Lemon Pepper Steppers, Part 2 (Set of 2)
No Longer Available
Completed
2023
Medium
Chalk, acrylic on black archival paper
Dimensions
72" x 40", 74" x 48"
Description
My work explores themes of rest, privacy, and supplementing the archive as a way of advocating and claiming space for Black bodies that are historically excluded from it. Utilizing the internet as an infinite source of archival samples, I collect iconography and anecdotes from the shared experiences of people of color to construct and preserve alternative historical and personal narratives. Often incorporating a black-and-white Chalkboard aesthetic, which plays on concepts of learning and teaching, I analyze mainstream media to identify problematic perspectives and their origins, question the legitimacy of such perspectives, and offer possible solutions in my work. Recent large-scale drawings depict Black bodies in acts of leisure, at play, and in repose, as a means of opting out of stereotypically portraying Black bodies in various scenes of trauma, pain or over-sexualization. Often accompanied by comic-style graphic illustrations that allude to desired and imagined environments and context, I give my subjects the rest and privacy they are entitled to, even while on display; reflecting the longing to achieve this for my community, my family and myself in everyday life.
About this Artist
Chris Friday
Chris Friday is a multidisciplinary artist based in Miami. Her work serves as both a contemplative reflection of and counter-narrative to the pervasive under/misrepresentations of Blackness in mainstream media and popular culture. Friday’s portfolio features large-scale works on paper, murals, video, ceramics, projections, photography, comic illustrations, and social practice/activism through curating. Friday’s work has been included in exhibitions locally, nationally, and internationally, including recent solo exhibitions such as “Good Times” curated by Laura Novoa and presented at Oolite Arts (2023), “One More River” presented at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, and her work as part of “The Cartography Project” presented by the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. (2022). Friday has received numerous awards, fellowships, and grants, including being a South Arts Southern Prize and State fellowship recipient for the State of Florida (2023), receiving a Knight Foundation “Knights Champion” support grant (2022), a “The Ellies” Creator award from Oolite Arts (2021), the…
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