JOIN US FOR AN ART TALK WITH MARGARET VENDRYES: THE AFRICAN DIVA PROJECT
CALABAR GALLERY HARLEM: 2504 Frederick Douglass Blvd, New York, NY 10030. 646-964-5062 Website:Calabar Gallery and Instagram page (please follow us here too).
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Welcome to CALABAR GALLERY. We showcase contemporary African Artists and African Diaspora artists globally. Based in Harlem, work featured is inspired and influenced by Black African culture globally with a focus on dynamic ideas about art and society.
Life is so simple - Live it, Laugh and enjoy it - Atim Annette Oton
MARGARET VENDRYES: THE AFRICAN DIVA is now open. As per our covid-19 process, we will have a 2 day opening to make sure we socially distance. We have 3 events so far:
An Artist Talk scheduled for June 10 at 2pm - we plan to do it both live and on Facebook - a HYBRID finally.
Hollis King, formerly of Verve Music/Universal Music, now the Creative Director of the Billie in Brooklyn will talk about album covers with Margaret Rose Vendryes. This too will be HYBRID - both live and virtual on Facebook
Mikhaile Solomon will be on a panel to talk about Margaret's work on June 24 at 6pm, this will be VIRTUAL on Facebook Live
It's a Local, Regional and Global way of being engaged, so join us. So, I urge you to take a look at our sale page today. The exhibition page will open up on Friday, just about a week before the opening. If you really intend to collect, this is the artwork to purchase this summer.
Be healthy, safe and spread the word about our gallery.
Atim
Atim Annette Oton
Curator and Gallery Director
ART TALK: MARGARET ROSE VENDRYES
WITH CURATOR ATIM ANNETTE OTON AT JUNE 10, 2PM, ONSITE & VIRTUAL
MARGARET ROSE VENDRYES:
THE AFRICAN DIVA PROJECT
A SOLO EXHIBITION
curated by Atim Annette Oton
"The African Diva Project is a painting & mixed media series that began in 2005 and has grown to over 75 works of art that include public, interactive, and social practice exhibitions. Informed by my scholarly interest in, and collection of, African arts, I see clearly the ancestral legacy of Africa retained in popular Black music and visual culture over the centuries since Africans were taken from their homeland. I also animate my African Divas with words so that encounters with my paintings, which represent extraordinary Black talent and resilience, will inspire remembrances of, and admiration for, the gifts they have shared with us all."
Margaret Rose Vendryes is an art historian, visual artist, and curator. She received her BA in fine arts from Amherst College, MA in art history from Tulane University, and Ph.D. in art history from Princeton University. Among several honors, Vendryes was an American Association of University Women Fellow and a Scholar-in-Residence at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. In 2008, University Press of Mississippi published Vendryes’ book Barthé, A Life in Sculpture, the first comprehensive monograph on the late African American sculptor Richmond Barthé. The African Diva Project, a multimedia body of work reveals Vendryes’ engagement with African art and aesthetics and its intersection with Black celebrities and visual culture. The Project began in 2005 and has grown to over 75 works of art including paintings on canvas and paper, digital compositions, collage, interactive installation, and outdoor art exhibitions. Vendryes is currently Professor of Art History, Performing and Fine Arts and Director of the Fine Arts Gallery at York College, City University of New York.
Join us for the solo exhibition of
Margaret Rose Vendryes : The African Diva Project
June 5 to July 13, 2021
It opens the over the weekend: Saturday June 5 and Sunday 6, 1pm - 6pm
RSVP TO ATTEND HERE Includes Art Talks with Margaret Rose Vendryes and Atim Annette Oton, curator, and panel discussions with artist and Hollis King, Mikhaile Solomon, and others.
"The African Diva Project is a painting & mixed media series that began in 2005 and has grown to over 75 works of art that include public, interactive, and social practice exhibitions. Informed by my scholarly interest in, and collection of, African arts, I see clearly the ancestral legacy of Africa retained in popular Black music and visual culture over the centuries since Africans were taken from their homeland. I also animate my African Divas with words so that encounters with my paintings, which represent extraordinary Black talent and resilience, will inspire remembrances of, and admiration for, the gifts they have shared with us all."
