David Shrobe: Natural Sovereignty

David Shrobe

Natural Sovereignty

Front cover: Mother, 2023 (detail)

Back Cover: David Shobe’s Studio, Harlem, NY

David Shrobe

Natural Sovereignty

Monique Meloche Gallery

Feburary 3 - March 23, 2024

Introduction by Alyssa Brubaker

Essay by Sheridan Tucker Anderson

Designed by Chandler Arthur

Edited by Staci Boris

Photographed by Bob.

This catalogue was published on the occasion of David Shrobe’s second solo exhibition at Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago.

Introduction

by Alyssa Brubaker

moniquemeloche is pleased to present David Shrobe: Natural Sovereignty, the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. Through assemblage, collage, drawing, and painting, the works on view draw from oral histories, family portraits, and online archives to present the vitality of family life among Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities. Pulling from the past to project new possibilities of the future, Shrobe considers the backyard and garden as an extension of the home and a site of sustenance, survival, and resistance.

Natural Sovereignty is the last body of work created in the artist’s longtime studio in Harlem, NY. Next month, the artist will vacate his studio in the apartment that has housed his family for nearly a century. Slices of the domestic materialize through found objects such as tabletops, doors, molding, mirror frames, wood flooring, and textiles. The artist collects these objects over long periods of time–often found within the surrounding blocks near his building–filling every corner of his studio. In a process driven by intuition, Shrobe’s labor-intensive practice reflects the cultural tapestry woven by his ancestral predecessors. Layered hand carved wood panels frame the narrative and create the push and pull of exterior and interior realities. The figures within Shrobe’s liminal spaces seamlessly integrate with their natural and cosmic environments, depicting everyday family life amongst growers and traditional healers. As we glimpse into the landscape of flora and fauna, we see the backyard as a sanctuary, a space of work, pride, wellness, and leisure. For the artist, they are spaces for self-governance, community, and legacy; worlds that return us to the natural sovereignty of the human being.

Inspired by bell hooks’ reflection on photography, several of Shrobe’s assemblage paintings are drawn from turn of the century photographs of Black and Indigenous Americans, representing autonomy for people of color and a declaration of their presence. The camera

and photography, as described by hooks, offered African Americans a way to empower themselves through counterhegemonic representation and offered the possibility of immediate intervention. In Art on My Mind: Visual Politics, hooks writes: “photography has been and is central to that aspect of decolonization that calls us back to the past and offers a way to reclaim and renew life-affirming bonds.”1 Shrobe’s works serve as declarations, depicting families in their complete humanity, in harmony with the natural environment. While the artist also recalls his own family photos as a starting point, his subjects as well as the materials used undergo a transformation, becoming generative of new meanings and inviting a set of associations and experiences of the familiar or uncanny in each work. Female figures in the works often represent the women in his family, while other characters embody the artist with similar tendencies or disposition yet exist in another reality.

Natural Sovereignty showcases the artist’s process of image making and its essential connection to pictorial genealogies. By rendering his figures in nature, Shrobe suggests that our complete freedom survives within our inherent connection to each other and the natural world; that we may find oneness by planting our feet in the ground.

Sustenance, Solidarity, and Sanctuary: David Shrobe’s Natural Sovereignty

by Sheridan Tucker Anderson

The photographs thus did much more than simply reflect in substance and shadow the wider social, political, and material calculus of the Atlantic world. They conditioned a modern way of seeing, physically conveying the new visual code in their material circulation between persons and places as if themselves in search of an ideal philosophy and form.

—Maurice O. Wallace and Shawn Michelle Smith, “Pictures and Progress: Early Photography and the Making of African American Identity”

David Shrobe’s Natural Sovereignty celebrates the vitality of family life. Well-versed in photography’s history and its power to uplift, Shrobe depicts contemporary Black bodies in traditional photographic compositions and poses reminiscent of classical European paintings subverting conventional power dynamics. Melding his drawing and painting practice with collage and wood carving, Shrobe imbues these objects with new significance, weaving them into the fabric of his narratives and inviting viewers to engage at the intersection of past and present, memory, and reality. In the final body of work created in the Harlem domicile his family owned for nearly a century, Shrobe recontextualizes ideas of domesticity, transcending its physical boundaries to become a fluid and ever-evolving concept. The essence of home is not a fixed location but rather a site for dynamic exchange between identity and community. In these dreamscapes, everyday objects take on new meanings, and familiar spaces are transformed into portals of possibility. As the viewer journeys through Shrobe’s visual chronicles, they are reminded that home, moreover, belonging and space, function as profound intersections of imagination and collective experience.

