SKYLER HENRY

Kraft Fellow

ARTIST STATEMENT

“I live by the quote famously written by Oscar Wilde: ‘Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.’ In my pieces, I depict life as I interpret it. As a young black woman, a high school graduate from the south side of Chicago, and a current student of Howard University my work reflects the black experience. Through the use of wet and dry mediums such as chalk pastel, charcoal, water color, markers, and acrylic paint I am able to represent people, events, scenery, concepts and even ideologies. I take pride in the consistent contrast of cool and warm colors and the use of various shades and values that aid in adding depth and feeling to all of my drawings and paintings.

With influences like Kehinde Wiley, Kendall Robinson, and Kerry James Marshall, I aim to capture black experience from several different perspectives. It is my constantly evolving environment that serves as my greatest inspiration for my collection of varying pieces. My art lives to convey the importance of the black narrative to all people. I allow my pieces to be shared in hopes of inciting emotions from my audience that can eventually inspire the creation of even more art. It is my belief that so long as art does imitate life, life will imitate art in exchange.”