Fort Worth art space reopens with exhibit focusing on the childhood experience

The Kinfolk House in the Polytechnic neighborhood is reopening for a new exhibit to continue its mission of presenting art that reflects Black, Latino and other underrepresented groups.

The exhibit, “Early Learning,” opens Saturday with a reception featuring works by three artists whose work revolves around themes of the childhood experience: Angel Cabrales, Charles Gray and Kristin Boyer.

The reception is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 1913 Wallace St. Admission is free.

Jessica Fuentes, executive director of Kinfolk House, says Kinfolk is about building connections with the community and artists to provide a space of self reflection, communication and understanding.

“Something that often goes unspoken is about the need for arts and culture,” Fuentes said. “Because art and culture feeds the soul of people. Like, What is life without the joy and the expression that you find and make in art, visual art or performing arts or otherwise?”

Sedrick and Letitia Huckaby opened Kinfolk House in March 2022. Sedrick’s grandmother purchased the home in 1984 and when she died in 2008 ownership belonged to Sedrick. Sedrick and his wife decided they wanted to give back and invest in the neighborhood.

Sedrick said his grandmother’s home was always open for family members and friends who needed somewhere to go. And so he wanted to expand on her legacy and create a space for the community centered on arts and culture.

“People need to be represented in the art they’re looking at and seeing,” Huckaby said. “That’s really important that the art speaks to you and so that was really important to us. And we feel like studying art, we’ve come to know that art can be transformative in communities.”

They created Kinfolk House as a nonprofit organization where artists can showcase their work and communities of color do not have to travel long distances to enjoy the beauty of fine art.

Gray’s artistic goal is to show Black people enjoying life in a way that he has not seen in museums or academic spaces. Gray, of Fort Worth, uses Pokemon cards as the backdrop of his paintings and then paints on top of it with images of his family enjoying life.

According to Gray, there was a urgency for inclusivity within the art world after the George Floyd uprisings in 2020, but the artwork was of trauma, such as police brutality, slavery and death.

Gray wants to show the full spectrum of the Back experience. It is his way of showing the diversity of Black life within art.

“I think there will always be dialogue about our troubles because there is so much of it,” Gray said. “I don’t want people to only see us as a group of people who get our ass whooped all the time. We laugh sometimes, we enjoy things sometimes, we have fun so the true version of equality is seeing the whole picture, not just one side.”

Cabrales grew up in El Paso, and his installation revolves around growing up in a border town. Where border towns are places where communities converge and help one another, especially migrants, find a better life like Cabrales remembers seeing in his youth.

Thus, he uses a playground as a metaphor for childhood innocence and acceptance. It is the same place where he used to go with his grandmother and befriended children who couldn’t speak English. As an adult he went back to the same playground and it was blocked by a border wall. To him, the wall represented the growing panic of immigrants crossing the border.

Cabrales wants people seeing his artwork to reach back into their childhood when they were open to new ideas and people. He hopes people can embrace the full humanity of individuals like immigrants and help them like we would want to be helped in a new country.

“I want to be able to reach everyday people because the best way to educate your community and help your community is to reach out and connect with them,” Cabrales said. “And that’s how you elevate your communities, you work together, bringing about work showing them that these are issues that we can all reflect on and we understand them and it can even elevate a community in itself as well.”

Boyer is an interdisciplinary artist and MFA student at the University of North Texas whose work will explore ways in which communication skills are developed through play. She incorporates toy-like sculptures such as large building blocks with letters on them or pull-along toys.

Her artwork encourages people to explore the textures, shapes, and symbols to resemble language and influence people to communicate with one another to create these connections. Boyer wants people to relive their childhood where they have a sense of freedom, exploration and curiosity.

“It’s really about also building a community where people can discuss this work, interact with the work with one another, and build that connection with other people,” Boyer said.

Sedrick Huckaby hopes the exhibit and the future of Kinfolk House helps the community because, to him, art brings people together to talk and understand one another.

“I hope that over time it helps to elevate and enlighten the community,” Huckaby said. “It adds spice to the culture. The culture is here, we’re just here to add a little ingredient to it and make it a little more flavorful.”

Fall visiting hours are 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, and by appointment Sunday through Tuesday.