August 19-October 28, 2023 @ 11AM - 6PMExhibit Dates: August 19 – Oct 28, 2023
Artist(s): Stacey A. Robinson
Location: Katharine Gardner Stevenson Gallery, Quincy Art Center, 1515 Jersey St., Quincy, IL 62301
Reception Date and Time: Aug 19, 1 – 3 pm with an artist talk at 1:30 pm
Additional Programs: ArtFest, Sept 16, 1 – 4 pm; Workshop Oct 28, 2023 details TBD
Description:
AfroNOW: A Journey through Blackest Space on the Other Side of Time, featuring artwork by Stacey A. Robinson, will be on view in the Katharine Gardner Stevenson Gallery at the Quincy Art Center, 1515 Jersey St., Quincy, IL 62301, August 19 – Oct 28, 2023. Join us for a reception on August 19, 2023, 1 – 3 p.m. and an artist talk at 1:30 p.m. Robinson will be engaging with gallery visitors during the Quincy Art Center’s ArtFest, September 16, 2023, 1 – 4 p.m., a family friendly open house style event with free art activities. Robinson’s multimedia artwork discusses decolonized Black futures and is influenced by science fiction, Black liberation politics, and comic books. Robinson’s artwork is part of the larger cultural movement, Afrofuturism. In visual art, the genre of Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic that combines science-fiction, history, and fantasy to explore the African-American experience and envision positive black futures that stem from Afro-diasporic experiences. Robinson’s artwork has been exhibited internationally, and most notably at the Smithsonian’s Arts & Industries Building in 2021 and at Carnegie Hall in 2022. Robinson is an Associate Professor of Graphic Design & Design for Responsible Innovation at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Fine and Applied Arts. Exhibits are always free and open to the public. Open hours are Wednesday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Artist Statement:
The displacement of Black people throughout time and distance is a consistent phenomenon that leaves those who benefit from Black oppression absent of any obligation to dismantle it. When in the past oppression is “back then, and you should move on,” when distanced, conversed are ideas like, “that’s all the way over there in Africa, what can I do about it?”
We mustn’t confuse an exploration of Black futures as opulent and speculated pop cultural fantasy that will happen magically. It will happen due to strategic, allied, and uncomfortable shifts in our thinking, actions, and legislation that will legitimize Black sustainable futures, and it begins with Black people taking these actions first.
AfroNOW: a Journey Through BLACKEST SPACE on the Other Side of Time is a visual essay placing thought with visual resonance through multimedia collaboration in effort to build the inevitable Black future… in the AfroNOW.
Artist Bio:
Stacey A. Robinson, MFA, born in Albany, NY is an Associate Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The influence of science fiction, Black liberation politics, and comic books fuel Stacey’s multimedia practice. His work discusses decolonized Black futures. He moved to NYC the day that Tupac died and the next day became an intern for Milestone Media Inc., a Black owned comic book company that inspired many of today’s comic creators. He interned at Black Enterprise magazine, and Acclaim Comics. In Fayetteville, NC, he attained his associates, and bachelors degrees while working professionally as a graphic designer. Receiving a full scholarship, and the Arthur Schomburg Fellowship he attended the State University of New York in Buffalo where he received his Master of Fine Arts in 2015. He was a 2019-2020 Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellow at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research.
Illustrated books include: ‘I Am Alfonso Jones’ written by Tony Medina (2017) Lee & Low Books, and ‘Across the Tracks: Remembering Greenwood, Black Wall Street, and the Tulsa Race Massacre’, written Alverne Ball (2021) Abrams Books. Recent exhibitions include: Ascension of Black Stillness (CEPA Gallery) and The Black Angel of History (Carnegie Hall) 2022.
