ARTS FEATURE
THROUGH A NEW LENS
Two photo exhibits share different aspects of the Black American experience BY KARIE SIMMONS & RYAN PITKIN
Pg. 6 JAN 12 - JAN 25, 2022 - QCNERVE.COM
“I saw that a camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sort of social wrongs,” iconic Black photographer Gordon Parks told an interviewer in 1999, just three years from his 90th birthday. “I knew at that point that I had to have a camera.” Parks got himself a camera, and before passing away in 2006, built a lasting legacy that lives on in the images he captured from the 1940s to ’70s. His legacy also lives on in those who have followed in his path — photographers and artists of all mediums who have documented the African American experience. To kick off 2022, Charlotte will host two exhibits that use photographic imagery to tell different aspects of what it means to be Black in America through different artistic mediums and in different times.
JOHN ‘TREY’ MILES III AT THE AMERICA GENTRIFIED OPENING. PHOTO BY GRANT BALDWIN
Collage for the culture
The collages are composed of pre-selected Eighteen Nine through Jan. 30. It is the first exhibit The Merriam-Webster definition of gentrification photographs that Miles chose for how they represent in Nine Eighteen Nine’s new 13,000-square-foot is “a process in which a poor area (as of a city) gentrification in one way or another. He constructed space inside the VAPA Center. In 2021, a cooperative of diverse artists experiences an influx of middle-class or wealthy each piece by manipulating the photographs on including BLKMRKTCLT, people who renovate Jazz Arts Charlotte, and rebuild homes and McColl Center and more businesses and which worked with Mecklenburg often results in an increase County to transform an in property values and the underutilized county displacement of earlier, building, the former Hal usually poorer residents.” Marshall Center, into the In the 11 years since VAPA Center. Joanne Rogers moved to Located on North Charlotte from New York, Tryon Street, the VAPA she has seen gentrification Center currently features run its course in the five galleries, theaters, rapidly growing city. rehearsal space, practice Little by little, space and art studios for developers have been individual artists. changing the character Nine Eighteen Nine of Charlotte’s oldest has 8,000 square feet of neighborhoods, many gallery space at the VAPA of which are historically Center, plus an event Black, and pricing out the venue, classrooms, a wood people who’ve lived there shop and a print shop. for decades. ONE OF 50 PIECES IN THE NEW AMERICA GENTRIFIED EXHIBIT AT NINE EIGHTEEN NINE STUDIO. The gallery is also ARTWORK BY JOHN ‘TREY’ MILES III And what’s worse, home to nine studios Rogers said, is that some that will host artists participating in The Palette a computer then cutting and arranging them to people — usually those who benefit — see Table, a “roundtable” group Rogers founded in recreate a hyper photorealistic collage. gentrification as an improvement. The art within the America Gentrified exhibit 2016 with a mission to provide information and “It’s not really an improvement. It’s not really moving forward. And if it is moving forward, at was heavily influenced by Romare Bearden, a increased opportunities for artists of color through what cost?” said Rogers, owner of Nine Eighteen multimedia artist native to Charlotte who began mentoring, skills training, administrative support and networking. Nine Studio Gallery in Uptown’s newly created creating collages in his mid-twenties. Rogers originally ran The Palette Table out of a Miles’ artistic journey began similarly to that of Visual and Performing Arts Center (VAPA). 4,000-square-foot home-turned-gallery near Mint Bearden, and his most recent work is reminiscent “These are human lives that have existed here. Hill. of the Queen City icon. In it, Miles has coalesced This has been their home for how long and should The additional space inside the new VAPA Center people be just allowed, investors be just allowed, to traditional scenery into abstract artwork in a way location will allow for more collaboration and access that demonstrates the true imagery and precision of do such damage? There’s a heavy collateral in these to artists with strong messages like Miles. the collage process. so-called improvements.” It is Rogers’ goal that America Gentrified Miles’ earlier pieces focused on the aesthetic The soul of Charlotte is not being nurtured, it’s being destroyed, Rogers said, and it’s not just relationships between shape, form and color, presents people with a new perspective on the happening here; gentrification is a story so constant while his current works are influenced by political impacts of gentrification, not just in Charlotte but in across the United States that it’s on the verge struggles affecting the Black community in the past cities like it across the country. And hopefully, through art, the message will of becoming normalized to the point that even and present. sink in. “America Gentrified tells the story of opponents see it as inevitable. “You’re not writing. You’re not screaming in gentrification everywhere,” said Rogers, who Rogers is hoping her gallery’s newest exhibit, America Gentrified by Charlotte artist John “Trey” curated the show. “People are disenfranchised, they someone’s face. You’re putting your art out there for Miles, III, will help people see gentrification for lose their home, they lose their investments because people to see and I think people respond faster, or other people are coming in and investing in the land. more comfortably, to art than they do other forms,” what it truly is. “The artist tries to make you feel like it’s only one Rogers said. “It’s a louder, but softer voice.” America Gentrified is a 50-piece collage series constructed on 11-by-14-inch panels that place. He shows you the story of the changes going showcase the various forms of gentrification within on in one neighborhood throughout all 50 series. America Gentrified will be on display at Nine a community.
