Reimagining Our Hometowns Wkshp w/ New Wave artist Kirk Henriques(Ages 6+)

600 South Rosemary Avenue,West Palm Beach FL 33401

16 December, 2022

Description

New Wave artist-in-residence Kirk Henriques will lead workshop participants on an artistic adventure to reimagine the local community that brings us together, free from racial barriers. Participants will be invited to use a map of West Palm Beach as a template to artistically express their vision for the community using watercolor, chalk, and colored pencils. Guests will be encouraged to share and discuss their creations in a safe space at the end of the workshop. This event is free to the public and all materials will be provided. This event is open to guests ages 6+. About the Incredible Artist: Kirk Henriques will be in residence at The Square from November 2022 - January 2023. Kirk Henriques is a painter whose rich work combines figuration and abstraction to examine landscapes, time, and memory with strong reference to Black people in relation to identity, space and the balances of societal structure and its inequities. He received his BFA from Savannah College of Art and Design and MFA from Cornell University. He has had solo exhibitions at Charles Moffett in NYC, Unrepd in Los Angeles, The Millbrook School in Hudson Valley, NY, and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art in Ithaca, NY. His work has also been included in group shows at the San Francisco Art Institute, Kavi Gupta Gallery, the New York Academy of Art, and Bridget Donahue. Artist Statement: As a painter, I devote my studio to explore figuration and abstraction as an investigation into landscapes, time and memory. My work investigates power structures embedded in the construction and definition of spatial and temporal narratives. Each space has its own protocols and constructs that are in opposition to blackness. How do black people take up space? How are rhythm, posture and style an integral part of how black people explore/define/craft their own being or assert their presence? How we look and who’s looking creates a reliance on visual perceptions that define who we are as social beings. This power dynamic allows those who hold the most power within society to exercise control over others by dominating the visual representations while simultaneously creating a fictional narrative of those who lack power. My paintings jolt the viewer out of their comforting assumptions, perspectives and perceptions. I create new visual terms by challenging expectations of what the figure should be that includes at times forcibly ripping, cutting, and layering my works. The surfaces of my paintings are not perfect or pristine, rather they are built up and then scraped down. For me this process is a metaphor for resilience; it is my personal experience of resourcefulness, of using scraps to make something whole and new. My use of unconventional materials is a way to challenge traditional painting and expand on my personal and historical narratives. I intentionally explore lyrical marks, which explore tension between the social psyche of the figure and the formal expressiveness of the work. Thus creating an intersection where the formal and the conceptual elements of the work feed each other. Much of black people in film and Western art have been defined visually in three small boxes: enslaved, in servitude, or impoverished. It is my intention with whom I paint and the surfaces I paint on, as a way to negate this singular story and limited point of view. I use my authorship of visual representation as a form of resistance through the exploration of how figures navigate visible and obscure obstacles on their way to liberation. Follow at: @rohisreadery and @newwaveartwknd This program is produced in collaboration with Rohi's Readery on the occasion of empowering educational programming. The mission of Rohi's Readery is to provide educational programming accessibility to all through the love of critical literacy and the talents and gifts of the community. Thus, programming is FREE (paid for by Rohi's Readery) unless otherwise stated on the specific event site. Donations are appreciated and will go back into Revolutionary Educational Programming. Venmo @rohisreadery