Studio Noize: Black Art Podcast

We’re celebrating the legacy of Black art today with Napoleon Jones-Henderson, a member of the legendary collective, AfriCOBRA. Napoleon talks with us about the early years of AfriCOBRA and how that experience helped him grow as an artist. We talk about his working with different materials over the years, passing on his knowledge to the next generation, and how he feels looking back at some of the first art shows as a collective all the way up to the celebration of 50 years of AfriCOBRA at the Venice Biennale Listen. It’s great to hear the voice of someone that helped build and continues to build the legacies that we stand on today. Listen, subscribe, and share!

Episode 121 topics include:

AfriCOBRA

critiques and workshops

creative evolution

AfriCOBRA at Venice Biennale

looking back at the legacy of AfriCOBRA

the brilliance of Duke Ellington

moving between materials and mediums

public art

continuing the legacy

Napoleon Jones-Henderson was born in 1943 in Chicago, Illinois. Jones-Henderson attended the Sorbonne Student Continuum-Student and Artists Center in Paris, France in 1963 where he was immersed in an independent study program in French Art History and Figure Drawing. Upon returning to the United States, he enrolled in the Art Institute of Chicago receiving his B.F.A. degree in 1971. Jones-Henderson went on to earn credits in advanced graduate studies in Fine Arts at Northern Illinois University and earned his M.F.A. degree in Interdisciplinary Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2005.

In 1968, during the apogee of the Chicago Black Arts Movement, Jones-Henderson became a member of the Chicago-based artists’ collective called COBRA (Coalition of Black Revolutionary Artists). The collective changed its name in 1969 to AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists). During the formative years of AfriCOBRA, Jones-Henderson created large pictorial woven tapestries that were included in the group’s important series of exhibitions.  In the early 1970s, exhibitions were mounted at the newly founded Studio Museum in Harlem and the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He has been an active member of AfriCOBRA since 1969. Jones-Henderson is one of the longest continual active members. In 2011, the documentary AfriCOBRA: Art for the People was produced by the TV Land Network. The documentary chronicles the history and celebrates the contributions of AfriCOBRA to the 1960s Black Arts Movement. 

His artwork is in the collections of the DuSable Museum of African American History, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Southside Community Art Center, Hampton University Museum, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Museum of National Center of Afro-American Artists and Studio Museum in Harlem. In addition, his artwork is in distinguished private collections and numerous public art commissions.

See More: www.napoleonjoneshenderson.com

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Jamaal Barber: @JBarberStudio

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Our guest this week is Dr. Imo Nse Imeh professor of art and art history at Wayne State University. Imo is an amazing draftsman that intertwines his drawing practice with his art history practice. We get to the love and passion behind his amazing drawings including his Benediction series. We discuss his approach to teaching in 2021, give a shout-out to the people that inspired Imo to pursue art history, and how his commitment to making and drawing manifested during his time at Yale University. It’s a great conversation that highlights the need to follow your own path and be your own artist. Listen, subscribe and share!

Episode 120 topics include:

teaching in institutions

rediscovering your voice

the love for art history

making space to draw

Benediction series

racial incidents in academia

the beauty of lines

painting vs drawing

Dr. Imo Nse Imeh is a Nigerian-American visual artist and scholar of African Diaspora art. Presently, he is Associate Professor of Art and Art History at Westfield State University in Massachusetts. He is a Columbia University alumnus, and received his Masters and Doctoral degrees in Art History from Yale University in 2009.

Dr. Imeh leverages his practice of visual art and research in art history to investigate historical and philosophical issues around the black body and cultural identity. He has made contributions to visual arts discourse with publications, lectures, and provoking studio art projects that interrogate the ways in which black bodies are imagined, installed, ritualized, and transformed. Recently, his art has been recognized by PBS News Hour, New England Public Media, Orion Magazine, and the contemporary art and culture magazine Art New England.

