Over the past four years, more than 60 artists from 15 countries have participated in the Black Rock Senegal residency project, founded by former President Barack Obama’s official portrait artist Kehinde Wiley. The artists — some have hailed from North Carolina — spend one to three months engaging with Senegalese artists and learning of the coastal country’s history, traditions and culture.
Officials with the Harvey B. Gantt Center of African-American Arts and Culture collaborated with Wiley to share the artwork of some of the residents in a new exhibition that opened at the center this month. It was curated by Dexter Wimberly. From his home base in Japan, Wimberly talks to WFAE’s Gwendolyn Glenn about the exhibition, titled “Becoming the Sea.”
Dexter Wimberly: The title "Becoming the Sea' was something that I developed after looking at all of the artists that we were going to put in the exhibition, and I started seeing a bit of a theme in the works that had been selected for the show that wasn't actually intentional. There was a recurrence of water fluidity. The color blue seemed to really be something that I was seeing quite frequently in the works. I was also thinking about the relationship between the ocean and communication, and how the Atlantic Ocean has played such an important part in the history of African and African American people.
Glenn: And how many artists are in this?
Wimberly: There are 12 artists in the exhibition that come from different parts of the world, not just artists from the U.S., or from African countries, but also artists from different cultures that are also in the exhibition. I mean, most of the artists in the exhibition are Black artists. There's painting, there's sculpture, there's photography, there's video, there's installation — which, sort of, encompasses, like, mixed media works.
Glenn: Now, you mentioned that common theme of water. And being in Senegal, the water that's there and also the castles where kidnapped Africans were transported and put on ships for the U.S. — did you see any of that kind of influence in their works as well?
Wimberly: Yes, there's an artist in the exhibition, Nona Faustine, whose photography in the show was actually created in Dakar. She, as an artist, has really become known for engaging with the history of slavery, the history of Black people in America. She took photographs of herself in some of these really charged and emotional locations in Dakar that have sort of a deep connection to the slave trade and also these places that I think are very emotional to see and visit.
Glenn: Now, one other artist uses the water, fish and color so brilliantly. And one of her pieces is in the entrance to the exhibition.
Wimberly: Sure, that's Grace Lynne Haynes. She is originally from California, but she lives and works in New York City. And those works that you're referring to were actually created for the exhibition. And her works really do connect back to this theme around water because, you know, I didn't give her any direction or influence on these works. They were purely from her own imagination and desire. But when I saw them coming into existence, it really solidified for me that water and the sea was really a common theme.
Glenn: And the exhibition is a mixture of — from paintings to that quilt that seemed to have attracted a lot of people when I was there.
Wimberly: Yeah. You're referring to works by an artist named Heather Jones, who works with textile and quilting and patterns. When I selected her work for the show, this was before there was a title, before I had seen most of the other artists' works as well. And it just so happens that when you look at her works in the context of the show, "Becoming the Sea," you start to imagine that work as sails. They feel very nautical. You look at the patterns within the quilt and you see those triangles, which again remind me of flags that you might see on a ship.
Glenn: It had to be hard to decide who you wanted in this show. What were you looking for?
Wimberly: I'm always looking for work that either I think will evoke an emotional response from the viewer or works that I think are so well executed that it evokes an intellectual response from the viewer. So, it's like I'm looking for one or the other.
Glenn: And that goes with my next question: What's the message here? What do you want people to take away once they have seen the exhibition?
Wimberly: I think, for me, the most important takeaway from this show is that there is such a great diversity of artists in the world who are working in so many different disciplines. And I think it's really important to remember that you haven't seen it all. There's so much to discover. There's so much to uncover. I'm always excited about showing people artwork that might have an effect on how they think about themselves and how they think about the world. So that's, like, the biggest takeaway. It's like, just have an open mind — an open mind to adventure and to new experiences.
"Becoming the Sea’" will be on display through Jan. 20, 2025, at the Harvey B. Ganter Center for African-American Arts and Culture. Wimberly says it is the first of a series of exhibitions that will come from collaborations between the Gantt Center and the Black Rock Senegal project in Dakar in the near future.
