{"id":20080,"date":"2025-06-27T21:25:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T21:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/20080\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T21:25:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T21:25:13","slug":"in-a-baltimore-exhibition-the-transformative-potential-of-todays-griots-emerges-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/20080\/","title":{"rendered":"In a Baltimore Exhibition, the Transformative Potential of Today’s Griots Emerges \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stories have long helped us to understand the world and our place within it. For the western Sahel in West Africa, storytellers known as griots<\/a> are often responsible for sharing oral histories and local legends. As generations pass and culture shifts, griots add onto the narratives they\u2019ve inherited with contemporary details relevant to their audiences.<\/p>\n

A group exhibition curated by Noel Bedolla and Ky Vassor at Galerie Myrtis<\/a> gathers a dozen international artists continuing this tradition. Emergence: Stories in the Making presents \u201ca mirror to contemporary society\u201d by positing that the narratives we tell play a critical role in collective experiences, acts of solidarity, and ultimately, societal progress.<\/p>\n

\"aKachelle Knowles, \u201cQueen\u2019s College\u201d (2025), graphite, decorative paper, colored pencils, thread, charcoal, acrylic paint, ink, acrylic gemstones, marker on paper, 28 x 18 inches. Image courtesy of the artist, Galerie Myrtis, and Tern Gallery<\/p>\n

For Alanis Forde, imagining paradise and its trappings is a way to excavate questions about internal conflict. She often paints figures with blue masks and bodies, the vibrant disguises becoming proxies that allow the artist to merge her likeness with a fictive version of herself. Subverting the art historical and cultural representations of Black women<\/a> \u201cas objects of pleasure and servitude,\u201d Forde shapes an alternative narrative.<\/p>\n

Kachelle Knowles works in a parallel practice. Through mixed-media portraits with patterned paper, thread, and acrylic gems, the Bahamian artist focuses on Black teenagers and asserts their rights to fluid gender expressions.<\/p>\n

While portraits feature prominently in Emergence, Kim Rice\u2019s \u201cAmerican Quilt\u201d invokes the politics of the body without visualizing a figure. Her large-scale tapestry is comprised of maps distributed by the Home Owners\u2019 Loan Corporation<\/a>, the defunct federal agency responsible for delineating which neighborhoods were too \u201chazardous\u201d to receive mortgages in a racist process known as redlining. Stitched together with red thread, \u201cAmerican Quilt\u201d makes explicit the ways that \u201cwhiteness is woven into our everyday lives,\u201d Rice says.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in Baltimore, see Emergence: Stories in the Making through July 12.<\/p>\n

\"aAlanis Forde, \u201cGarden Gloves\u201d (2024), oil on canvas, 40 x 40 inches<\/p>\n

\"aKim Rice, \u201cAmerican Quilt\u201d (2025), HOLC \u201credlining\u201d maps, acrylic gel, thread, 10 x 11 feet. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering<\/p>\n

\"aKim Rice, \u201cAmerican Quilt\u201d (2025), HOLC \u201credlining\u201d maps, acrylic gel, thread, 10 x 11 feet. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering<\/p>\n

\"aKim Rice, \u201cAmerican Quilt\u201d (2025), HOLC \u201credlining\u201d maps, acrylic gel, thread, 10 x 11 feet. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering<\/p>\n

\"aUnyime Edet, \u201cSpirit To Spirit: The Night Watchers\u201d (2024), oil on canvas, 55 x 59 inches<\/p>\n

\"aDamilare Jaimu, \u201cAll Things Bloom\u201d (2025), oil and acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches<\/p>\n

Do stories and artists like this matter to you?<\/strong> Become a Colossal Member<\/a> now, and support independent arts publishing.<\/p>\n