Flowing Abstraction: Contemporary African Diaspora Printmaking

Flowing Abstraction: Contemporary African Diaspora Printmaking highlights the creative process and the flow of artistic ideas and knowledge as revealed in 24 abstract fine-art prints by eight artists of varied African, Caribbean, and African-American heritages and nationalities.

And join us Saturday, January 27 from 12 -1 pm, as Highpoint hosts a free public curator conversation with Michele Parchment, Brandywine Executive Director, and Taylor Jasper, Walker Art Center Assistant Curator of Visual Arts.

Exhibiting Artists:

El Anatsui, b. 1944, Ghanian

Enise Carr, b. 1973, American/African American heritage

Adama Delphine Fawundu, b. 1971, Sierra Leonean and American/Mende, Bubi, Sierra Leonean, Equatorial Guinean heritage

Sam Gilliam, 1933–2022, American/African American heritage

Tim McFarlane, b. 1964, American/African American heritage

Julie Mehretu, b. 1970, Ethiopian and American

Kebedech Tekleab, b. 1958, Ethiopian/African heritage

Tyler Yvette Wilson, b. 1992, American/African American heritage

“Flow is a state of being associated with creativity and enhanced performance,” explains Klare Scarborough, Ph.D., a curator, educator, author, and arts administrator who contributed to the exhibition catalog’s essay. “Flow enters the creative process in moments when action and awareness merge, when artists become completely absorbed in their tasks, and their sense of time slips away. Working within a turbulent political and social climate, including a global pandemic, these artists actively sought opportunities to expand their artistic practices through experimentation, learning, and collaboration.”

Abstraction is currently understood to involve the translation of lived experience through embodied practices. The artists featured in Flowing Abstraction, while sharing African Diasporic heritage, represent a range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and they are diverse in their artistic interests and goals. Their influences include music, dance, literature, philosophy, architecture, history, politics, current events, social injustices, personal stories, ancestral heritage, and the environment. They work primarily in artistic mediums other than printmaking, such as painting, sculpture, collage, photography, performance, and installation. While their artworks presented in Flowing Abstraction are considered non-representational, they emerge as passionate responses to their phenomenological experiences of the world.

For more information check out Highpoint's website here.