ROUX Opening at Corridor Gallery curated by Danielle Burns, and the Corridor Project Space

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• published: 25 Jan 2013
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ROUX Curated By Danielle Burns on loan from the Houston Museum of African American Culture Art can give form to history, bridging past and present with explorations of emotions and experience . Inspired by their own personal histories, artists Ann Johnson and Lovie Olivia had a vision to organize an exhibition about their matrilineal histories. However telling the story of ones lineage is not easy nor is it linear. Histories are fragmented and include as much of the unknown as the known. Also sometimes stirred in ones history are the people who have influenced and inspired in such a way it would be remised not to recognize. This idea gave birth to a larger project and artists, Delita Pinchback Martin and Rabe'a Ballin were asked to join adding to the ROUX ingredients. Roux [ROO] A mixture of flour and fat that, after being slowly cooked over low heat, is used to thicken mixtures such as soups and sauces . Using the Roux, the base for all great gumbo and etouffee, as a metaphor, this exhibition offers a dialog between personal histories, traditional storytelling and hand-made objects through various contemporary art printmaking processes. The artists participating in this group exhibition created new works expressly for this project and have included their original prints. The same metaphor of Roux can be used for the art of printmaking as its ingredients produce something magical and unique each time. The print medium has been explored for centuries as a means of creating effects that could not otherwise be achieved and the technical possibilities are wide and diverse; offering the artist a wide range of expression. The rubric of postmodernism-with its emphasis on identity as encompassed in issues of race, gender, sexual orientation, history and cultural legacy provides a unique environment for artist to explore their own histories as the subject. Since the emergence of the first academically trained black artists in the nineteenth century, works of art have been used to interpret individual histories and in turn the black experience in America. These artists are no different and the ROUX is but another indication of how biography can be imprinted not only in the artist's world but the world of the visual art. ______ Also in this video; "Mental Journals" by the artist Johnny Mattei and "James Baldwin:25 Years Gone the Man and his Ideas" by artist Maureen Kelleher