April Bey, We Arrived, Then Smoked A Cigarette Afterwards (No Fear), 2018. Chinese (Ghana) wax fabric, hand sewing with Made in China thread and needles, glitter, jewelry chain. 48 x 36 inches.
Join Art + Practice on November 8th for a talk with Bahamian raised, LA-based multidisciplinary artist and educator April Bey. Bey will discuss the ideas addressed in her Made in Space series, which explores female and queer afrofuturistic millennial entrepreneurialism via social media and the Internet. Blerdy in nature, juxtapositions of Star Trek and hip-hop culture also manifest in this series. Looking to the future acts as a therapeutic excretory practice in dealing with current day issues around race and discrimination globally. She will touch on the British colonization of West Africa and The Bahamas in comparison to the current Chinese colonization of black countries.
This work is a focus but is part of a generalized exploration of the actual resilience of women as they navigate through high-impact experiences of the body, psyche, and demands of womanhood. There’s an ironic hypocrisy in the expectations of women and specifically black women to be sovereign and robust while at the same time inept and emotionally weak/unpredictable when leadership roles are sought.
April Bey, With My Ears to the Streets and My Eyes to the Sky, I’m on Another Planet My Nagus and You Just Fly, 2018. Chinese (Ghana) wax fabric, hand sewing with Made in China thread and needles, colored pencil, glitter, beads from Asante region, Kumasi, Ghana, jewelry chain. 48 x 36 inches.
April Bey, Issa Look, 2018. Drawing ink, Chinese Hitarget (Benin) wax fabric, glitter on canvas print. 48 x 30 inches.
April Bey, DEBT (Nina Simone, No Fear), 2018. Mixed media drawing, epoxy resin, hand sewn black satin. 30 x 40 inches.
Speakers
April Bey grew up in the Caribbean (Nassau, Bahamas) and now resides and works in Los Angeles, CA as a contemporary visual artist and art educator. Bey’s interdisciplinary artwork is an introspective and social critique of American and Bahamian popular culture, immigration, contemporary pop culture feminism, generational theory, social media, AfroFuturism, and race.
She received her BFA in drawing in 2009 from Ball State University and her MFA in painting in 2014 at California State University, Northridge in Los Angeles. Bey is in the permanent collection of The California African American Museum, The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas and The Current, Baha Mar in Nassau, Bahamas. Bey has exhibited internationally in both biennials NE7 and NE8 in The Bahamas, Italy, Spain, and Accra Ghana, West Africa.
April has launched 3 solo exhibitions: Picky Head at Liquid Courage Gallery in Nassau, Bahamas, COMPLY at Coagula Curatorial in Chinatown, Los Angeles and most recently MADE IN SPACE at Band of Vices Gallery in South LA.
April travels extensively to collect data for her work having traveled to Canada, Iceland, London, Bali, Dubai, Morocco, Senegal, Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana, West Africa. Bey is both a practicing contemporary artist and art educator having taught a controversial course at Art Center College of Design called “Pretty Hurts” analyzing process-based art and the Beyoncé hashtag faux feminism.
April is currently a full-time tenure track instructor at Glendale Community College in Studio Arts.
Other Programs in this Series
Thu
29
Nov
DANCING THROUGH PRISON WALLS: A CONVERSATION WITH SUCHI BRANFMAN AND D. SABELA GRIMES
November 29, 2018
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
This event has passed, WATCH THE ARCHIVED LIVESTREAM
Tue
2
Oct
October 2, 2018
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
This event has passed, WATCH THE ARCHIVED LIVESTREAM
Tue
25
Sep
REFLECTING ON ANGOLA WITH KEITH CALHOUN, CHANDRA MCCORMICK, GARY TYLER AND DHYANDRA LAWSON