Through his meticulous layering of color, shape, and texture, Shrobe pays homage to the traditions, rituals, and histories that inform Black selfhood. His use of personal artifacts and familiar motifs—a Nike swoosh and the tattered sole of an Air Jordan gym shoe—serves as a bridge between bygone eras, inviting onlookers to reflect on the interconnectedness of generations and the enduring spirit of resilience. His portrayal of Black bodies engaged in moments of rest and reflection disrupts common illustrations of struggle and hardship often associated with Western accounts of Blackness. Instead, he offers a glimpse into Black life’s everyday joys, complexities, and triumphs. Shrobe’s adept use of materials, imagery, and symbolism cultivates a space where Blackness is celebrated, explored, and redefined. Rendering hybridized figures,

Shrobe offers a nuanced and multifaceted representation of not only the Black experience, but the human experience, one that acknowledges its elusive and fragmented nature.

Broadly referencing the iconic works of Cezanne’s and Matisse’s Bathers, Shrobe’s enigmatic figures in Skinny-dip (2024) lounge against a dusky sky. Gazing saudadely, seemingly reminded of days gone by, Shrobe’s bathers are lost in contemplation, perhaps reflecting on the passage of time. This sense of introspection is heightened by the motif of the chrysalis, symbolizing transformation, and metamorphosis.

The couple in Transition Mode (2023) enjoy a tranquil backyard scene. Seated proudly, the two are surrounded by the familiar haven of their home, a verdant garden, and accompanied by their loyal pet dog, whose presence symbolizes safety and security. The pair share a cup of tea and confidently own their space. Here, Shrobe’s inhabitants bask in the ambiance of a garden—a space transformed, where a family blooms with vitality and depth.

Figure 1

The recurring female figures of Transition Mode (2023) and Skinny-dip (2024) are personifications of strength and shelter. Whether mother or wife, Shrobe’s familial matriarchs are often depicted in moments of leisure and repose, radiating a sense of agency and self-possession that confront static portrayals of Black womanhood.

In Sheltered (2023), viewers time-travel to a cosmic setting—complete with otherworldly depictions of mundane objects such as an umbrella, ghostly figures, and the protective hand of a guardian—and are encouraged to engage with renderings that honor ancestral legacies. Shrobe’s intricately crafted environments offer necessary respite and become not only moments of escape but profound acts of liberation and empowerment.

Shrobe’s portraits are crucial in defining and framing his community. Harlem, a world unto itself within the city that never sleeps, becomes a canvas of reused memories, where discarded artifacts and forgotten histories are resurrected and repurposed to tell new stories. Indeed, it is a space where reality merges with imagination, boundless and with perceptions blurred. As witnesses to Shrobe’s alternative realms, we are invited to explore the relationship between reality and fantasy. His use of assemblage lends itself well to this exploration. In each scene, observers are called to reconsider their understanding of home as a sovereign state.

We are reminded that home is not merely a place on a map, a dwelling, a locale—it is a state of being, a nexus of experience.

Figure 2

Figure 1: Skinny-dip, 2024 (detail). Oil, acrylic, charcoal, leather, velvet, flocking, and canvas on carved joined table tops. 68 x 48 in.

Figure 2: Transition Mode, 2023 (detail). Oil, acrylic, charcoal, faux plant, silk, wool, printed paper, suede, linen, leather, painted canvas, on carved joined wood panels. 71 x 58 x 2 in.

Figure 3: Sheltered, 2023 (detail). Oil, acrylic, ink, charcoal, board game, seashell, suede, silk, linen, embroidered wool, printed acrylic, painted canvas, vinyl print out, wood laminate, on joined wood panels 67 x 56 x 1 in.

Figure 3

Installation Views

Artworks

68

Skinny-dip, 2024

oil, acrylic, charcoal, leather, velvet, flocking and canvas on carved joined table tops

x 48 in 172.7 x 121.9 cm

Repot, 2023

oil, acrylic, charcoal, canvas, flocking, silk, leather, suede, faux leaves, linen photo print, and laminate on wood table top 44 x 44 in 111.8 x 111.8 cm

Transition Mode, 2023

oil, acrylic, charcoal, faux plant, silk, wool, printed paper, suede, linen, leather, painted canvas, on carved joined wood panels

71 x 58 x 2 in

180.3 x 147.3 x 5.1 cm

Pure Light Energy (nature within), 2023

oil and acrylic on canvas mounted on panel with ornate foil frame 30 x 27 in 76.2 x 68.6 cm

Sheltered, 2023

oil, acrylic, ink, charcoal, board game, sea shell, suede, silk, linen, embroidered wool, printed acrylic, painted canvas, vinyl print out, wood laminate, on joined wood panels