See More: www.imoimeh.com + Imo Nse Imeh IG: @imoimeh

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Jamaal Barber: @JBarberStudio

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Studio Noize is back with none other than the creative director of the McColl Center for Art + Innovation, Jonell Logan. Jonell is an amazing accomplished woman that exemplifies exactly the type of leadership we need in these arts organizations. She talks with your boy JBarber about her career in the arts leadership that includes the Whitney Museum of Art, Gibbes Museum of Art, the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American History and Culture. Jonell gives us insight into what curators expect and want out of a studio visit, what she sees as her role in the arts ecosystem, and why she’s driven to do the work that she does. Listen, subscribe and share!

Episode 119 topics include:

leadership in arts organizations

the McColl Center for Art + Innovation

working in institutions

thoughts on curating

artists making work

talking to curators

good studio visits

Jonell Logan is an independent curator and arts advocate dedicated to supporting artists, transforming communities, and creating accessible creative spaces.

Jonell is the founder of 300 Arts Project, an arts consulting company that supports community engagement, equity and diversity in arts via training, strategic planning, and exhibitions. 300 Arts has partnered with a number of organizations including Advent Co-Working, Charlotte, North Carolina; the National Black Arts Festival, Atlanta, Georgia and the UTSA Institute of Texan Culture, San Antonio, Texas to develop programs and exhibitions that serve creatives, neighborhoods, and museum-goers from diverse backgrounds.

See More: McColl Center for Art + Innovation + Jonell Logan IG: @jonell_logan

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Jamaal Barber: @JBarberStudio

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Jamele Wright Sr. joins the Studio Noize family! Your boy JBarber is back from vacation and is live in the studio talking abstraction with Jamele. He tells us about his turn to abstraction and how seeing a piece by Clyfford Still gave him the breakthrough that he needed. Jamele talks about his family history that inspired his series In Transit and how all the textures, color,s and materials tell a much larger story about the Black experience. Great in-person in-studio vibes today on the Noize. You can even hear the fan going so you know it’s real! Listen, subscribe and share!

Episode 118 topics include:

New York living

switching materials

origins of Jamele’s abstraction

Black migration

creating a new practice

studio space

Born and raised in Ohio, at the age of 22 Jamele Wright, Sr. moved with his family to Atlanta, Georgia. While raising a family Jamele produced art, jazz, and poetry events throughout Atlanta. Realizing that there were many young artists not being represented he started a gallery called Neo-Renaissance Art House. After curating the gallery for over a year Jamele was inspired to pursue his own artistic career. After a number of solo and group exhibitions, Mr. Wright graduated from Georgia State University with a B.A. in Art History. He concentrated on African and African American Contemporary Art. Jamele graduated with Masters of Fine Art from School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, New York. He completed a fellowship at Project for Empty Spaces in Newark, New Jersey.

See More: September Gray Art Gallery +Jamele Wright Sr. IG: @jamelewrightsr

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Jamaal Barber: @JBarberStudio

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In partnership with Stay Home Gallery, I present Inward, a virtual exhibition curated by Jasmine Wilson, one of the 2021 curatorial fellows. You should think of these special episodes as mini-artist talks for the virtual exhibition. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be dropping mini-episodes featuring all the artists in the show talking about their inspiration and artistic process. In this episode, we talk with artist Krista Dedrick-Lai. She talks about dealing with her diagnosed mood disorder, expressing her feeling using art, and her interesting method of painting. Check out the show at https://www.stayhomegallery.com/exhibitions/inward and listen to the episodes to hear more.

As an exhibition inspired by our collective isolation and intimate encounters with ourselves, Inward centers the work of artists who confront their beauty, identity, and personal struggles through portraiture. This gesture to explore the inner Self, particularly during the global pandemic, is personal in nature and inspired me to call upon this group of artists to provide a visual opening into their inner worlds. The artworks included in this exhibition feature artists’ battles with anxiety and illness, as well as their transcendence of chaos and feelings of inner peace while surrounded by family and loved ones. By centering their narratives, it is my goal to inspire critical discourse surrounding the lessons and realizations that surface as a result of our individual reckoning with the need to transform amid moments of uncertainty and change.

