Studio Gallery is delighted to announce its new Christenberry Fellows, Kadeem Morris and Elizabeth Beach. The fellowship is named for the late William Christenberry, an artist best known for his haunting vision of the American South, as well as an educator and mentor at the Corcoran College of Art and Design. These artists are the next installation of a rich legacy of over 2,000 other artists, both locally and internationally recognized. Beach and Morris have been selected to participate in this annual fellowship that aims to showcase the talent of local emerging artists by providing the funds necessary for the gallery’s dues and the opportunity to forgo the usual jurying process.
Kadeem Morris embodies the feeling of in-between, through a childhood split between Jamaica and the United States, as well as an individual that borders on the cusp of Gen Z and Millennial. Morris is a photographer, weaving together the personal and distant as a means of understanding the mundane patterns that build into the blinding rush of the contemporary rat-race. Morris’ “Mourning” depicts a young man standing alone amongst a rush of mourners, his back to the viewer. Rain on his suit jacket and the surrounding faces and foliage provide a framework for how the viewer may guess his expression conveys.
Kadeem Morris, Mourning. 2018. Film photograph. Click to enlarge image.
Elizabeth Beach utilizes meditation disciplines to hone her ability to translate mental images of sound and music onto her canvas. Music meets meditation on Beach’s canvas, as she allows the rhythm and profile of the sound shape the ultimate outcome. The result is a dynamic, layered image that seemingly invites the viewer to sway along to the music that inspires its movements. Beach often utilizes the colors present in the musician’s album covers or videos, which is quite effective in capturing a song’s energy; mysterious purples and lush greens cool down zealous yellows and pinks in Beach’s “She Ain’t You.”
Elizabeth Beach, She Ain’t You. 2018. Acrylic paint on canvas. Click image to enlarge.
From staff contributor Tori Swiacki.