67 x 56 x 1 in

170.2 x 142.2 x 2.5 cm

Hotstepper, 2024

oil, acrylic, charcoal, paper, acrylic and silk fabric, air Jordan sole, leather, suede, tiles, and flocking on canvas, mounted on panel with wood and frame molding 61 x 46 x 2 in 154.9 x 116.8 x 5.1 cm

Mother, 2023

acrylic, suede, charcoal on paper, and reverse side of found mirror frame

24 x 20 x 2 in

61 x 50.8 x 5.1 cm

Gathering, 2023

oil, acrylic, charcoal, ink, wood laminate, painted canvas, flocking, wool, printed acrylic, sandpaper, and wood furniture parts on joined wood panels

78 x 59 x 1 1/2 in 198.1 x 149.9 x 3.8 cm

Orifice 4 (figure as landscape), 2023

oil, acrylic, ink, charcoal, colored pencil on paper, mounted on museum board with Shedua wood frame and museum glass

14 x 11 1/2 in 35.6 x 29.2 cm

Orifice 2 (figure as landscape), 2023

acrylic, ink, charcoal, colored pencil on paper, mounted on museum board with Shedua wood frame and museum glass

14 x 11 1/2 in 35.6 x 29.2 cm

Orifice 7 (figure as landscape), 2023

acrylic, ink, charcoal, colored pencil on paper, mounted on museum board with white oak wood frame and museum glass

14 1/2 x 11 1/2 in 36.8 x 29.2 cm

Orifice 6 (sun is shining), 2023

oil, acrylic, ink, charcoal, colored pencil on paper, mounted on museum board with Shedua wood frame and museum glass

14 x 11 1/2 in 35.6 x 29.2 cm

Orifice 3 (figure as landscape), 2023

acrylic, ink, charcoal, colored pencil on paper, mounted on museum board with Shedua wood frame and museum glass

14 x 11 1/2 in 35.6 x 29.2 cm

Orifice 1 (figure as landscape), 2023

acrylic, ink, charcoal, colored pencil on paper, mounted on museum board with Shedua wood frame and museum glass

14 x 11 1/2 in 35.6 x 29.2 cm

Orifice 5 (made of star stuff), 2023

oil, acrylic, ink, charcoal, colored pencil on paper, mounted on museum board with Shedua wood frame and museum glass

14 x 11 1/2 in 35.6 x 29.2 cm

Moment to See (Boy with Bow), 2023

oil, acrylic, ink, charcoal, colored pencil, and flocking on Stonehenge paper, mounted on museum board with stained Shedua wood frame and museum glass 22 x 16 in 55.9 x 40.6 cm

Biographies

David Shrobe creates multi-layered portraits and assemblage paintings made in part from everyday materials that he finds in multiple geographies. He disassembles furniture, especially from his familial home in Harlem, separating wood from fabric and recombines them as supports for collage, painting, and drawing. Through these various modes of production, his work brings notions of identity, history, and memory into question while challenging conventions of classical portraiture. Shrobe produces new narratives, fragmented and nonlinear, that feel intimate and personal without being anchored to a specific time or place.

Shrobe (b.1974, Harlem, NY) holds an MFA (2013) and BFA (2009) in painting from Hunter College. He is an alum of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2014) and was a Joan Mitchell Artist Teaching Fellow. Shrobe has had solo exhibitions at Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago; Steve Turner Gallery, Los Angeles; Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York; and Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco. His work is included in the traveling group exhibition, Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage which opened at the Frist Art Museum, Nashville TN in 2023 and will travel to the MFA Houston, TX, and the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C in 2024. Other group exhibitions include Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; CFHILL Art Space, Stockholm, Sweden; Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, and New York, NY; the Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY; and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York.

Shrobe’s work is held in the permanent collections of The Brooklyn Museum, NY; The Dean Collection; The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; The Birmingham Museum of Art; The Block Museum at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL; Union College, Schenectady, NY; Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, Eugene, OR; NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, FL; The University of Arizona Museum of Art, AZ; University of Chicago, Booth School of Business Collection, IL; and Pierce & Hill Harper Arts Foundation, Detroit, MI. David Shrobe lives and works in New York, NY.

