Currently on view at the Lyndon House Arts Center, two different exhibitions present distinctive impressions of cultural identity. Athens-based artist Jaci Davis’ exhibition “Self-Preservation” is a collection of self-portraits that reflect her experiences and perceptions as a biracial individual living in the South. Atlanta-based multi-disciplinary artist Jamele Wright Sr.’s installation “We Are All Kinda Floating” consists of vibrant, monumental textiles sewn from hand-dyed fabrics that center the traditions of the Black American vernacular experience.
Each year during the Lyndon House Arts Center’s annual Juried Exhibition, an Arts Center Choice Award is presented to one exhibiting artist with the opportunity to return for their own solo show. After receiving the award for her painting “Let’s Just Call it a Breakthrough,” Davis is back with “Self-Preservation,” a collection of self-portraits juxtaposing moody expressions against electric pink, orange and blue backgrounds.
“The title ‘Self-Preservation’ is an encompassing term that I thought most suited these paintings as they were coming out of a place of trying to keep my sense of identity intact while I have been struggling for months with a sickness that’s kept me in and out of the hospital for multiple day stays and away from the things that I feel like make me who I am,” says Davis. “My identity as a biracial individual has been the anchoring theme in a lot of my work. It’s hard to divulge your identity when you find yourself struggling to do things people do on an everyday basis.”
A 2023 graduate of UGA’s Lamar Dodd School of Art, Davis primarily creates figure paintings that often incorporate mixed media elements of collage, pastels or textiles. While her self-portraits serve as a space to explore the complexities of her own identity, her larger body of work also aims to increase the visibility and representation of Black women in cultural spaces, a response to the lack of diversity she observed while growing up.
“Growing up, I feel like I always found myself in just an awkward space in-between white and Black,” says Davis. “I was too Black/white for some and not Black/white enough for others, so a lot of my work comes from my need to explore the uncomfortable in-betweens of identity, usually through the idea of displacement, specifically exploring the longing for a sense of community and place.”
Three of her paintings, “Self-Preservation,” “Self-Soothing” and “Look at Me, Look at Me”—the last of which is featured on the cover of this week’s Flagpole—depict identical pairs of figures. Despite the indications of weariness worn across their faces, they display a caring tenderness towards each other, observed as one rests their hand or head on the shoulder of the other. Davis says the pairs are meant to symbolize trusting yourself and having your own back.
The large-scale textiles in “We Are All Kinda Floating” exist as tactile abstractions that reflect Wright’s continued investigation into the Black American vernacular experience. Scraps of bold colors are energetically stitched together in a way that is both comforting and refreshingly imperfect with each frayed edge or stray thread.
Born and raised in Ohio, Wright moved to Atlanta at the age of 22 and produced various art, jazz and poetry events throughout the city while raising a family. He graduated from Georgia State University with a bachelor of arts degree in art history, with a concentration in African and African American contemporary art, before earning a masters of fine art from the School of Visual Arts in New York.
Wright’s work builds upon the legacy of African American abstractionists and landscape artists who came before him, intuitively applying various techniques of sculpture, painting, fiber, graffiti and quilting. Less concerned with expressing an overt narrative, his works embody a sort of understood power as he transforms materials with personal or cultural significance into colorful compositions.
His process is also influenced by hip hop and the way artists re-contextualize diverse cultural influences through sampling. Drawing a parallel to the genre, Wright’s work remixes fabrics and found materials thereby channeling the energy down through the Diaspora lineage. The exhibition is accompanied by a scannable tag to access a custom Spotify playlist.
Wright creates artwork that represents “a conversation between family, tradition, the spiritual and material relationship between Africa and the South.” Immersive in nature, his installation invites viewers to contemplate these themes as they move through the gallery space, thereby potentially “activating” the textiles as they gently sway in response.
“Self-Preservation” and “We Are All Kinda Floating” will be celebrated during an opening reception on Thursday, Nov. 14 from 6–8 p.m. Wright will discuss his body of work during an artist talk at the event. Both exhibitions will remain on view through Dec. 28.
WHO: Opening Reception
WHEN: Thursday, Nov. 14, 6–8 p.m.
WHERE: Lyndon House Arts Center
HOW MUCH: FREE!
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