Leonardo Benzant is one of the artists in ‘Venturing Out of the Heart of Darkness in the Harvey B. Gantt Center in Charlotte NC , starting February 7th.
About exhibition:
Venturing Out of the Heart of Darkness examines the long-standing impact of colonialism on prevailing societal attitudes that define black culture in America and in the world and how the Empire has defined and thereby influenced the development of economic, linguistic, mythological and psychological systems and ideologies that inform contemporary notions of blackness.
The exhibition will include works by national and international artists representative of the African Diaspora that include:
• Leonardo Benzant
• Zoe Charlton
• Andrea Chung
• Willie Cole
• Bethany Collins
• Nathaniel Donnett
• Ken Gonzales-Day
• Heather Hart and André Singleton
• Sean M. Johnson
• JC Lenochan
• Shaun Leonardo
• Serge Alaine Nitegka
• Jason Patterson
• Yinka Shonibare
• Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum
• Renee Stout
• Wilmer Wilson IV
• Saya Woolfalk
Exhibition curated by Rehema C. Barber
Bambula, 2012-2014.
About Benzant:
Ceremony, 2012.
Artist Statement
I imagine the artist as an Urban Shaman—his aim being to bridge the visible and invisible worlds. As a multidisciplinary artist, I create or document the work in various disciplines: drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, sound, video, costumes and performance. I allow ancestral forces and emotions to influence rhythms, moods, modalities, and aesthetic, in order, to develop a personal statement based on African traditions and continuities found throughout the Afro-Atlantic Diaspora. Simultaneously, I combine contemporary impulses, personal memories, dreams, visions and knowledge of Western art history and practices. My art grows from an inner dialogue to resolve and celebrate issues of history, identity and spirituality. Within African cosmology, the ancestors live in both past and present and are central to my work as artist-shaman.
Kalunga 55, 2012.
A work of Benzant in the house of collector Ms. Cooper Cafritz.
See also interview with and other posts on Leonardo Benzant on Africanah.org