Kwaku Osei!
- Archive Space
- October 11th, – November 6th 2012
- Reception: Second Thursday, October 11th 6-9pm
- Wed-Sat. 12-6pm
- Free & Open To The Public
All Black Everything is a series dedicated to re-approaching the symbolic use of the color black. These works of art are meant to be a tool of contrast. It is perceived often that black holds a demonic, evil, or negative connotation, but by using bright, glossy, vibrant colors, the images allow for a discussion of redefinition. Black as a tool of internal conflict seems to excite most with its alluring mystery and unavoidable pull. Black is an asset to our visual perception of depth, thus the shadow. Its otherness exemplifies color like streetlights at night and its soils provide the richest ground for the most opulent fruits of knowledge.
Blackness in itself is the final frontier, the universe beyond our eyes, the unknown unknown. Its mere presence heightens the illusionary qualities of our reality. Rembrandt’s, Goya’s, and Yiadom- Boakye’s, use of black has an alerting dominance that seduces light, intertwining the two in an enchanting dance. Darkness can morph subjects into enigmatical objects. This distorted breaching of one world into another has an uncanny ability to block out indicators of time and space. This series aims to manifest a gravitational field so intense, that no matter or gaze can escape.
The picture plane has always been a figurative place of emptiness, the bottomless pit of the soul. It is the measurement of volume where infinity exceeds the confines of logic. The variances of materials, evocative marks, and ambiguous characters are messages of a cultural subtext that sustains a problematic essence within our demographic construct. When blackness is fully grown, its objective as the absence of light is to consume definitions by speaking an unspeakable language while searching blindly for the ideal. All Black Everything proposes destruction for reinstruction.
“My work is vicariously impulsive, where the illusion of space is reflected within the picture plan. These
shapes and angles speak through symbolism and visual metaphors. As I absorb the environment around,
my approach and execution changes stylistically to adapt.” Kwaku Osei
