New work of Michi Meko (1974, Florence, Alabama) in Alan Avery Art Company, Atlanta. From July 10 until August 8, 2015.
Heavy Brass, 2015.
Quotes:
Art has always been there for me. It’s second nature; it’s like breathing. I can remember starting to draw in kindergarten. I would miss recess to draw on giant copy paper. It was on a Sunday when the preacher was preaching the Old Testament’s Parable of the Talents, and I asked my mom what a talent was. She said, “Well, you can draw, so God has given you that talent or gift.” So I’ve been determined not to bury my gifts. I promised her that one day the pencil would take me around the world, and it has. I continue to get opportunities because of the pencil, and I always work to not burying my talent. I won’t let the Universe have this thing back.
Zeus Pose, 2015.
Monex Precious, 2015.
Gold Stroll, 2015.
To me, making art exists within this linear narrative of history. Critics and people often line an artist up with an artist from history in order to make a linear connection on this timeline. To understand my works, one has to have the ability to hear all the parts (the beat, the emcee, the scratch, and the song) as one rhythm. But they also have to hear them singularly to make out the whole of the narrative. I want my works to read like a James Brown performance, which has nothing to do with the narratives of art history, but everything to do with my studio practice and approach to art making. There is a clip on YouTube of James singing “Say it Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud” to a mostly white, blonde, female audience of women in 1968. The brothers in the back left and on the floor never miss a beat along with the silhouetted female Afro up front. The audience has to decide if they are going to say it loud because they are black and proud. It’s in these strange situations—the contradictions in these juxtapositions—that I layer mediums, meanings and narratives. It’s all at once where singulars make a whole.(quotes out of an interview with Lisa Highfill on Common Creativ ATL February 2015)
Courtesy: Alan Avery Art Company, Atlanta