Margaret Rose Vendryes is an art historian, visual artist, and curator. She received her BA in fine arts from Amherst College, MA in art history from Tulane University, and Ph.D. in art history from Princeton University. Among several honors, Vendryes was an American Association of University Women Fellow and a Scholar-in-Residence at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. In 2008, University Press of Mississippi published Vendryes’ book Barthé, A Life in Sculpture, the first comprehensive monograph on the late African American sculptor Richmond Barthé. The African Diva Project, a multimedia body of work reveals Vendryes’ engagement with African art and aesthetics and its intersection with Black celebrities and visual culture. The Project began in 2005 and has grown to over 75 works of art including paintings on canvas and paper, digital compositions, collage, interactive installation, and outdoor art exhibitions. Vendryes is currently Professor of Art History, Performing and Fine Arts and Director of the Fine Arts Gallery at York College, City University of New York.
ART and TECHNOLOGY CODING WORKSHOPS at CALABAR GALLERY A dynamic series of innovative Summer workshops for kids and youth focused teaching them about creating art using coding and technology while working on campaigns about VOTING, JOBS, HOUSING and HEALTH and creating CYPTO ART, NFT’s, AUCTIONS and EXHIBITIONS.
These workshops will occur in our gallery space, in person and virtually. Interested, please email us at info@calabargallery.com
1. HARLEM MURALS BY CAM JOHN-MELENDEZ curated by Atim Annette Oton on Instagram
This photography project features the work of a wonderful 17 year old Harlem-based teenage who we hired to capture murals in Harlem. CALABAR GALLERY will like to send Cam off to college with first Art photography sales, please feel free to reach out to us. Images shown will be available to purchase from us at info@calabargallery.com
Cam John-Melendez is a 17-year-old Harlem native who is taking a gap year before attending Rochester Institute of Technology to major in Industrial Design. Cam enjoys drawing, exploring their neighborhood, and all things design.
"Working with Atim on this mural project has been one of the most fun and rewarding adventures they've ever had and they hope you all enjoy seeing Harlem's wonderful public art."
In the summer and fall of 2020, Cam photographed murals across Harlem for our Harlem Murals Project. We are pleased to say this experience had a profound effect on Harlem as Cam explored the streets from 125th to 160th and avenues from St Nicholas to the East River documenting the street artwork and murals of this neighborhood.
2. THE STREETS OF LAGOS WITH BIYI BANDELE, a photography project on Instagram. Biyi Bandele has been capturing the streets of Lagos daily. Curator Atim Annette Oton selected photographs and work is available for sale. Join us as we reintroduce the visual language of everyday Lagos and its people. Biyi Bandele is the director of feature film Half of a Yellow Sun (2013), based on the novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and starring Thandie Newton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and John Boyega for which he also wrote the screenplay. His television work includes Not Even God is Wise Enough, a BBC2 drama directed by Danny Boyle in 1994, and Bad Boys (BBC 2, 1996) starring Clive Owen. He wrote and directed two seasons of the MTV series Shuga. His 2nd feature Fifty premiered at the BFI London Film Festival in 2015. He recently directed and co-produced BBC feature documentary Fela. He is currently writing and directing an adaptation of Wole Soyinka's Death and The King's Horseman for Netflix.
3. THE STREETS OF HARLEM BY HAKIM MUTLAQ AND ITS PEOPLE. Longtime Harlem based photographer Hakim Mutlaq who is one of the few photographers chronicling events across this dynamic neighborhood. Hakim Mutlaq Inniss is a Trinidadian and Caribbean artist, who was educated at City College with a Biology degree; he has been a documentary photographer for more than 36 years and has captured the daily lives and events in the Black community especially Harlem. Mutlaq was the official photographer at Dr. Betty Shabazz’s funeral, and his work can be found in local newspaper pages of New York City from the Amsterdam News to the Daily News as well as nationally, the Associated Press publications cross the country. His work has been exhibited at the Schomburg, Kenkeleba Gallery, the Center for Justice at Columbia University, The Wilmer Jennings Gallery, Longwood Gallery and a number of other institutions.
CALABAR GALLERY ARTS RESIDENCY at BKLYN COMMONS
Calabar Gallery's first Arts Residency targeting BLACK ARTISTS IN BROOKLYN AND HARLEM, NEW YORK. CALABAR GALLERY ARTS RESIDENCY at BKLYN COMMONS, a 3 month residency, is now open and accepting applications - details are here.