Image by Jean Andre Antoine

Sheridan Tucker Anderson is a Chicago-based independent curator, art historian, and arts advocate. Anderson has been awarded several fellowships and residencies including the inaugural Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellowship at the Art Institute of Chicago, the inaugural Curatorial Fellowship at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the University of Chicago Master of Art African Studies Fellowship, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Curatorial Fellowship, and the Chicago Artists Coalition HATCH Projects Curatorial Residency. Recent publications include Mining Memory (2021), The Diasporic as a Site of Memory: Self Identity and Commemoration in the Work of Zohra Opoku (2019), The Ancient and the Recent: Kudzanai Chiurai’s We Live in Silence (2018), Bordering the Imaginary: Ralph Arnold, Napoleon Bonaparte, and “The Hawaii Days” Series (2018). Recent exhibitions include If You Go, selected works by Mev Luna (2019), The Poetics of Relation (2019), In Their Own Form: Contemporary Photography + Afrofuturism (2018 and 2020). She holds a BA in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MA in Art History from the University of Chicago. Anderson is Associate Director of Exhibitions and Residencies at Arts and Public Life, an initiative of UChicago Arts at the University of Chicago.

Image by zakkiyyah neejbah dumas o’neal

Exhibition Checklist

Skinny-dip, 2024

oil, acrylic, charcoal, leather, velvet, flocking and canvas on carved joined table tops

68 x 48 in 172.7 x 121.9 cm

Repot, 2023

oil, acrylic, charcoal, canvas, flocking, silk, leather, suede, faux leaves, linen photo print, and laminate on wood table top

44 x 44 in 111.8 x 111.8 cm

Transition Mode, 2023

oil, acrylic, charcoal, faux plant, silk, wool, printed paper, suede, linen, leather, painted canvas, on carved joined wood panels

71 x 58 x 2 in

180.3 x 147.3 x 5.1 cm

Pure Light Energy (nature within), 2023

oil and acrylic on canvas mounted on panel with ornate foil frame

30 x 27 in 76.2 x 68.6 cm

Sheltered, 2023

oil, acrylic, ink, charcoal, board game, sea shell, suede, silk, linen, embroidered wool, printed acrylic, painted canvas, vinyl print out, wood laminate, on joined wood panels

67 x 56 x 1 in

170.2 x 142.2 x 2.5 cm

Hotstepper, 2024

oil, acrylic, charcoal, paper, acrylic and silk fabric, air Jordan sole, leather, suede, tiles, and flocking on canvas, mounted on panel with wood and frame molding

61 x 46 x 2 in

154.9 x 116.8 x 5.1 cm

Mother, 2023

acrylic, suede, charcoal on paper, and reverse side of found mirror frame

24 x 20 x 2 in 61 x 50.8 x 5.1 cm

Gathering, 2023

oil, acrylic, charcoal, ink, wood laminate, painted canvas, flocking, wool, printed acrylic, sandpaper, and wood furniture parts on joined wood panels

78 x 59 x 1 1/2 in 198.1 x 149.9 x 3.8 cm

Orifice 4 (figure as landscape), 2023

oil, acrylic, ink, charcoal, colored pencil on paper, mounted on museum board with Shedua wood frame and museum glass

14 x 11 1/2 in 35.6 x 29.2 cm

Orifice 2 (figure as landscape), 2023

acrylic, ink, charcoal, colored pencil on paper, mounted on museum board with Shedua wood frame and museum glass

14 x 11 1/2 in 35.6 x 29.2 cm

Orifice 7 (figure as landscape), 2023

acrylic, ink, charcoal, colored pencil on paper, mounted on museum board with white oak wood frame and museum glass

14 1/2 x 11 1/2 in 36.8 x 29.2 cm

Orifice 6 (sun is shining), 2023

oil, acrylic, ink, charcoal, colored pencil on paper, mounted on museum board with Shedua wood frame and museum glass

14 x 11 1/2 in 35.6 x 29.2 cm

Orifice 3 (figure as landscape), 2023

acrylic, ink, charcoal, colored pencil on paper, mounted on museum board with Shedua wood frame and museum glass

14 x 11 1/2 in 35.6 x 29.2 cm

Orifice 1 (figure as landscape), 2023

acrylic, ink, charcoal, colored pencil on paper, mounted on museum board with Shedua wood frame and museum glass

14 x 11 1/2 in 35.6 x 29.2 cm

Orifice 5 (made of star stuff), 2023

oil, acrylic, ink, charcoal, colored pencil on paper, mounted on museum board with Shedua wood frame and museum glass

14 x 11 1/2 in 35.6 x 29.2 cm

Moment to See (Boy with Bow), 2023

oil, acrylic, ink, charcoal, colored pencil, and flocking on Stonehenge paper, mounted on museum board with stained Shedua wood frame and museum glass

22 x 16 in 55.9 x 40.6 cm

For additional info,

Monique Meloche Gallery is located at 451 N Paulina Street, Chicago, IL 60622

visit moniquemeloche.com or email info@moniquemeloche.com