Forging a sense of place through art

“A Sense of Place: Contemporary African-American Art”

Beverly Buchanan, Willie Cole, Renee… “A Sense of Place: Contemporary African-American Art”

Beverly Buchanan, Willie Cole, Renee Stout, others

University Art Gallery

Frick Fine Arts Building, Schenley Plaza

412-648-2423

While exploring what it means to have a sense of place, six distinctive African-American artists share a gallery space in a unique exhibit at the University Art Gallery.

Located in the Frick Fine Arts Building on campus, the University Art Gallery is a showroom that is one of the lesser-known – but incomparable – assets at Pitt. Their current show, “A Sense of Place: Contemporary African-American Art,” runs through Dec. 9 and is one of the most interesting exhibits in the area this season.

The show explores what it means to have a sense of place in the African-American community in its various aspects. This could be interpreted as physical space or emotional and mental states experienced by black artists today. The artists featured are Beverly Buchanan, Willie Cole, Whitfield Lovell, Betye Saar, Renee Stout and Deborah Willis.

Beverly Buchanan grew up in South Carolina and, in spending time traversing the state with her father, she has always had a fascination with the homes of the very poor and rural families. As a photographer, sculptor and pastel artist, Buchanan’s work concentrates on the shacks that people still inhabit in the South. Her sharply focused photos of small, wooden shanties give a sense of the harsh way of life that faces the impoverished of the South. In contrast, her childlike drawings of cabins provide a more personal and imaginative perspective to living in poverty. Viewed together, one is able to realize that these are not just shacks in which people are forced to live, but people’s homes; Buchanan seems to ask the viewer to understand how such an unadorned dwelling could mean so much to someone.

Willie Cole’s most interesting contributions to the show are his sculptures. He creates modern links to an ancient heritage in his African roots by using an ironing board and decorating it to look like an African tribal shield, or by using black irons to form what looks like a carved wooden sculpture from Africa. He also uses art to make strong, physical connections to tribal traditions with many of the everyday activities people are likely to encounter in the present.

The life-sized charcoal portraits on wooden panels of Whitefield Lovell are at once haunting and enchanting. Lovell bases his characters on early 20th-century studio photographs he collects. For this show, he chose to make his pieces into installation art featuring other found objects he has collected from the period. While the portraits alone make one feel like they are looking back in time, his found objects eerily engage one in the past. All three of his pieces, such as a woman sitting in a chair with a real weaving loom in front of her, give off a strong spiritual connection and evoke a sense that those in his portraits still live on.

Betye Saar used silk-screen prints of Victorian women, and made small, fabric collages by placing them in abstract landscapes. Her work displays a very spiritual aspect and seems to portray the soul-searching that is necessary today for many African-American women. Her dissonant and ambiguous backgrounds against the well-dressed outer appearance of the women suggests there is something missing in society that sets people on a quest for spirituality.

A multi-medium artist, Renee Stout has extraordinary watercolor paintings, wooden sculptures and one installation. But her highly detailed paintings stand out the most. Easily mistakable for photographs, these paintings explore the shows theme in various aspects. From a neon sign in front of a homely diner to a letter and a piece of fruit on a table, the pieces are snapshots of what remind a person of a sense of belonging.

The photography of Debra Willis also explores place and community with a variety of techniques. One set of her pictures features abandoned “shotgun” houses. These houses, which were popular in the South after the abolition of slavery, were one room wide and three or four rooms deep – when the front and back door were open, a breeze could be carried throughout the entire house. She also has a collection of prints of women in beauty shops. By exploring different aspects of how African-Americans live, both in the past and present, Willis presents a vast assortment of images representing how a sense of place is formed.

In addition to the talent of the artists themselves, the exhibit has a dynamic that is due to an insightful presentation by curators Dr. Joyce Henri Robinson and Josienne N. Piller. Instead of separating the artists and giving each of them their own section, the artists share the space. The works are intertwined with one another and spread throughout the gallery. The organization is particularly effective with the theme and shows an integrated community of artists.

Whether you’ve looking for a change from the Warhol and the Mattress Factory or you just want to do something interesting without leaving Oakland, “A Sense of Place” certainly deserves a look.