SAN ANTONIO — A young craving permeates the touring profession survey of Bronx-born Whitfield Lovell, who forges Black histories from aged images. The exhibition begins with Lovell’s works about household and biography starting within the mid-Nineteen Eighties. On the stomach of “Grandma’s Dress” (1990), a Black Indigenous girl half reclines whereas surrounded by palm bushes — half Virgin Mary, half Venus of Urbino — holding a palm frond, an emblem of victory overcoming demise. Across the costume, moist inexperienced shoots into frenetic arcs, like transferring palms. Lovell’s paternal facet comes from Barbados; this work celebrates the far origins of the Black Atlantic, and units the tone of the exhibition’s concern with the seek for neighborhood and ancestries.
Within the subsequent room, the odor of nutrient-rich earth and decomposing tree bark, just like the scent of candy cloves, subtly envelops the viewer. The sounds of working water and chirping birds accompany the scents, suggesting change, or a way of crossing over. Entitled “Deep River” (2013), the work envisions the situations for runaway slaves through the Civil Struggle, lots of whom traversed the Tennessee River to seek out asylum within the Union Military’s “Camp Contraband” in Chattanooga, Tennessee. On the center of the set up is a big mound of earth, strewn with bottles, lamps, musical devices, bibles, and weapons, and encircled by turned wood discs on which Lovell has painted portraits of Black folks from the Civil Struggle onwards. A pile of suitcases is stacked in opposition to the wall, above which is a portrait of a person surrounded by keys, an emblem of freedom. Video projections of undulating waves flittering in daylight resonate with a palpitating sense of longing.
Whitfield Lovell, “Grandma’s Dress” (1990), oil stick and charcoal on paper, 62 x 40 inches (157.5 x 101.6 cm) (photograph Liz Kim/Hyperallergic)
Throughout his photo-based works, Lovell quarries misplaced origins by various varieties of Black archival imagery. Within the Kin (2008–11) sequence, for example, he recreates photographs from photograph cubicles and IDs from between 1850 and 1950 in charcoal. In Card Items (2020–21), Lovell has matched every enjoying card with the frontal portrait of an individual with humor and care: The Queen of Hearts, for example, is a regal girl who seems to be off into the gap. Amongst his tableaux, Lovell depicts a person in three-quarters view in “Wreath” (2000), surrounded by a barbed nest out of concentric rusted metal, as safety in opposition to harm. Close by, in “For…” (2008), a lady gazes outward as globes orbit about her, laved in the identical inexperienced as “Grandma’s Dress,” equally conveying and shutting distances.
Whitfield Lovell, “Deep River” (2013), 56 wood discs, discovered objects, soil, video projections, sound, dimensions variable (photograph Liz Kim/Hyperallergic)
Whitfield Lovell, “Wreath” (2000), charcoal on wooden, barbed wire, 23 x 23 x 6 1/2 inches (58.4 x 58.4 x 16.5 cm) (photograph Liz Kim/Hyperallergic)
Whitfield Lovell, “For…” (2008), charcoal on painted wooden, globes, 21 1/2 x 17 x 10 1/2 inches (54.6 x 43.2 x 26.7 cm) (photograph Liz Kim/Hyperallergic)
Whitfield Lovell, “Our Best” (2001) charcoal on wooden, wheels, pennies, 84 x 264 inches (213.4 x 670.6 cm) (photograph Liz Kim/Hyperallergic)
Set up view of Whitfield Lovell, “Visitation: The Parlor” (2001), eating desk, organ, numerous objects, wood partitions, 223 1/4 x 161 3/4 inches (567 x 410.8 cm) (photograph Liz Kim/Hyperallergic)
Whitfield Lovell: Passages continues on the McNay Artwork Museum (6000 North New Braunfels Avenue, San Antonio, Texas) by January 19, 2025. The exhibition was organized by the American Federation of Arts in collaboration with Whitfield Lovell. This iteration of the exhibition was curated by René Paul Barilleaux and Lauren Thompson.
