Leroy Almon
20th Century Slave.
About:
Leroy Almon (1938-1997) spent most of his life in Tallapoosa, Georgia, where he was born and died. A nondenominational evangelical preacher, Almon began carving his inspirational interpretations of spiritual and contemporary secular themes during an apprenticeship with Elijah Pierce, a well-known African American lay minister and wood carver in Columbus, Ohio. Almon met Pierce when he moved briefly to Ohio to take a job with Coca-Cola.
Freedom
The Old Gambler
Devil Fishing
Death.
First collaborating and then making his own works of art, Almon returned to Tallapoosa for another job. Like his mentor Pierce, Almon has become famous for his painted bas-relief depictions of African American life and religious imagery. Some of which has been placed in the Smithsonian American Art Museum (view)