Manifestations of Hybridity

Date and Time for this Past Event

• Wednesday, Jan 22, 2020  6pm - 7:30pm

Location

Details

MANIFESTATIONS OF HYBRIDITY
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2020 | 6P – 7:30P

Join us for an evening with Saba Taj and Antoine Williams, two North Carolina-based artists whose work fearlessly addresses the figure in response to salient issues of our time. Their artwork seeks to capture what we gaze upon, yet frequently brings in the protagonist or antagonist, the psychological or socio-political narrative, issues of identity or an in-depth exploration of the human anatomy. These artists create work that reflects a style perhaps less about gesture and more about who they are as they contemplate the figure. Craft beer by Wooden Robot and light bites from Roots Catering. Program begins promptly at 6:30p and ends promptly at 7:30p.

 

Saba Taj is a Southern Muslim artist and arts advocate based in Durham, North Carolina. Her work is informed by her politicized identity as a queer Muslim in the American South, and challenges racism and xenophobia through empowered representations of people of color. Through interdisciplinary practices, Taj explores hybrid identities and the gaze, and imagines revolutionary futures. Saba was a featured speaker at TEDxDuke 2017, a founding member of Durham Artists Movement, and former executive director of The Carrack Modern Art. Taj received her BA in art education from North Carolina Central University, and an MFA in studio art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

 

Antoine Williams’ practice is an investigation of power, perception, semiotics, and fear as they relate to institutional inequities. Influenced by sci-fi literature from such authors as Octavia Butler and H.P. Lovecraft, Williams has created a mythology, concerning the complexities of contemporary Black life. Through mixed-media installations, paintings, drawings, and collages, he has created a mythos populated with beings that are born out of the fragility of what Ta-Nehisi Coates refers to as the “dream.” In addition, Williams is interested in making the personal, public, and draws from his own experiences from a rural, working-class upbringing in North Carolina that relate to wider contemporary concerns of race, class and masculinity.