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Featuring
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Artists
of Philadelphia Airbrush
Louis Massiah
Christian Michel
Tyeakia
Khalid Nasser
Pang Xiong Sirirathasuk Sikoun
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"Telling the Story: The Intersection of Art and Social History," an
exhibition that investigates the power of the visual image to heal wounds,
commemorate individuals and events, and document upheaval. Featuring
Louis Massiah, Christian Michel, artists from Philadelphia Airbrush,
Khalid Nasser, Pang Xiong Sirirathasuk Sikoun, and Tyeakia, the exhibition
includes art in a variety of media that chronicles moments in history
for public commemoration and private meditation.
Throughout
their city, the artists of Philadelphia Airbrush have produced In
Memory murals—large-scale memorial portraits depicting
the deceased with treasured possessions and framed by the names of family
and friends left behind. To the surrounding neighborhood, these murals
announce, in perpetuity, the tragedy of lives cut short.
Khalid
Nasser’s painted Timberland work boots also become emblems,
representing departed loved ones, describing political alliances, and
expressing social commentary on an intimate, wearable scale; messages,
both critical and celebratory, that literally walk through Philadelphia.
Tyeakia creates obsessively compiled collages that portray the learned,
the leaders, and the famous of the world and then laminates photocopies
of her works to pass out to neighborhood youth, passersby, visitors
to her studio, whoever may be interested. Although each collage highlights
someone of a distinct race or country, together these pieces form a
larger, unified whole that addresses our collective humanity.
Both Christian Michel and Pang Xiong Sirirathasuk Sikoun
recount, explicitly, the political events that shaped their lives, their
families, and their countries. Christian Michel’s realist paintings
illustrate political unrest in his native Haiti as well as his trepidation
at the prospect of emigration to the United States. Sikoun’s careful
and detailed traditional Hmong embroideries illustrate the horrors of
armed invasion, Cambodian displacement, and escape to a new country.
Louis Massiah’s film, The Bombing of Osage Avenue, tells
the story of Move. Massiah commits the event to celluloid history, creating
a woven narrative of facts and memories—exposing truths that continue
to affect not only that West Philadelphia neighborhood, but the city
at large.
Also on view in the Moore Atrium, from September 22 through October
1, “From Conflict to Peace” is an exhibition of mural reproductions
and photographs created by the Bogside artists of Derry, Northern Ireland.
Recounting “the troubles” of the 1960s, these powerful murals-originally
painted on the ends of housing blocks-seek to forge a path to reconciliation
through understanding.
On Wednesday, September 27, at 5:30 pm in the Moore Auditorium, the
gallery will host “Urban Exposures,” a panel discussion featuring Louis
Massiah, Philadelphia Airbrush artist Vincent Velez, Jr., Bogside muralist
Tom Kelly, and Matthew (Mattyboy) Hart of Spiral Q Puppet Theater to
discuss the political and social impact and implications of public art
created within the community. A reception, sponsored by the Bards Bar
and Restaurant-featuring Guinness Stout and Guinness Bread Pudding-follows
at 7:30 pm in the Moore Atrium. Admission to both the talk and reception
is free.
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