In Living Color

Truth is that which is (one would think) inarguable, but a consideration of truth as black and-white is dangerous, capable of a murkiness that is difficult to resurface from. Truth is really a double-sided coin, but a single coin nonetheless; In Living Color aims to be an example of how embracing these “opposing” forces brings us closer to transparency. The artists in this exhibition can be considered as opposites on a breadth of levels—gender, culture, nationality, experience, aesthetics—the exhibition is a precise and intentional consideration of them together in the context of duality.  

This is best exemplified in their portrayals of specific parts of the Black experience. Carris-Duncan takes a heavy, cultural-historical approach in referencing the era in which Africans were enslaved in the United States through both patterns and archival photography of enslaved people, as well as her materials. Swallah’s playful, almost bombastic, color palette affords his acrylic portraits of Black figures a bright and easygoing self-assuredness; his take on a facet of hair culture is natural in a variety of interpretations, whether the figures’ curls are out or they’ve blended into the environment.  

While their chosen media is gender-coded, each artist’s mastery fosters interrogations of what else is gender- and racially-coded in a global society, and what isn’t or, perhaps, shouldn’t be. Arguably, both artists act as stewards of history, yet Carris-Duncan bears the brunt of memory in this exhibition. Their pieces are no less labor intensive than Swallah’s and yet the weight of history is quite literally embedded in her work. Swallah opts for a lightness and optimism, as if he’s leading the charge in the present. This is most notable when considering Carris-Duncan’s cool-toned and somber selection of works, as well as the figures in their pieces—or the absence of some figures, better said.  

Carris-Duncan’s We Don’t Die We Multiply (2020-2023), a hoodie dyed with materials such as indigo, goldenrod, and marigold balance Black Americans’ historic connections with field labor during the era of enslavement as well as after it with homage for Black people whose lives have been taken by police violence in recent years. In the next gallery, Swallah’s Wedding Day (2022) features a Black bride in a garden with a delicate, white veil atop her bald head; her gaze doesn’t center a viewer as her beloved, rather a display of elegance and joy in her own life.  

Thus, while each artist has created their own unique position in a larger, shared context it’s in the integration of different cultural experiences within these bodies of work that a brilliant argument for truth comes through. This juxtaposition forms a part of a complex narrative regarding Blackness and the Black experience in a post-colonial way of thinking—meaning, we’re allowed to consider the difficult alongside the beautiful. In Living Color considers joy as defiance, memory as tangible, bravery and fear and justice in practice; the figures in this exhibition are extensions of the artists’ identities and the curators’ experiences as Caribbean/Latin-American women. The function of these dualities is not about balance nor about harmony, rather truth.

Co-curated with Chloe Fabien
Statement by Maria Gabriela Di Giammarco