Maya Vivas / Santigie & Sapata Fofana Dura

Black Matter: Sculpture

Curated by Tammy Jo Wilson

March 4th – 31st, 2022

The exhibition Black Matter showcases contemporary Oregon-based black artists in an effort to address an imbalance in representation.  Their voices should be heard, not because they are black, because they are human beings with unique life experiences.  It is essential to lift up the contributions of black artists above systematic oppression in life and in art.  Black artists should be recognized as individuals, without the filter of what the Western art canon tells us black art is or should be.  The artists in this exhibition are all important black and African artists living and working here in Oregon.  The artwork in this exhibition expresses more than their experience of living in a state and country rooted in systematic racism; their work speaks to the experience of being human. 

About the curator: Tammy Jo Wilson is a black artist, curator, and arts organizer residing just south of Portland, Oregon in historic Oregon City. She received her BFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art and her MFA from San Jose State University. She co-curated the exhibit An Artistic Heritage in 2019, Art Makes History and You are Not a Robot in 2020. Wilson started curating the traveling exhibition Black Matter in 2020, featuring all Oregon-based black artists. Wilson is co-founder and President of the arts organization Art in Oregon. A statewide visual arts non-profit working to foster culturally rich regional communities through partnerships, advocacy, and investment in artists, businesses, educational spaces, and community spaces. Additionally, She has worked in the art department at Lewis & Clark College as the Visual Arts & Technology Program Manager for the past eleven years. In her own art practice, Wilson has exhibited her work nationally and was awarded the Leland Ironworks Golden Spot Artist Residency in 2017, performed in the SALT: Above a Whisper at Shaking the Tree Theatre in 2018, and was featured in the two women exhibit Biological Dissonance at the Parrish Gallery in Newberg, Oregon in 2019. In 2022 she has solo exhibitions of her artwork in Salem at the Gretchen Schuette Gallery in January and Rogar Hall Gallery at Willamette University from January-April. 

Supported by a grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council