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Recently I went to see
the art exhibit Preach! New Works by Jeffrey
Kent and want to communicate, in my style, some of what I saw and felt.
An unusual chair balanced on piles of books was the first thing I saw as I entered the building.
Looking at this chair, I felt the longing to read in a restful setting,
but although balanced on the books, I questioned whether the life of the person(s)
using the chair was balanced. Under the books, covered with a rug, were
magazines, one a Playboy magazine. Were they hidden because they were
embarrassing or could reveal too much?
Nearby was a water
fountain. I remember using these types of fountains and reading that in the
south blacks could not use the same fountains as whites. This fountain’s gold
color is indicative of its almost religious symbolism in the segregated world.
Moving to the main
exhibit upstairs, I noticed that most of the characters in his paintings are
blindfolded, representing those who can’t or won’t see what is around them.
Kent uses ugly images in his paintings to underscore our country’s ugly history
of racism. He links the struggle of black Americans to that of marriage
equality. Some paintings include
historical photos or drawings: a slave ship, an auction, demonstrations
against discrimination, women’s suffrage, proposition 8 controversy.
It did help to have an
artistic family member with me, my nephew Tyler Farinholt, to explain some of
the works. Confused when I saw the word “dementia” spelled backwards, I
understood the painting better when told that Kent was dyslexic. He often uses
backwards text in his paintings, often in bubbles. Forwards or backwards, the words and paintings
communicate.
My favorites included
two chairs representing male and female, husband and wife or master and slave.
They may have been important representations of society, but now they were torn
and outdated. A suspended broom represents the hurdle some people face (or
faced) in having their unions recognized.
I would have
understood the paintings much better if I had read the exhibit booklet instead
of spending so much time, trying to discover the meanings myself. However, that
method did give me a more personal interpretation of the paintings, often close
to the written material. The booklet explained little details that I missed at
the time.
Besides our
creative instincts, writers and visual artists share the desire to communicate;
to share our experiences, thoughts and dreams with others and Kent definitely
communicates through his art.
It was a pleasure to
meet Kent, who also is the owner of Sub-Basement Artist Studios in Baltimore.
If you have an opportunity to see this exhibit, please do. There is so much
more to see than I mentioned. It gives you plenty to enjoy and to think about.
The exhibit, open
through March 31. Gallery hours are 10 am to 4 pm Mon through Fri and 12 pm to
4 pm Sat and Sun. is at the Frederick Douglass Isaac Myers Maritime Park
Museum. You can learn more about the exhibit, organized by the Exhibition
Development Seminar of the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), at
http://www.preachjeffreykent.com/. 