{"id":2079,"date":"2025-06-27T17:01:58","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T17:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deaoli.com\/?p=2079"},"modified":"2025-06-27T17:30:36","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T17:30:36","slug":"in-a-baltimore-exhibition-the-transformative-potential-of-todays-griots-emerges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/deaoli.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/27\/in-a-baltimore-exhibition-the-transformative-potential-of-todays-griots-emerges\/","title":{"rendered":"In a Baltimore Exhibition, the Transformative Potential of Today\u2019s Griots Emerges"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"In<\/p>\n

Stories have long helped us to understand the world and our place within it. For the western Sahel in West Africa, storytellers known as griots<\/a> are often responsible for sharing oral histories and local legends. As generations pass and culture shifts, griots add onto the narratives they’ve inherited with contemporary details relevant to their audiences.<\/p>\n

A group exhibition curated by Noel Bedolla and Ky Vassor at Galerie Myrtis<\/a> gathers a dozen international artists continuing this tradition. Emergence: Stories in the Making<\/em> presents “a mirror to contemporary society” by positing that the narratives we tell play a critical role in collective experiences, acts of solidarity, and ultimately, societal progress.<\/p>\n

\"a
Kachelle Knowles, “Queen’s College” (2025), graphite, decorative paper, colored pencils, thread, charcoal, acrylic paint, ink, acrylic gemstones, marker on paper, 28 x 18 inches. Image courtesy of the artist, Galerie Myrtis, and Tern Gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Alanis Forde, imagining paradise and its trappings is a way to excavate questions about internal conflict. She often paints figures with blue masks and bodies, the vibrant disguises becoming proxies that allow the artist to merge her likeness with a fictive version of herself. Subverting the art historical and cultural representations of Black women<\/a> “as objects of pleasure and servitude,” Forde shapes an alternative narrative.<\/p>\n

Kachelle Knowles works in a parallel practice. Through mixed-media portraits with patterned paper, thread, and acrylic gems, the Bahamian artist focuses on Black teenagers and asserts their rights to fluid gender expressions.<\/p>\n

While portraits feature prominently in Emergence<\/em>, Kim Rice’s “American Quilt” invokes the politics of the body without visualizing a figure. Her large-scale tapestry is comprised of maps distributed by the Home Owners\u2019 Loan Corporation<\/a>, the defunct federal agency responsible for delineating which neighborhoods were too “hazardous” to receive mortgages in a racist process known as redlining. Stitched together with red thread, “American Quilt” makes explicit the ways that “whiteness is woven into our everyday lives,” Rice says.<\/p>\n

If you’re in Baltimore, see Emergence: Stories in the Making<\/em> through July 12.<\/p>\n

\"a
Alanis Forde, “Garden Gloves” (2024), oil on canvas, 40 x 40 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
Kim Rice, “American Quilt” (2025), HOLC “redlining” maps, acrylic gel, thread, 10 x 11 feet. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
Kim Rice, “American Quilt” (2025), HOLC “redlining” maps, acrylic gel, thread, 10 x 11 feet. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
Kim Rice, “American Quilt” (2025), HOLC “redlining” maps, acrylic gel, thread, 10 x 11 feet. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
Unyime Edet, “Spirit To Spirit: The Night Watchers” (2024), oil on canvas, 55 x 59 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
Damilare Jaimu, “All Things Bloom” (2025), oil and acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member<\/a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article In a Baltimore Exhibition, the Transformative Potential of Today’s Griots Emerges<\/a> appeared first on Colossal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stories have long helped us to understand the world and our place within it. For the western Sahel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2079"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2079"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2090,"href":"http:\/\/deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2079\/revisions\/2090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}