ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Welancora Gallery is proud to present BEHOLD, featuring work by Oasa DuVerney, Sana Musasama, Komikka Patton, Roberto Visani and Chris Watts from October 2, 2021 – January 31, 2022. Through personal and collective memories and lived experiences, the exhibition examines alternative ways to interrogate notions of Blackness through work that is either devoid of the figure or, where the figure is present, the gaze is cued away from the body.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Oasa DuVerney signals elements from nature, including waves, snakes and mountains to explore the ways in which Black power and Black bodies exist in contemporary society. Most of DuVerney’s work is social and political commentary that relates to her social status as a

woman of color and as a working-class person. Her works are mainly figurative drawings, specifically graphite on paper. DuVerney received her B.F.A from the Fashion Institute of Technology, and her M.F.A from Hunter College. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Selected exhibitions, residencies and media include: BLACK POWER WAVE, BRIC, Brooklyn, NY (2019); 2019 Women To Watch, NMWA (2019); TV Guide Spring/Break Art Show, United Nations Plaza NYC (2019); Something To Say, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn NY (2018); The Window and the Breaking of the Window, Studio Museum in Harlem, NYC (2016); The Brooklyn Biennial II, BRIC, Brooklyn, NY (2016); Through A Glass Darkly, Postmasters Gallery, NYC (2012); Rush Philanthropic Foundation Artist Residency (2016), Smack Mellon Studio Artist Residency (2014-2015); LMCC Workspace Residency (2012-2013); Brooklyn Foundation Grant (2016); The Guardian UK, UK (2019), The Independent, UK (2016), Hyperallergic (2015, 2016), The Guardian UK,UK (2015), Palestine News Network (2013), and The New York Times (2012, 2011).

Sana Musasama is an African-American ceramic and mixed-media artist based in New York City. Her work touches on themes related to tribal adornment practices in various indigenous cultures, and the safety of women. In We were there, 1993 from her Maple Trees series, Musasama draws inspiration from the Maple Tree Movement, which was started in the 1790s by a group of abolitionists. The group advocated ending the need for slave labor to fuel the sugar cane industry on West Indian sugar plantations, by replacing it with syrup from maple trees. Made using various clay bodies that resemble trees with organic and bodily extensions of stone, beads and moss, the work is scaled to the human body ranging in size from 3.5 to over 5 feet.