Opening reception: Amy Sherald and Carlos Rolón/Dzine

Opening Saturday June, 11th in the gallery Amy Sherald: A Wonderful Dream on the wall Carlos Rolón/Dzine Reception with the artists 4-7pm Following her much lauded inclusion in our 2015 summer group show, 'Look At Me Now!', moniquemeloche is pleased to present the first solo exhibition by our newest gallery artist, Amy Sherald. In 'A Wonderful Dream', Sherald employs race to explore the evolution of one’s identity as a reaction to external directives. Born in Georgia in 1973 and now based in Baltimore, she credits her early years negotiating as a minority in a mostly white community as a major influence on her practice. Inspired by artists such as Bo Bartlett, Barkley Hendricks, and Kerry James Marshall, she paints dynamic portraits, designed to divulge an erudite understanding of the psychological consequences of stereotyping and racism. Each portrait depicts a friend or acquaintance of the artist, suspended in vivid fashions before a non-descript background, which Sherald describes as “the amorphous personal space of my own existence within the context of black identity and my search for ways to clarify and ground it.” To add to the otherworldliness, skin tone is rendered only in shades of gray, made by mixing Naples yellow and black oil paint. Ever critical of African American cultural history and the representation of black bodies, the series is Sherald’s satirical manifestation of identities shaped by political, social, economic, and cultural influences. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Melding painting, sculpture, and found objects, Carlos Rolón/Dzine’s art practice explores the ways in which culture, both popular and historic, influences the public and private spaces that we inhabit. As a first-generation immigrant of Puerto Rican decent, Rolón creates work that questions the concepts of luxury and craft-making to explore issues of identity, integration and aspiration. In a new site-specific installation, produced for the gallery’s on the wall project space for the summer of 2016, Rolón re-creates the communal atmosphere of an urban barbershop. Through appropriated signage, commercial lighting, and the artist’s own mirror paintings, the gallery’s street-facing façade evokes the variety of customers that enter a barbershop, seeking kinship while also carving out their own personas. Rolón will also exhibit his three-channel video, Bladez of Glory, in the gallery’s porcelain projects viewing space. Named after the local barbershop where it was filmed, this short documentary tells the multifaceted accounts of stylists and patrons alike, scrutinizing their commitment to both distinction and community. The film was commissioned by Oakland University and directed by renowned filmmaker Joey Garfield. Additionally, a vintage barber chair in the gallery’s backroom will facilitate custom fades from local hair artists, in a series of interactive performances throughout the duration of the exhibition - dates TBD. Through his installation, video and peformances, Rolón’s intention is to “introduce the Barber as artist/sculptor and how the barbershop creates a home and safe-haven to allow for freedom of expression.”