The Museum of Geometric and MADI Art is pleased to present a new exhibition bringing together 30 artworks by three African American artists.  A collection of bold and subtle colors with majestic forms and shapes in composition with repetitious lines by artists Kevin Cole, Albert Shaw, and Jack White come together for a first at the Museum.   Collectively their work indicates areas where African American art intersects elements of MADI art: Movement, Abstraction, Dimension, and Invention. PARALLELS and CONTRASTS opens July 20 with an artist reception beginning at 5:30 PM for members and 6:30 PM for the public.

African American Art has its roots in African design and pattern elements.  African art is composed of cultural traditions, functions, and spiritual practices.  During the Harlem Renaissance, African American philosopher and scholar Alain Locke encouraged African American performing and visual artists to look to Africa for inspiration to create an honest esthetic expression to identify and define the state of African American experience and culture.  In part, Locke’s mandate suggested that Black artists depict African and African American subjects and to draw on both their histories and iconography for subject matter.

Utilizing found objects, and African elements designs and patterns combined with personal and social messages inspired by historic events of Africans in American events, Cole, Shaw, and White continue Locke’s mandate by creating honest esthetic expressions to identify and define African American culture.  

Kevin Cole works in various mediums which includes wood, tar paper, etched aluminum, among others.  With a specific theme in mind, Cole works in series.  He employs repetitive forms, textures and colors based on the theme of the series’ focus.  Cole creates three dimensional structures that invite those who experience his work to reflect upon abstracted references to a necktie used for status, beauty, fashion and the destruction of human life.  Cole was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.  He received a B.S. degree in art education from the University of Arkansas, Pine, Bluff, Arkansas; an M.F. degree in Art Education and Painting 1983, from the University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois, and an M.F.A. degree in 1985 from Northern Illinois, in DeKalb, Illinois. Cole lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia.

Albert Shaw:  “My influence comes from outside the arena.  It is inspired by history, myth, ritual, fantasy nature, and icons from ancient civilizations influenced by the tribal art of the Dogon and Yoruba tribes of West Africa.”  Shaw’s work has evolved as a result of studying African textiles and observing Egyptian, Nubian, and South American pyramids. The repetitious ziggurat line formations in his paintings are base on a grid system he created to give his composition structure.  The lines are less hard edge and have become more colorful and symbolic to recall African textiles.  His work is in the San Angelo Art Museum Collection and the African American Museum among others national corporations.  Shaw has had several solo exhibitions and has participated in numerous group exhibitions in museums, art centers, and galleries nationwide.  In 1989, Albert Shaw has a major solo exhibition, Reflection:  Images of Power and Ritual at the Cathedral of St. John the Devine in New York City, New York.  The exhibit featured drawings, paintings, and collages.  Shaw was born in Marshall, Texas. After graduation  from  Pemberton  High School, he attended and received a BFA degree in Studio Arts at North Texas State University (now University of North Texas) in Denton, Texas.   Albert Shaw lives in Dallas, Texas. 

Jack White’s wood assemblage paintings reflect penetrating resemblance to MADI art.  However, his intents refer to original African sources that have inspired not only African American artists but Western European artists as well. White was born in Benson, North Carolina.  At an early age, with his family, White moved to Raleigh where he studied mechanical drawing and wood-working at the George Washington High School.  He received his B.S. in Art/education from Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland.  White worked as an artist in various art centers and programs in upstate New York.  Eventually as an African American Fellow, he did graduate work in Museum Studies at Syracuse University.  Like earlier African American artist, White lived in Europe for an extended period in Greece.
Currently, White lives and works in Austin, Texas  

This exhibit is funded by the Texas Commission for the Arts, Office of Cultural Affairs of the City of Dallas and Kilgore Law Firm.