Untitled (BLCK-We wear the mask)

PAMM

“Untitled (BLCK–We wear the mask)” is part of a series of multimedia works that Miami-based artist Adler Guerrier created in 2007-2008 in the guise of “BLCK”—a fictitious collaborative comprised of artists of color ostensibly based in Miami in the late 1960s. ?

Guerrier imagines the group’s members living and working amid the warehouses and apartment complexes of Liberty City, a predominantly African American neighborhood that appears in a set of monochromatic photographs that hang on the wall. A monitor on the floor plays vintage video footage, establishing the tumultuous 1960s as the context. Against the wall are black-on-black wood protest signs and collaged prints inscribed with powerful yet hard to read messages jumbled with abstract imagery. ?

Combining the poetry of Paul Lawrence Dunbar, a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the artist’s own meditations, the signs and the accompanying prints evoke artifacts from an era that brimmed with public demand for radical change, reminiscent of our own moment. #ShareBlackStories?

Adler Guerrier. “Untitled (BLCK-We wear the mask),” 2007–08. Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, museum purchase. © Adler Guerrier

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Installation view from Adler Guerrier : Formulating a Plot, Pérez Art Museum Miami, August 7, 2014 – January 25, 2015. Photo: Courtesy of Miami Fine Art Studio LHOOQ.

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[CEAM] Wander and Errancies, Q&A

Director of the Crisp-Ellert Art Museum, Julie Dickover, joined Flagler’s Spring 2020 Artist in Residence, Adler Guerrier, for a conversation and Q&A regarding his exhibition, Wander and Errancies. Conversation took place on Wednesday, April 22, 3:00 – 4:00pm, via zoom. 68 minutes. Video is closed-captioned.

Taiso Yoshitoshi

Taiso Yoshitoshi
Taiso Yoshitoshi

Left: Kenshin Watches Geese in the Moonlight
General Kenshin, a brilliant strategist, watches geese and successfully changes battle plans based on their formation.

Right: Gamo Sadahide’s Servant, Toki Motosada, Hurls a Demon King to the Ground at Mount Inohana
Motosada sees phantoms cavorting, and one possesses a wooden temple guardian. He grapples with the guardian, and when he throws it down, the apparitions vanish.

Brave Warriors and Fantastic Tales: The World According to Yoshitoshi

January 15–May 31, 2020.

UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

Among the last great ukiyo-e artists of Meiji Japan, Taiso Yoshitoshi (1839–1892) reigned supreme for his daring prints based on various tales and legends of ancient Japan and China. He made use of Western colors and inks for dramatic effect, yet stayed loyal to the woodblock print techniques that had guided past masters. In his short life, he created numerous series exploring a multiplicity of themes related to Japan’s rich history. In Brave Warriors, legendary warriors of Japan come to life to bring honor to themselves and their masters. In One Hundred Aspects of the Moon, exquisitely attired men and women are cast as theatrical players in settings that evoke melancholy, romance, and bravery. Fantastic creatures inhabit his series known as Thirty-Six Ghosts, featuring figures that both frighten and amuse the viewer with their dramatic design.

This exhibition is made possible through a generous gift from Fernàn Franz Steiner, whose donation of his personal collection of prints greatly enhances the BAMPFA holdings of nearly two thousand woodblock prints.