As my eyes wandered over hues of browns and gold, I saw glimpses of the woman I thought I was — or, rather: the woman I aspired to be. I was looking for myself on the art covering the walls of SOMArts Cultural Center. It is here the co-curators Karen Seneferu and Melorra Green bring the 5th annual exhibit titled The Blueprint: If the Universe Can Be Imagined, It Exists: The Black Woman is God to SOMArts Cultural Center.
Throughout the exhibit, I was considering who I was, for myself.
In this exhibition of Black women’s work, I found myself through self-examination.
Seneferu said that she found many of the contributing artists, when she was a student many years prior, because of The Art of Living Black exhibit established in 1996 by artists Jan Hart-Schuyers and Rae Louise Hayward at the Richmond Art Center. She said until that exhibit she had never seen 100 pieces of Black art in one space. “That was really the foundation. We’re creating a space for them to show,” said Seneferu.
Among a trio of violists during the artist reception on December 11, 2021, was artist, activist, and first woman Black Panther Tarika Lewis.
“Bantams West African Ancestral home,” a painting from her 2017 series The Last Thing I Remember greets all who enter. The serene image of two women in yellow kneeling at the threshold of a yellow home, with vegetation, compliments the painting on the adjourning wall “West African musicians.”
Looking at her piece, I asked myself “how often do I encounter a room with the spirit and souls of Black women in the care of their homes, at rest or at play?”
These paintings set the tone and serve as a mirror reflecting back to me pieces of myself. Previous years' themes have included The Black Woman Is God (TBWIG): The Assembly of Gods; Reprogramming That God Code; Divine Revolution; and Reclaim, Refigure, Re-Remember. The theme for 2021 The Blueprint plays on reimagining how the Black woman sees herself.
Throughout the exhibit, I was considering who I was, for myself. In Zoe Boston’s “Daugther of Light”, “The Source” and “Moving Mountains”, I could be nomadic in a desert. In Asantewaa Boykin’s “The Observers” “7” and “Yaa Negrita”, I could be faceless with soft, seductive edges. The stone and wood-textured works of Nicole Dixon’s “The Axe Forgets but the Tree Re-members” and “Autumn Ground: So Wildflowers Will Come up Where You Are” are hard lines in a vibrancy of black, shades of brown and gold.
But it was when I saw Karin Turner’s “Resplendent Memory of Joy” that I saw myself. The curvaceous blue body is misshaped with body rolls. The red lips parted and alluring.
It was becoming difficult to choose when which kind of God I was.
Throughout the Bay Area a number of Black women artists have art displayed “I believe here in the Bay Area, whether it’s the Oakland museum or the DeYoung museum, they’ve been inspired by this exhibit,” said Seneferu. “They have created a space where Black women are presenting work in those spaces as deities, without saying the Black Woman is God.”
At the center of the room hangs a flowered frame, “Inanna’s Return”, created by the poet and artist Mimi Tempestt. The frame, an enticement for everyone in the room to be framed in beauty and the ability to see themselves as installations of art among the other works.
But it was when I saw Karin Turner’s “Resplendent Memory of Joy” that I saw myself. The curvaceous blue body is misshaped with body rolls. The red lips parted and alluring. The purple afro curls upward in different directions with the words “Sending you the memory of joy and the promise of joy returned.” Turner explained the words are in her hair because what is ingested, whether it’s food, the news, or what we read comes out.
“When you read these words, I want that to be in you,” said Turner. After experiencing loss and many challenges in the previous years, Turner explained people can often forget what joy feels like. In the outstretched hand of the painting is a slice of watermelon with a single golden seed representing a small piece of joy. “When you can’t remember it [the joy] I want to give you the seed, just the memory. Because if you can remember it, it will come again.”
The Blueprint: If the Universe Can Be Imagined, It Exists: The Black Woman is God to SOMArts Cultural Arts Center, 934 Brannan St. (between 8th and 9th). The exhibit is on display from December 12 through February 6, 2022.
Gallery hours are Thursday through Friday 3:00–5:00 PM; 5:30–7:30 PM and Saturday through Sunday 12:00–2:00 PM; 2:30–5:00 PM. Additionally, this year’s exhibit is the virtual gallery, allowing art lovers to admire the art of Black curators digitally in the comforts of their home.
Editor’s note: Some photos were changed at the request of SOMAarts Cultural Center
