Kwamé Azure Gomez | Social Chromaticism | Guest curator chris d. reeder

*Daybed / Gemini Venus, Alternate title: “We’re after the same rainbow's end”,* 2024, Acrylic paint, modeling paste colored pencil, and spray paint on assembled canvas and upcycled pillowcase, 30 x 48 inches

The Riverside Arts Center’s Freeark Gallery is pleased to present Social Chromaticism, an exhibition of painting and assemblage by Kwamé Azure Gomez, guest curated by chris d. reeder.

Exhibition Dates: May 24 - June 22, 2024

Opening Reception: Friday, May 24 2024, 6:00 – 8:00 pm

Gallery Hours: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1:00 – 5:00 pm

Artist Talk: Sunday, June 23, 2024, 2:00pm

*Frequency of Touch (I bead clouds into your hair, you braid vowels into mine)*, 2023 Acrylic paint, spray paint, colored pencil, and oil on canvas, 75 x 60 inches

Abstraction transcends mere stylistic choice—it's a prism to explore the depths of color's social and ontological dimensions. Guided by intuition, each brushstroke relinquishes control to the divine system of creative expression, inviting us to delve into the interplay between surface and depth. In Kwamé Azure Gomez's work, this exploration extends beyond the visual realm, echoing Fred Moten’s notion of Blackness as a social relation and chromatic descriptor. Gomez's work beckons us to probe the sensation of color, going beyond appearance to investigate the implications of color on our very social experiences. Through a quotidian lens, the canvas becomes not just a site of aesthetic inquiry, but a space where the politics of color intersect with questions of identity, power, and sentimental experience.

As Moten suggests in his 2008 article “The Case of Blackness”, the color black exceeds the visual field, and in this legacy, Gomez's work invites us to consider the depths and impact of color beyond chromatic descriptors.In this exploration, the surface becomes a site of interrogation, a threshold where the exchange between the phenomenological category of color and the chromatic descriptor of color unfolds.

Gomez uses varying levels of opacity and transparency to create an evocative interplay, reminiscent of memory or fleeting moments. Figures emerge and recede, blurring the boundaries between presence and absence, visibility and invisibility. This manipulation of transparency serves as a note on visibility, and is informed by teachings by Art historian and professor Dr. Sampada Aranke and Fred Moten’s exploration of the visibility and invisibility of Blackness.

Moreover, Gomez's use of assemblage techniques further enriches the dialogue between surface and depth. Many works become a collage of physical pieces, assembled to evoke a sense of fragmented narratives and layered meanings. Within Kwamé's practice, the canvas becomes a liminal space where rituals of self reflection, reality, philosophical processing and imagination intertwine, reflecting the multifaceted nature of identity and experience. Here, color works as a social relation posed as an aesthetic question, inviting viewers to navigate the vibrant layers of meaning and connection embedded within each artwork.

As we explore the depths of Kwamé's art, may we engage in a deep investigation of the surfaces and epistemologies that shape our understanding of color and its material and affective implications on our social relations.

— chris d. reeder

*Swing low (To Freedom/ Shoulda never gave me a Pegasus)*, 2024, Acrylic paint, modeling paste colored pencil, and spray paint on ceramic tile on canvas and upcycled table placemat, 35 x 38 inches

In these works I explore personal rituals and ceremonies of self reflection, affirmation, intuitive guidance, free will and choice. These realizations and emotional responses to them are informed by my individual experiences and collective encounters. Mirroring the quotidian moments of my own sentimental restoration through color, texture, form and the figure/ non figure space as a formation of processing is a fundamental element within this presentation of works. Sitting with myself, feeling the arrangement of my breathing- closely examining my body’s sonic registers, dancing under a lover, surveying the tender worlds within and around me are namely a few of the anecdotes to finding center during high volumes of intensity.

I believe that these works do not solely operate simply as a means to remind or provide evidence of my material presence and existence to our contemporary social climate. I think to fully depend and place value on those kinds of optics over the intuitive voice inside me would be another way to deny my own self determination and evolution. In this space there is no convincing of my humanity to you- no persuasion. My humanity is an objective truth.

(The works) are really here to remind myself that I exist. That my experiences are real. That my tears, my laughter, my love, my pain is not invisible. They serve to convince me, to take my hand and help me recall my own free will with grace and compassion. Inspired by a shared interest in the abstraction of daily life, physics, divination, temporality, philosophy and human nature, these works operate both as temperamental present record and destined archive. Through their affect I am invested in what this conjures up for the viewer within their own interpersonal stasis. I understand that this is an invitation to enter my garden, but I’d like to enter yours too.

In experiencing derealization it is not an overstatement to say it’s easy to forget you exist. You add in a societal system that thrives on the constant suppression yet simultaneous exploitation of your image and you have a recipe for self censorship of the heart. These works are a contention for opacity. Before all else, a kaleidoscope into the depth of selfhood. An affirmation to continuously meet one’s self over and over again. To daily reintroduce every version of who you are to who you’ve been. To move always in favor of that reflection.

I view the indexical mark / gesture as proof of life.

As essential matter in the mystic augmentation of my narrative

My story

My life

I want to to encounter the fullness of my humanity In whatever form it eclipses me In the failure of trying to compartmentalize chaos I find beauty.

I want the viewers to walk away feeling held, to be reminded of the texture of their life. To give more meditative space and attention to their interior world. To consider the contents of their hearts, boundaries and needs. To take time to process, notice patterns and be present in the savoring of the everyday. To sit with discomfort, joy, pain and love- to know it’s okay to feel, and to feel deeply.

— Kwamé Azure Gomez

*Self Portrait of the artist as Man at the crossroads,* 2024, Acrylic paint, colored graphite on canvas, 11 x 8 inches

Kwamé Azure Gomez (b. 1999 Akron, OH) is a Chicago based interdisciplinary painter, and writer. Inspired by an interest in the abstraction of daily life, physics, temporality, entropy, divination philosophy and human nature, Gomez explores the personal rituals and ceremonies of self-reflection, affirmation, intuitive guidance, free will and choice. Gomez earned their MFA from the School of the Art Institute, Chicago and their BFA from the University of Akron. They received an Emerging Artist grant from New American Paintings and the following year was selected for New American Paintings MFA Issue 165. Gomez's work was featured in i-D Magazine for Cierra Britton’s group exhibition, A Color Story. Their work has been exhibited at New Image Art Gallery in West Hollywood, California; SoLA Contemporary in Los Angeles, CA; Stony Island Arts bank, Chicago, IL; Anthony Gallery Chicago, IL; and Dada Gallery, London, among others.

@_kwame.azuregomez

Atlanta-born on Creek and Cherokee land, chris d. reeder, is a scholar, curator, and arts administrator based in Chicago. Their academic journey through Spelman College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) was driven by a deep interest in Black feminist anthropology and Diasporic Studies. Investigating the intersection of culture, memory, and art, they interrogate the influence of visual expression on social consciousness. At Mariane Ibrahim, chris blends writing, research, and gallery administration, while their independent practice encompasses bookmaking, exhibitions, and public art projects.

@chrisdreeder