“Black is Beautiful” Exhibit at Art Angels

Art Angels Los Angeles hosted “Black is Beautiful,” a month-long group exhibition, featuring artists who recently had the spotlight on them at Micah’s Aku World experience at Art Basel; Micah’s Aku World was a large-scale NFT experience based on Aku, who made the leap at Art Basel from the digital world to our analog world (not unlike a reversal of the Metaverse).

Art Angels showcases the work of Micah Johnson, Jade Yasmeen, Floyd Strickland, and Asiko. From mixed media, Art Angels gives viewers an opportunity to connect with a range of emotions from self-reflective to inspired.

Micah Johnson:

Johnson presents never-before-seen content at this exhibition, though he could just as easily rest on his laurels with his digital bulwark. Storytelling at Art Angels through portraits, the portrait subjects seem to be both feeling and defiant of social barriers and pressures which lie ahead. Hopeful and fearless, Johnson’s subjects channel Johnson’s ambition.

Jade Yasmeen:

Yasmeen’s skillful work couples with oversized portraits; while there is nothing impressionist about her realist work, Yasmeen does impress upon us true weight and significance of her subjects. Through Harriet Tubman and Mae Jemison, Yasmeen leads us back into time and stitches it linearly to communicate to the viewer how one enabled another.

Floyd Strickland:

Strickland literally creates that which he said he’d missed growing up – representation. With attention to coming-of-age stories through portraiture, Strickland broadcasts a loss of innocence in the inner city, a narrative which is starkly underrepresented in galleries across the world.

Asiko:

A photographer by trade, Asiko gracefully leads us to the intersection of African culture and womanhood. Drawing from his own upbringing, Asiko chaperones us to between reality and fantasy through portraits of Yoruba women.

While the subjects and narratives of the artwork may be familiar or strike chords with history, somehow the mixed media makes the stories seem unfamiliar and even….contemporary. A portion of proceeds from this exhibition were donated to Black Girls Code Charity, an organization which supports young women of color to develop computer programming and technology skills as way into the tech marketplace. 

What:

“Black is Beautiful” exhibit

Where:

Art Angels Los Angeles

9020 Beverly Blvd.

West Hollywood, CA 90048