'Vessels' exhibitions aims to break barriers, provide opportunities for local Black artists

When a 2019 study revealed that African American artists represented a mere 1.2% of all works in the collections of top American museums, it sharply conveyed what many people of color already know, that racial inequity persists in institutions across the country. Further breaking down that 1.2% showed that African American women in art barely registered at all.

But in Savannah the face of fine art is changing.

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Founded in 2006 with Telfair Museums, Friends of African American Arts (FAAA) has steadily focused on raising the profile of local Black artists. From the beginning the organization has curated and presented two shows annually. This year, FAAA launched a third exhibition. “Vessels,” which opened last weekend and runs through Oct. 8, represents 31 artists, two-thirds of whom are women.

“Vessels” is also the first themed show among FAAA exhibitions and explores “the things we hold and the things that carry us.” The concept came about when Sharonna Ray, a vice chair with the organization, collaborated with Antonia B. Larkin, visual arts specialist at Savannah Cultural Arts Center. The women, very much aware of dire representation statistics, sought to create another opportunity featuring local artists. With full support of the FAAA, Ray went to work curating while Larkin took on the task of designing the show.

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“We wanted to give our members a platform to amplify their voices and showcase their talents as African American artists,” said Ray. “We wanted to see what artists would create when critically examining what a vessel means to them because each would approach the theme through a unique lens showing how what they carry shapes who they are.”

FAAA is a member-driven organization. Not every member is an artist, though many are, and all of the 142-current ones are ardent art supporters. Becoming a member, is surprisingly affordable — at most $85 annually — and opens doors to a community intent on elevating Black creators and expanding knowledge of local African American history.

Olivia Johnson, a 2020 Savannah State fine arts graduate, joined FAAA two years ago and enjoys art teaching opportunities that came about directly through membership with the organization. Earlier this year Johnson also attended an FAAA-sponsored trip to Dorchester Academy in Liberty County, birthplace of artist William O. Golding and where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spent significant time during the Civil Rights Movement.

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Johnson’s work in the exhibition, “Conversion,” is 15 X 16 X 16 inch bronze-hued clay sculpture of a nude, pregnant woman, legs folded and seated on the ground. The figure’s head is bent forward in meditation while her open womb reveals a seemingly content fetus with closed eyes. The work conveys the heft and heavy contemplation of carrying a child.

“My art often explores the magic of the connection between humans and nature,” said Johnson. “This sculpture is about transformation, and how clay is of the earth and reminiscent of our bodies. When you work with it, clay stretches and cracks and is similar to how our bodies bend and crack, like a woman going through the physical changes of pregnancy.”

Johnson gives an artist show-and-tell talk Saturday afternoon, Sept. 24, at the Savannah Cultural Arts Center. In it, she’ll discuss the sculpture’s construction, focusing on the special armature she built to support the clay as she created the work.

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Self-taught collage artist, Nancey Price, grew up in a tight-knit family of farmers in Girard, Georgia. After earning a BA in women and gender studies, she moved to Statesboro to pursue a master’s degree in public administration at Georgia Southern University. But when she landed her first solo show at Averitt Center for the Arts in 2019, Price realized her creative mind needed more time, space and community. Two years ago while researching local museums for opportunities to connect, she stumbled upon the offerings at Telfair Museums.

That’s when she joined FAAA.

Price’s work, “Things We Carried,” is a 12-by-19 inch collage on wood board depicting a vibrant blue ocean, celestial background and trio of sweet grass baskets presented as seafaring vessels bearing precious cargo.

“This piece was a meditation on Black people’s relationship with water and explores some of the things that came with us during the Middle Passage,” emphasized Price. “We brought resilience, creativity, matriarchal energy, resistance, and connection with land and cultivation—not just our bodies.”

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Price gives an interactive artist show-and-tell-talk on Saturday, Sept. 17, at Savannah Cultural Arts Center where attendees will have an opportunity to explore collage techniques and create a work of their own. Currently, Price is building a collection of collages further exploring Black people’s relationship with water in anticipation of a solo show next year.

Exhibition curator Sharonna Ray also has work in “Vessels.” Ray, a 2018 fine arts graduate from Savannah State, often uses her art to explore the relationship humans have with sweets and comfort cravings. “Cotton Candy No. 34” is a 12” X 36” inch mixed-media of pink, purple and blue pastel mounds portraying cotton candy and blow-pop suckers — a work inspired by the anguish and cravings she experienced when her older brother passed from ALS disease.

“This piece shows what I carry, how I processed the grief of my brother’s death, and it gives voice to the stickiness of overwhelming sadness when someone passes,” Ray said.

“And that’s something I hope this show does, is allow our audience to see and hear our members’ authentic voices of expression as they take up space in this exhibition. I am grateful to be in this role as curator and look forward to more opportunities to boost local African American artists through shows and features at FAAA.”

Friends of African American Arts, or FAAA, is a member group of people across genders, ethnicities, and ages brought together by their appreciation of the artistic and cultural contributions of African Americans.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah GA art galleries: Vessels at Savannah Cultural Arts Center