See More: Inward Virtual Exhibition + Krista Dedrick-Lai IG @krista_dedrick_lai

Follow us:

StudioNoizePodcast.com

IG: @studionoizepodcast

Jamaal Barber: @JBarberStudio

Support the podcast

www.patreon.com/studionoizepodcast

In partnership with Stay Home Gallery, I present Inward, a virtual exhibition curated by Jasmine Wilson, one of the 2021 curatorial fellows. You should think of these special episodes as mini-artist talks for the virtual exhibition. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be dropping mini-episodes featuring all the artists in the show talking about their inspiration and artistic process. In this episode, we talk with artist Roanna Tella. She talks about the quarantine experience in Lagos, Nigeria where she is based. Roanna lets us know about the ways her art helped her cope with anxieties, working in watercolor, and how colors express her ideas. Check out the show at https://www.stayhomegallery.com/exhibitions/inward and listen to the episodes to hear more.

As an exhibition inspired by our collective isolation and intimate encounters with ourselves, Inward centers the work of artists who confront their beauty, identity, and personal struggles through portraiture. This gesture to explore the inner Self, particularly during the global pandemic, is personal in nature and inspired me to call upon this group of artists to provide a visual opening into their inner worlds. The artworks included in this exhibition feature artists’ battles with anxiety and illness, as well as their transcendence of chaos and feelings of inner peace while surrounded by family and loved ones. By centering their narratives, it is my goal to inspire critical discourse surrounding the lessons and realizations that surface as a result of our individual reckoning with the need to transform amid moments of uncertainty and change.

See More: Inward Virtual Exhibition + Roanna Tella IG @roannatella

Follow us:

StudioNoizePodcast.com

IG: @studionoizepodcast

Jamaal Barber: @JBarberStudio

Support the podcast

www.patreon.com/studionoizepodcast

In partnership with Stay Home Gallery, I present Inward, a virtual exhibition curated by Jasmine Wilson, one of the 2021 curatorial fellows. You should think of these special episodes as mini-artist talks for the virtual exhibition. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be dropping mini-episodes featuring all the artists in the show talking about their inspiration and artistic process. In this episode, we talk with artist Lillian Chun. She talks about her relationship to time, making art at home during the pandemic, and how she uses herself as a subject of her work. Check out the show at https://www.stayhomegallery.com/exhibitions/inward and listen to the episodes to hear more.

As an exhibition inspired by our collective isolation and intimate encounters with ourselves, Inward centers the work of artists who confront their beauty, identity, and personal struggles through portraiture. This gesture to explore the inner Self, particularly during the global pandemic, is personal in nature and inspired me to call upon this group of artists to provide a visual opening into their inner worlds. The artworks included in this exhibition feature artists’ battles with anxiety and illness, as well as their transcendence of chaos and feelings of inner peace while surrounded by family and loved ones. By centering their narratives, it is my goal to inspire critical discourse surrounding the lessons and realizations that surface as a result of our individual reckoning with the need to transform amid moments of uncertainty and change.

See More: Inward Virtual Exhibition + Lillian Chun IG @lillian___chun

Follow us:

StudioNoizePodcast.com

IG: @studionoizepodcast

Jamaal Barber: @JBarberStudio

Support the podcast

www.patreon.com/studionoizepodcast

In partnership with Stay Home Gallery, I present Inward, a virtual exhibition curated by Jasmine Wilson, one of the 2021 curatorial fellows. You should think of these special episodes as mini-artist talks for the virtual exhibition. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be dropping mini-episodes featuring all the artists in the show talking about their inspiration and artistic process. In this episode, we talk with artist Traci Mims. She talks about her self-portrait work including all the iconography she uses in the pieces, how she handled creating in the pandemic and looking back on old work. Check out the show at https://www.stayhomegallery.com/exhibitions/inward and listen to the episodes to hear more.

