The Tempe Center for the Arts is hosting its first art show where all the work is made by Black artists.
The exhibit’s curator, Arizona State University professor and photographer Granville Carroll, says the collection depicts a reclaiming of the past and the dream of a hopeful future.
Carroll says it's also meant to show that Black identity is not a monolith, nor is it negative.
“The way that they all connect is forming this collective harmony if you will about different ways of hope and healing as it relates to the Black identity, as it relates to Black culture and history," Carroll said.
The exhibition — "Reclaiming Hope: Afro-futurist Visions" — has works from some Arizona artists, like photographer Allana Airitam.
She says she felt surrounded by negative imagery of Blackness and a sense of not belonging.
Her series of 10 portraits called "The Golden Age" features painting-like photos of Black men and women in a renaissance setting.
“I just thought, ‘I need to say something very very different. And you cannot look at these portraits and say that these people don’t belong here, you can’t look at these portraits and say that they are ugly, you can’t look at them and say that they are ignorant," Airitam said.
She hopes the viewer will see themselves in her art and not let other people’s perception affect their potential.
Another artist in the exhibit created a series of self portraits in southern colonial homes. Carroll says that artist is “reclaiming space” in areas that, at the time, weren’t permitted to Black people.
“So she as a Black individual is placing herself, posing herself in a way that shows an immense amount of power and authority and it sort of provokes you in a way to make you ask questions, but it’s also confrontational," Carroll said.
A panel discussion of artists is set for November. The free exhibit ends in January.
