Artist Stacey Robinson will be spending a week in residence with the Ewing and UT Downtown Galleries.
Be sure to mark your calendars for our exhibitions and related programming!
Funding is generously provided by the Tennessee Arts Commission Art Access Program, Arts & Culture Alliance, Knox County, the Department of the Treasury, Jerry’s Artarama, and UTK co-sponsorship from the Department of Africana Studies, Multicultural Student Life at the Frieson Black Cultural Center, the Office of Community Engagement and Outreach, the School of Design, UT Libraries, and the School of Art Programming Committee.
This project is being supported in whole or in part, by federal award number 21.027 awarded to the City of Knoxville by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Arts & Culture Alliance.
Audacious Black Freedom Dreams
August 22 – October 29, 2023
Ewing Gallery of Art + Architecture
This exhibition features a multimedia projection and seven 7-foot banners created using digital collage. These images visually mimic the audio sampling used throughout hip hop musical production and the process of crafting a tight DJ set, which inspire the duo. This work prompts a conversation about Black liberation as a reality not yet fulfilled. By centering Black people within the narrative, BLACKMAU prompts the audience to imagine themselves in the spaces with the subject. Robinson and Grantham reference Black liberation texts with With Black Audacious Freedom Dreams, including Freedom Dreams by Robin D. G. Kelley, and We Want to Do More Than Survive by Bettina L. Love, which they include in a study area and curated library of Black texts in the exhibition.
Black Utopias: Black Distractions + Disruptions in Time Space
September 8 – October 21, 2023
UT Downtown Gallery
First Friday Reception: October 6*, 5-9pm
*The first 50 visitors to arrive between 6 and 7pm will receive a free, signed digital print created by Robinson, who will be present at the gallery. Come meet the artist!
This is a presentation of Robinson’s new solo project. Robinson uses the traditional white box gallery space as a stand-in for the pervasiveness of whiteness in the museum and gallery worlds. Robinson disrupts these spaces with stark graphic designs cut in black vinyl that mash up references from pop culture, music, and Black history, including references from the Wu-Tang Clan, the Black Panther Breakfast Program, and imagery from the Jim Crow Museum collection.
Soul Power
Sunday, October 1, 6-8pm
Listen live!
Tune in to 90.3 The Rock to hear Stacey Robinson guest DJ with community activist and Director of Arts and Communications at The Bottom, Ty Murray, aka DJ Ty Dye.
Meditation
Monday, October 2, 6-7pm
Ewing Gallery of Art + Architecture
Join Joycesonia Lawson and Stacey Robinson for an hour-long meditation in the BLACKMAU exhibition. Please bring a yoga mat or cushion, as only a limited number will be available.
Artist Lecture:
Stacey Robinson
Wednesday, October 4, 5:30pm
McCarty Auditorium, Art + Architecture Building, UT Campus
Stacey A. Robinson, Associate Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was a 2019-2020 Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellow at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research and completed his MFA at the University at Buffalo in 2015.
His work discusses decolonized Black futures. Illustrated books include: ‘I Am Alfonso Jones’ written by Tony Medina (2017) Lee & Low Books, and ‘Across the Tracks: Remembering Greenwood, Black Wall Street, and the Tulsa Race Massacre’, written Alverne Ball (2021) Abrams Books. Exhibitions include: Ascension of Black Stillness (CEPA Gallery) and The Black Angel of History (Carnegie Hall) 2022.
Community World Building Workshop
Thursday, October 5, 6:00pm
Join Stacey Robinson and The Bottom Knox for an Afrofuturist short film screening and interactive world building activity. All ages are welcome to attend. Space is limited. RSVP REQUIRED.
TheBottomKnox@gmail.com | https://www.thebottomknox.com/
BLACKMAU’s Reading List
Download the full, curated list of books featured in Audacious Black Freedom Dream’s library.
Robinson’s exhibitions and programming is made possible through funding received from the Tennessee Arts Commission Arts Access Program, which supports art initiatives that focus on underserved and underrepresented communities.