As an exhibition inspired by our collective isolation and intimate encounters with ourselves, Inward centers the work of artists who confront their beauty, identity, and personal struggles through portraiture. This gesture to explore the inner Self, particularly during the global pandemic, is personal in nature and inspired me to call upon this group of artists to provide a visual opening into their inner worlds. The artworks included in this exhibition feature artists’ battles with anxiety and illness, as well as their transcendence of chaos and feelings of inner peace while surrounded by family and loved ones. By centering their narratives, it is my goal to inspire critical discourse surrounding the lessons and realizations that surface as a result of our individual reckoning with the need to transform amid moments of uncertainty and change.

See More: Inward Virtual Exhibition + Meredith Elder IG @meldera

Follow us:

StudioNoizePodcast.com

IG: @studionoizepodcast

Jamaal Barber: @JBarberStudio

Support the podcast

www.patreon.com/studionoizepodcast

In partnership with Stay Home Gallery, I present Inward, a virtual exhibition curated by Jasmine Wilson, one of the 2021 curatorial fellows. You should think of these special episodes as mini-artist talks for the virtual exhibition. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be dropping mini-episodes featuring all the artists in the show talking about their inspiration and artistic process. In this episode, we talk with artist Traci Mims. She talks about her self-portrait work including all the iconography she uses in the pieces, how she handled creating in the pandemic and looking back on old work. Check out the show at https://www.stayhomegallery.com/exhibitions/inward and listen to the episodes to hear more.

As an exhibition inspired by our collective isolation and intimate encounters with ourselves, Inward centers the work of artists who confront their beauty, identity, and personal struggles through portraiture. This gesture to explore the inner Self, particularly during the global pandemic, is personal in nature and inspired me to call upon this group of artists to provide a visual opening into their inner worlds. The artworks included in this exhibition feature artists’ battles with anxiety and illness, as well as their transcendence of chaos and feelings of inner peace while surrounded by family and loved ones. By centering their narratives, it is my goal to inspire critical discourse surrounding the lessons and realizations that surface as a result of our individual reckoning with the need to transform amid moments of uncertainty and change.

See More: Inward Virtual Exhibition + Traci Mims IG @traci_mimsartist

Follow us:

StudioNoizePodcast.com

IG: @studionoizepodcast

Jamaal Barber: @JBarberStudio

Support the podcast

www.patreon.com/studionoizepodcast

In partnership with Stay Home Gallery, I present Inward, a virtual exhibition curated by Jasmine Wilson, one of the 2021 curatorial fellows. You should think of these special episodes as mini-artist talks for the virtual exhibition. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be dropping mini-episodes featuring all the artists in the show talking about their inspiration and artistic process. In this episode, we talk with artist Ann Dawkins. She talks about her personal battles with chronic pain, the lessons she learned working in the pandemic, and her new journey as a full-time artist. Check out the show at https://www.stayhomegallery.com/exhibitions/inward and listen to the episodes to hear more.

As an exhibition inspired by our collective isolation and intimate encounters with ourselves, Inward centers the work of artists who confront their beauty, identity, and personal struggles through portraiture. This gesture to explore the inner Self, particularly during the global pandemic, is personal in nature and inspired me to call upon this group of artists to provide a visual opening into their inner worlds. The artworks included in this exhibition feature artists’ battles with anxiety and illness, as well as their transcendence of chaos and feelings of inner peace while surrounded by family and loved ones. By centering their narratives, it is my goal to inspire critical discourse surrounding the lessons and realizations that surface as a result of our individual reckoning with the need to transform amid moments of uncertainty and change.

See More: Inward Virtual Exhibition + Julia Terry IG

Follow us:

StudioNoizePodcast.com

IG: @studionoizepodcast

Jamaal Barber: @JBarberStudio

Support the podcast

www.patreon.com/studionoizepodcast