Press
Pressing Matters Issue 12
The slower pace of things and spending more time in your own company can sometimes feel daunting, however printmakers are in a unique position to reflect these emotions in their art. The print community has also come together offering its support to the Black Lives Matter movement – be it through the free use of Riso printing or placard making at letterpress workshops. Print has always found itself a key means of mass communication, even in a more digital age. US printmaker Jamaal Barber discusses with Tanekeya Word the complexities of black as a colour and Black as a culture and how he infuses his work with impact and authenticity.
Pine Copper Lime Podcast Episode 17
In this episode of pine|copper|lime Miranda speaks with Jamaal Barber: printmaker, curator, collaborator, podcast host, grad student, husband, and father. Barber offers his insights into what it takes to become a successful artist, his own personal story of taking the leap from weekend art fairs to full-time artists, and his print practice making work about all aspects of black life in America. He also gives us a look into this current exhibition 400: A Collective Flight of Memory (on display in the Aviation Community Culture Center in Atlanta through 15 July 2019) in which Barber has collaborated with 22 artists as a reflection on the collective black experience during the 400 years since the first slave ships arrived off the coast of Virginia in 1619.
400: A Collective Flight of Memory
In a 1619 letter to the treasurer of the Virginia Company of London, Jamestown colonist John Rolfe recorded the arrival of “20. and odd negroes” off the coast of Virginia. You can go to the beach where the ships arrived and stand in the same sand under the same sky and look at the same ocean that those enslaved Africans witnessed. There is a timelessness to that moment. There is a connection to a cultural memory that has been passed down. Now it is 2019. I want to discuss the black American experience, but it is not my story to tell alone. The exhibition 400: A Collective Flight of Memory was first shown in Atlanta, Georgia, and made in conversation and collaboration with black artists of the diaspora.
“400” exhibit recalls “20 and odd negroes,” underscores centuries of black resilience
400: A Collective Flight of Memory, on view through July 15, is an exhibition about the present as much as the past. The title represents the number of years since “20 and odd negroes” landed on the shores of Virginia in 1619. Atlanta printmaker Jamaal Barber, whose portfolio centers on black identity, conceptualized the exhibition around the anniversary. But he knew his voice alone couldn’t tell the many stories of the black experience.
Studio Noize Podcast
Studio Noize Podcast brings you into the studio with the Black artists that are creating the culture. We highlight the techniques, practices, and inspirations of the very best in contemporary Black art. New episodes available every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts.