CulturalDC Podcast

CulturalDC presents the second video installation in partnership with Baltimore-based curator Teri Henderson. The exhibit, “SUBVERSIONS,” will be projected onto the windows of CulturalDC’s Source Theatre in the historic 14th and U Street Corridor in Northwest Washington, D.C. “As An Enemy” is a multichannel video installation showing the corruption of the Baltimore City Police Department. Curated in collaboration with Baltimore based writer Brandon Soderberg, “As An Enemy” offers a stark microcosm of corrupt police forces across the country.

The exhibition creates space for the victims of police brutality by telling the unique story of Black men and women victimized by the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF)—a plainclothes police squad, led by the diabolical Wayne Jenkins, established to maintain the racist legacy of “law and order” in Baltimore City, following the 2015 murder of Freddie Gray. In response to Gray’s murder—during which Baltimore Police officers broke his spine and crushed his throat—the city erupted in weeks of proper protest and righteous outrage. In response to that outrage from citizens, the GTTF terrorized Baltimoreans—stealing money and drugs, while causing violence, terror and death. They often targeted known drug dealers, knowing their cries of injustice would be ignored by the judicial system.

Several formative experiences have shaped D.C. and Baltimore-based artist Zoë Charlton’s career and inspired her work. Growing up, she was a frequent visitor to her grandmother’s blue house and wooded property in the Florida panhandle, a place that was “dense with growth and large with memory,” where extended family frequently gathered.

At Florida State University, one of Charlton’s mentors, the late Ed Love, told her to “make sure you study with people who look like you.” He knew something she didn’t fully understand at the time: that by being intentional about who you surround yourself with, you are building a community – a concept that would increasingly become important in her art and in her life.

More recently, Charlton purchased from a Baltimore antique store a life-sized African figure from Cameroon and named it “Sib,” because she immediately identified the sculpture as a sibling or as kin. She calls it her doppelgänger.

These memories and moments have led to Charlton’s latest exhibition, “Rendition,” which addresses cultural identity, race, commodity and cultural tokenism.

In conversation with Angela Carroll of BMore Art and Kristi Maiselman of CulturalDC, Zoe discusses the inspirations and context she drew on for “Rendition”.

The exhibit is on view in CulturalDC’s Mobile Art Gallery from Feb. 8 to March 22. The gallery, which is a renovated shipping container is outside the main entrance to Union Market at 1309 5th Street, NE.

In Mighty Mighty, Shimoyama’s paintings come to life, engaging individuals in a dialogue about how to evolve from said stereotypes of such performed hypermasculinity in barbershops and how to cultivate a safe, welcome environment for all.

Devan Shimoyama is a visual artist working primarily in self-portraiture and narratives inspired from classical mythology and allegory. The work of Devan Shimoyama showcases the relationship between celebration and silence in queer culture and sexuality. Shimoyama’s compositions are often inspired by Caribbean folklore, science fiction, and the masters Caravaggio and Goya, though adding a more contemporary expression and sensuality. With the usage of various materials: splattered paint, stencils, glitter, rhinestones, and sequins, Shimoyama creates works that celebrate the Black body as both of magic and mystery. In his recent barbershop paintings, Shimoyama transforms the hyper-masculine social space into queer fantasy where feminine glamour and fashion take over, and tender depictions of boys don floral capes and glitter-encrusted hair.

Shimoyama was born in 1989 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and graduated from Penn State University in 2011 with a BFA in Drawing/Painting before obtaining his MFA at Yale University School of Art in 2014. He is represented by Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago and De Buck Gallery in New York. He is currently based in Pittsburgh, PA.

On this episode, we hear from artist Jefferson Pinder about his performance art piece “This Is Not A Drill” performed at The Source on 14th Street in mid June 2019. Jefferson Pinder is an artist whose work provides evocative commentary on race and forms of struggle, aiming to investigate aspects of personal identity through the materials of neon, found objects, performance, and video. Pinder is joined in conversation with Dr. Jordana Moore Sa- jay -say to discuss Pinder’s new work and its inspirational ties to The Red Summer of 1919.

Jefferson Pinder’s work has been featured across the globe in group and solo exhibitions at a number of institutions, including: The Studio Museum in Harlem; The Phillips Collection; and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. ; and his work is a part of the permanent collection at the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture.

Dr. Jordana Moore Sa-jay-say is Associate Professor of American Art at the University of Maryland, College Park and Editor-in-Chief of the College Art Association’s Art Journal. Her work centers on modern and contemporary American visual culture with an emphasis on expressions and theorizations of blackness. Her writing has appeared in Exposure: The Journal of the Society for Photographic Education, The Journal of Contemporary African Art, and Art Journal. Her first book Reading Basquiat: Exploring Ambivalence in American Art received the PEN Center USA Award for Exceptional First Book in 2015.

For 20 years, CulturalDC has been making space for art. That includes physical places like galleries, theaters and affordable housing for artists. But it also includes making space in the conversation for art. We’re excited to bring you the second episode in our podcast series with our friends at Caandor Labs.

On this episode, we hear from Mobile Art Gallery artist Jamea Richmond-Edwards about her exhibit Stay Fly, on view at CityCenterDC through April 13. She’s joined by Desiree Venn Frederic and Howard University Professor Dr. Melanee Harvey. They talk about fashion and the power of the Black consumer. Thanks to our friends at Eaton for hosting this important and timely conversation.

Jamea Richmond-Edwards has exhibited her artwork nationally and internationally including the Delaware Art Museum, California African American Museum, Charles Wright Museum in Detroit MI and her current representation Kravets Wehby Gallery.

Desiree Venn Frederic is the founding director of Combing Cotton Co., a think tank and social equity firm and The Venn Frederic Fashion Library and Institute of Material Culture.

Dr. Melanee Harvey has published extensively on Black Arts Movement artists including Faith Ringgold, James Phillips and African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (AfriCOBRA).

For 20 years, CulturalDC has been making space for art. That means physical places like galleries, theaters and affordable housing for artists. But it also means we make space in the conversation. Podcasting is an exciting way to have those conversations and make our work and artistic programs accessible to a broader audience. We look forward to sharing insights from some of our key collaborators with you.

Our first episode features a conversation between CulturalDC’s Executive Director Kristi Maiselman and critically acclaimed artist Jennifer Rubell about the exhibit you’ve probably heard of: Ivanka Vacuuming. A Q&A portion with the live audience follows.

CulturalDC, as part of its 20th Anniversary Season presented this limited engagement performance art piece in early February 2019. Inspired by a figure whose public persona incorporates an almost comically wide range of feminine identities – daughter, wife, mother, sister, model, working woman, blonde – Ivanka Vacuuming was simultaneously a visual celebration of a contemporary feminine icon; a portrait of our own relationship to that figure; and a questioning of our complicity in her role-playing.

Jennifer Rubell is an American conceptual artist whose work centers on the viewer’s physical interaction with the object. Her practice has long focused on the relationship between femininity and feminism, bridging the domestic and the monumental to create work of enormous visual power and poetry. She works in a wide variety of participatory mediums ranging from interactive sculpture, painting and video to food performance. Rubell received a B.A. from Harvard University in Fine Arts. She lives and works in New York City.

Kristi brings over 15 years of experience in nonprofit and for-profit arts organizations including the Corcoran College of Art and Design, Rubell Family Collection, Conner Smith, Hamiltonian Artists and the National Gallery of Art. Maiselman received her BFA in Photography from James Madison University and her MA in Arts Management from American University. She lives in Shaw with her husband and daughter.