Photo by M. Trommer
By M.C. Neuda
What better show to kick off the year of the 250th anniversary of the birth of this nation than one that reminds us of the Black Experience as part of that birth!
Dennis Shelton’s solo pop-up exhibition, THROUGH MY EYES, The Black Experience, currently on view at Blue Door Art Center in Yonkers through January 31st, sees the Black experience through a very personal lens. Brought up in Montgomery, Alabama in the 1950s, he comes from a family with Black historical roots. His mother participated in the Montgomery bus boycott and, unknowingly, so did he, his mother being pregnant with him at the time. His grandmother was on that same bus as Rosa Parks in 1955.
For Shelton, the exhibit was an opportunity to showcase the art works created about the Black experience over many years. The result is 50 pieces of considerable breadth and complexity. Under the broad overall theme, certain sub-themes become apparent: women and children, home and church, struggle and accomplishments, joy and pain.
Add to that is the additional layering of multiple media: paper collage, graphite, wood assemblage, and mixed media. Known for his bold colors and dynamic patterns, Shelton uses unrelated and/or found materials to make new creations.
An excellent example, in prominent view, is “Seats for the Ancestors,” a collage/mixed media art work using a discarded painted canvas to new creative purpose. The piece celebrates those who fought for seats at the table and those who benefited therefrom, the celebrities that everyone recognizes and acknowledges as excellent in their fields. Flanking the piece, as if in acknowledgment of the original ancestors, are two wood assemblages of African masks with collaged frames. Flanking those are two collages, with American flags containing stars of famous Black women and Black men.
There are two other works relating to ancestors, one actually called “Ancestors,” a wood assemblage/mixed media piece in the shape of a cross, and the other, an acrylic painting/mixed media piece called “The Unnamed Ancestors,” referring to all the mothers who sacrificed so that their children could rise to their full potential.
Then there are the dramatic 3-D wooden shacks in a progression of becoming more and more liveable, aptly titled “Feel the Love,” “Love Abides Here,” and “Movin’ On Up,” testimonies to building a home and a life piece by piece from whatever resources one could find.
As visitors move through the show, each section reveals another aspect of the Black experience and invites them to contemplate how it relates to other parts of the show and also what their personal relationship is to what they are viewing, quite apart from any aesthetic response to its beauty and power.
The overall impact for Shelton, in viewing his own show, is to see it as a springboard for future endeavors. Recently featured by Pigment International, a premier magazine devoted to Black art, in their series on what the 250th birthday of the United States means to Black artists at this point in time, Shelton had this to say:
“Before the current administration came into power, I had already been leaning towards more narrative and an increased emphasis on message in my work. Now, however, I am convinced that we are at a critical junction in this nation’s history where truth must win or we all lose. But in order for truth to win, it must be recognized and spoken. Therefore, I must choose to use my art to bear witness to the times in which I live and to document Black history, so it is not lost.”
A long-time Bronx resident, Shelton’s background includes undergraduate and graduate studies in art, art education, and printmaking at Lehman College, where he became Adjunct Professor of Education, teaching early childhood and elementary school teachers. For more than 30 years, he was an art teacher at John F. Kennedy High School, inspiring through his own artwork and love of art a multitude of future artists.
Retired from teaching in 2016, he continued to produce artwork on a full-time basis. He has exhibited in solo and group shows, winning numerous prizes in different media, throughout the Bronx, Westchester, and surrounding areas, including Rye Arts Center, Upstream Gallery in Hastings, Riverfront Gallery and Blue Door Art Center in Yonkers, Gallery 18 and Gallery 505 in Riverdale, the Poe Art Center in the Bronx, and the Harlem State Office Building Art Gallery in Manhatten. Last year, he made his international debut in a collage show in the Czech Republic.
An artist talk and reception is scheduled for Saturday, January 24th from 2 – 4pm. According to those who know, it is highly anticipated, as Shelton has a reputation for entertaining, insightful, interactive talks—in other words, very audience-friendly.
Although he always looks forward with anticipation to the audience reaction to his shows, Shelton is particularly interested in seeing how visitors respond to this exhibit of artworks he’s created long-term about the Black experience.
“I want visitors to the show walking away knowing not only that Black people were an important part of the history of this nation but, given the accelerated attack on this history, and the many attempts to re-write and even erase it, they should also recognize that we all, Black and White, must do all we can to ensure that our collective history is preserved, the truth prevails, and a brighter future is secured.” Blue Door Art Center is located at 13 Riverdale Ave, Yonkers, NY.
