Artist talk from the 6th annual "This is America" group exhibition, which opened Friday, June 28, 2024 .
"This Is America" 2024 hits hard on reclamation and correction of popular social and political narratives. Steadfast and true to all artistic forms, "This is America" is a group exhibition that remains a critical and unfiltered visual art demonstration for artists of color to explore, narrate, display and create dialogue around their diverse lived experiences, observations and cultural associations with the United States of America.
Wisconsin-based, national, and international, This Is America’s exhibiting artists represent expansive territories, identities, languages, cultures, artistic approaches and influences. Capturing the most vulnerable moments as well as challenging the most debated and divisive topics, works on display are equally diverse in content and technique. From photographic documentation, repurposed and reimagined materials, 3-D printed sculptures, to eloquently rendered traditional oil paintings, the works and artists reveal riveting visual
storylines in their respective media.
Exhibiting artists include: Bennie C. Higgins (Milwaukee, WI), Chuck Jackson (Memphis, TN), Claudia Maysen (Keller, TX), Darrel Melvin Payne (Milwaukee, WI), Drék Davis (Monroe, LA), Destiny Brady (Chicago, IL), Emmanuel Guerra
(Milwaukee, WI), Erik Salgado (Chicago, IL), Fatima Laster (Milwaukee, WI), Jared Davis a.k.a. Turtle Sooup (Milwaukee, WI), Kelvin Bulluck (Washington D.C.), Kleaver Cruz (Bronx, NY), Kierston Ghaznavi (Milwaukee, WI), LaDasia Bryant (Milwaukee, WI), Manny Vibez (Milwaukee, WI), Mark A. West Jr. (Baltimore, MD), Nina Ghanbarzadeh (Milwaukee, WI), and the late Spencer Hutchinson (Chicago, IL).
The artist talk was moderated by gallery director, Fatima Laster.
Missing from artist talk: Chuck Johnson, Emmanuel Guerra and Spencer Hutchinson.
