Fri 11/5 @ 5-8PM
It seems like Cleveland artist Davon Brantley is everywhere these days; you can’t turn around without finding the 2018 Cleveland Institute of Art graduate in a gallery or a group show.
You can see what he’s all about in an intimate space perfect for close-up viewing when he opens his show Familiar Phases in the upstairs gallery at Deep Dive Art Projects in the Waterloo Arts District. These recent prints were created during a stint as artist-in-residence at Deep Dive, which began last spring. During two months of sessions, he created experimental monoprints that share some of the attributes of his larger scale paintings and drawings.
Explaining the source of his portrait-based work, Brantley says, “I guide the audience through my own narratives involving experiences of colorism, racial stereotyping, and meditations on death, life, sexuality and masculinity. Through the use of my own image, the viewer is presented with images of someone who is not themselves, who may or may not share the same experiences as them and someone who is actively disrupting expectations based on identity.”
The work will go on view during Walk All Over Waterloo on Friday November 5; the show runs through Wednesday December 1.