July 8 - September 10, 2022
From the Houston Museum of African American Culture:
“The Houston Museum of African American Culture (HMAAC) is proud to announce David-Jeremiah: Early Career Survey, an exhibition of the Dallas-based artist’s work which spans a brief three-year period beginning with the series Hamborghini Rally in 2019, and culminating with the most recently exhibition of paintings from his I Drive Thee series in Dallas. The show is curated by HMAAC’s Chief Curator, Christopher Blay and marks Blay’s first exhibition with HMAAC. From 2019 – 2022, the years that cover David-Jeremiah (DJ)’s exhibition history, the artist has had no fewer than nine solo exhibitions including A Watermelon’s History is Niggas, at Project Row Houses in Houston. David-Jeremiah: Early Career Survey pieces together works from the artist’s series Hamborghini Rally, I Drive Thee, Hood Niggas Campin’, Kalder, G’ordiavonte Fold, the Acronym paintings, and individual works I Heart Micah, and his rarely seen Self Portrait. DJ reflects on the frenetic pace of his growing body of work. “Hamborghini Rally was my first painting series, and it was exactly what it was supposed to be,” DJ stated. “It was during my ‘Staycation’ (the artist spent four years in prison) that I became a conceptual artist, because the physical was very limited, and the material was very limited, so I had to internalize and flesh out concepts. When I came out, I had composition notebooks full
of bodies of work, and that’s why I have been able to execute the work versus experimenting and contemplating.” This exhibition, so early in an artist’s career, is a demonstration of trust in the artist’s work, and true to HMAAC’s commitment to sharing the works of artists with extreme promise who are well on their way to becoming a big part of the national and international conversations around contemporary art. In the April issue of Artforum magazine, art critic Michael Corris writes “The depth and authority of David-Jeremiah’s entire practice stems from its origins in lived experience, in a lifeworld ingeniously portrayed through a sensitive and resourceful intertwining of medium and content.” “I have followed David-Jeremiah’s work since before the beginning of his studio practice, when he was a performance artist,” said HMAAC’s Chief Curator Blay. “It is from the same visceral force and urgency that his paintings and sculptures are born. Thoughtful, instinctive, and absorbing of the entire light spectrum of the human experience to break down, if conceptually, what it sometimes means to be Black in America.” David-Jeremiah (b. 1985, Oak Cliff, TX) is a conceptual multidisciplinary artist based in Dallas TX. He is a recipient of the 2020 Nasher Sculpture Center Artist Grant Award. His previous solo exhibitions include, Project Row Houses, Houston, 12.26 Gallery, Dallas, Von Ammon Co.,Washington D.C., Gallery Kendra Jayne Patrick at Halsey McKay Gallery, East Hampton, Anonymous, New York, Meliksetian / Briggs, L.A., Public Trust, Dallas, and Janette Kennedy Gallery, Dallas. This summer, David-Jeremiah will also present his inverted-performance installation FOGA at Cultural D.C. David-Jeremiah: Early Career Survey is generously sponsored by the Houston Endowment, HEB, and the Board of Directors of the Houston Museum of African American Culture.”
Reception: July 9, 2022 | 12–2 am
Houston Museum of African American Culture
4807 Caroline St.
Houston, TX
(713) 353-1578
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