duane Paul, Wayne Perry, Miles Regis, and Jamaal “Hasef” Tolbert.

Gallery:

The Bruce Lurie Gallery was established in the early 1980s in New York’s East Village. Bruce Lurie has a history of launching emerging artists into the main-stream art scene, and in his early career gave Jean-Michel Basquiat his first show as requested by Leo Castelli. The gallery has since relocated to Los Angeles’ Culver City Arts District. The gallery has a particular focus on establishing emerging to mid-career artists specializing in cutting edge street art, abstract minimalism, and pop art, with an additional recent focus on photography. The Bruce Lurie Gallery features a wide range of monumental sculptors as well.

Metropolis: A Snapshot of Art Making in Los Angeles is located at 2736 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048. The exhibit will be on view to the public from November 16th through December 14th. Stay updated with the exhibition on social media via the hashtags #ArtAboveReality, #MetropolisLA. Please contact [email protected] for more information. Exhibit information available upon request. All images are subject to copyright.


Categories
Curatorial

SCOPE Art Show 2018 at Art Basel Miami

Dates
Dec 1st — Dec 8, 2018

Location
SCOPE Art Show, Miami Beach, FL

Exhibition Information

“Configuration” is set to open at SCOPE International Art Fair on December 4th, 2018 featuring a collection of works by Philadelphia-based contemporary artists Serena Saunders, Ivben Taqiy, and Gabe Tiberino. Curated by Badir R. McCleary

Serena Saunders is a Visual Artist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her work as a painter has a fresh, color-strong perspective that speaks to our imagination while the subjects ask for our awareness. Her often large-scale, graphically bold, and poetically composed paintings offer the viewer layers of narrative. The painter works with a color palette that gives her intricate prints a world of their own. She then uses these environments on canvas as a backdrop to her portraits and their stories. You will often find a matter of injustice or undying hope fighting its way through the line of work to prevail at the surface.

At the age of 7 years old, Ivben Taqiy fell in love with art. Twenty-plus years later, he’s doing what he loves. Although Philadelphia based, he has created murals, portraits, and other forms of visual art for many well-known celebrities and corporations. Taqiy has worked with Foot Locker, Fox25 News, Jimmy Johns, Lauryn Hill, and Swizz Beats to name a few. With a resume that stretches from North to South and East to West; Taqiy still manages to make time to serve and teach the youth in the Philadelphia communities. Art has been his pathway to building relationships and life, he encourages artists to continue to move forward so that they don’t miss out on all that life has to offer them and their talent.

Gabe Tiberino is a visual artist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Born into artistic practice, he is a scion of one of Philadelphia’s best-known art families. Tiberino was probably the youngest person (eighteen) to be the lead artist on a Philadelphia Mural Arts Program project. In 2005 he received his certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, winning the Best Figurative Painter Award in the Student Exhibition. Since 1998, he has been a part of the Mural Arts Program working as a lead muralist and assisting several renowned, international artists. His murals can be seen throughout Philadelphia.

https://www.artsy.net/show/artabovereality-artabovereality-at-scope-miami-beach-2018?sort=partner_show_position


Categories
Curatorial

Relational Chemistry

Relational Chemistry

ArtAboveReality is pleased to present “Relational Chemistry: An Introspective of Urban Experience”, a group survey highlighting nineteen contemporary artists in the city of Philadelphia. Focusing on their grassroots origins, “Relational History: A Introspective of Urban Experience” speaks to the artists using their practice to realize and then share their identities, an entrance, for the viewer, into the artist’s inner selves. 

Dates
Oct 16th — 20th, 2018

Location
Ivben Studios, Philadelphia, PA

Curators Statement

With urbanism being diverse and lively, advancing in technology, and shifting capital investment, It is shaped by power and wealth, as well as imagination and labor layered with intertwined cultural and social histories. The work manifests itself in facets of painting, sculpture, and interactive installations, centering on the interpretation of culture, society, identity, and the complex but meaningful conversations relating to contemporary issues of urbanism and human chemistry. While the members of this show come from diverse backgrounds, it is this chemistry that ties their experiences and practices together.

Artists In The Exhibition:
Aubrie Costello, Holly Colaguori, Bariq Cobbs, Nema Etebar, Claes Gabriel, Kenneth Jackson, Caryn Kunkle, Nile Livingston, June Lopez, Alloyius McIlwaine, IvbenTaqiy, Taji Ra’oof Nahl, Dejeonge Reese, Serena Saunders, Richard Tenaglia, Ellen Tiberino, Gabe Tiberino, Raphael Tiberino, and Derrick Woodyard.

The exhibit will be on view to the public from October 16th through 20th. Press release and show imagery available upon request. Please contact [email protected] for more information. “Relational Chemistry: An Introspective of Urban Experience” is located at 3239 Amber Street., Philadelphia, PA 19134. Stay updated with ArtAboveReality on Instagram (@ArtAboveReality)  via the hashtags #ArtAboveReality, #RelationalChemistry. Also, visit us at https://artabovereality.com. All images are subject to copyright. Gallery approval must be granted prior to reproduction.



Categories
Curatorial

Aqua Art Miami 2017 at Art Basel Miami

Aqua Art Miami 2017 at Art Basel Miami

Gallery 38, an ongoing project by ArtAboveReality and Bancs Media, opened its doors in March of 2015 with the hopes of starting an artistic renaissance in the West Adams neighborhood. One year later, the mission continues. Named in a LA Weekly article as “The Center of the burgeoning West Adams Art Scene”, Gallery 38 has done over 15 solo exhibitions and art fairs and has been able to continue the tradition of presenting emerging and established artists while focusing on developing the community around them.

Dates
Dec 1 — Dec 9, 2017

Location
Aqua Art Miami, Miami, FL

Exhibition Information

Artists In The Exhibition:
Reisig and Taylor, Moncho 1929, Sharon Barnes, Sam Pace, and Patrick Henry Johnson.

Gallery 38 will present a group show featuring our roster of artists with successful solo gallery shows this year. Each artist represents different backgrounds (Race, Religion, etc.) as well as use different mediums (Photography, Sculpture, Paint, etc.) to exude their experiences and realities. The show digs deeper into the intricacies of the human being and his/her place in society. With each artist having works that exhibit identity, self-awareness and urban poetry, this show hopes to continue the conversation that in our differences we are extravagantly similar, and those similarities when merged together create something better than an individualistic society, they create a melting pot of forward thinking ideas.

While the members of this show come from diverse backgrounds, there are similarities that tie the works together. The work centers on interpretation of culture, society, identity and the complex connections that hold all of these constructs together. The work manifests itself in facets of paint, sculpture and interactive installations, all designed to use space, color and texture to invite meaningful conversations relating to contemporary issues.

Interacting with surface abstractly, creating new reality along the way almost seamlessly without thought allows these artists to display an artistic courage that will allow the viewer to take a deeper look into each artist’s journey from past to present.


Categories
Curatorial Projects

Google Open Gallery

Google Open Gallery

We were so excited to be one of the first users of the Google Open Gallery platform that looked to feature creatives and institutions alike in a digital setting, to further the education of arts in the public and museums. We created our first exhibition, which featured up-and-coming and established artists focused on storytelling from inside their studios or around their local neighborhood walls.

Alloyius McIlwaine for the ArtAboveReality Collection on Google Open Gallery.
James Dupree for the ArtAboveReality Collection on Google Open Gallery.
Stolen Dreams in the Promised Zone by James Dupree for the ArtAboveReality Collection on Google Open Gallery.
La Ciudad de Color de for the ArtAboveReality Collection on Google Open Gallery.