A special thank you to Atiya Dorsey, who curated Diasporic Connections!
In the galleries: Artists offer social commentary on Black migrations
Also: The thread connecting pre-colonial African and contemporary Black aesthetics, an artist examines ecological destruction, and creative interpretations of Black celebrities and pop-culture icons
"NAACP — “You Are My Starship” by Maurice James Jr. in the show "Diasporic Connections" at Studio Gallery. (Maurice James Jr.)
“African cultures, whether traditional or contemporary, underlie two exhibitions at neighboring Washington venues. Studio Gallery’s “Diasporic Connections” presents the diverse work of six Washington artists of African heritage, some of them just a generation removed from the continent. Meanwhile, Nigeria-born Oluwatoyin Tella is showing paintings and other works at IA&A at Hillyer, also the site of an arboreal show by George Lorio.
“Diasporic Connections” is dominated by the painting and sculpture of Chidinma Dureke, who was born in D.C. to parents of Nigerian descent. Also outstanding are the digital collages of Maurice James Jr., who uses found imagery to reimagine the place of African Americans in U.S. history.
The other four artists selected by curator Atiya Dorsey contribute just a few works. Chuckwunonso Angel Dureke (Chidinma’s sister) offers a video study of the Cameroon-born operator of a local hair-braiding salon. Two indigo-dyed canvases of reversed human figures demonstrate Bakari Akinyele’s mastery of fabric techniques from places as distant as Ghana and South Korea. Kluse’s photographs, mostly street scenes, are printed as transparencies to give a sense of depth and motion. Lew is represented by a single painting of the street signs at Ninth and U streets NW, an intersection that marks the area known as “Little Ethiopia.”
Peak CAN by Chidinma Dureke
Little Ethiopia by Lew
Madonna and Child by Chidinma Dureke
Love is Kind! by Kluse
Get A Grip by Chuckwunonso Angel Dureke
Chidinma Dureke paints realist portraits, some of which convey cultural identity by incorporating Nigerian consumer products. The woman in “Madonna and Child” cradles not a baby but a can of custard powder. Among Dureke’s sculptures are Warhol-like oversize models of such processed-food packages as a box of sugar cubes and a can of evaporated milk. The latter wryly riffs on the popular notion that you are what you eat by including a nutrition information panel that’s not for the milk. It’s for people: a DNA breakdown of mixed African and European heritage.
Where Dureke enshrines mass-market products, James smartly adapts vintage graphics to devise alternate histories. In a poster extolling space exploration, he combines the logos of two very different organizations to concoct the National Association for the Aeronautic Colored People. A mid-20th-century rail-travel poster and the insignia for London’s Underground rail system are combined in a placard that alludes to both the Underground Railroad and the Great Migration. In James’s reinvented past, Black America is confidently on the move, whether to Chicago or the moon.”
Diasporic Connections is on view through Jan. 27 at Studio Gallery, 2108 R St. NW. studiogallerydc.com. 202-232-8734
Review by Mark Jenkins, The Washington Post, January 2024. Thank you!