THE FOCUS

Photography began as an escape from the scholarly work that I felt I was continuously submerged in. The physically of taking a picture, rolling up the film, and developing it made me feel like I had to work for every frame I shot. The art I create is the only thing in my life I feel like is truly mine. Asafe Pereira, Studio Visit, September 2017 (photo credit: Asafe Pereira) Asafe Pereira, Studio Visit, September 2017 (photo credit: Asafe Pereira) Asafe Pereira,...

My work explores the visual culture of cartography, occult imagery, game boards, geographical souvenirs, and other structures of information that is altered to examine the relationship of identity, space, and place. The disruption of these visual systems reveals a thin boundary between the known and unknown, between knowledge and superstition. Nick DeFord, Studio Visit, August 2017 Nick DeFord, Studio Visit, August 2017 The repetitive hand-mechanical process used in stitching, layering, piercing or accumulation gives the work an added inference of compulsivity, craft,...

"There has never been a free people, a free country, a real democracy on the face of this Earth. In a city of some 300,000 slaves and 90,000 so called free men, Plato sat down and praised freedom in exquisitely elegant phrases." - Lerone Bennett Jr. As a Chicano Artist, the recurrent themes are the subjugation of my community by the Dominant Culture and White Privilege. These works manifest themselves in the creation of counter-images and counter-definitions made in a self-determinant manner....

In my studio right now, I’m shifting gears into a new body of work. I had a solo show in March called Love Song at L Ross Gallery and all summer I’ve been thinking about how those paintings will be stepping stones into my new work. I’m in what I call ‘the in between time” when I build, stretch, and gesso a bunch of new canvases, draw a whole lot, make collages and little sculptures, sift, research, experiment...

My current work further explores interests in chance, impulse, and interruptions through the lens of cut and paste collage. Collage is my natural springboard for irreverent, reckless and silly decisions which yield detached yet inevitable unions of form. Images are appropriated from found print media, ephemera, as well as my own drawings, paintings, and other divergent investigations. - Kate Faulkner, 2017 Kate Faulkner, Studio Visit, July 2017 Kate Faulkner, Studio Visit, July 2017 Kate Faulkner was born in Carrboro, NC and currently lives...

My name is Carl E. Moore and I'm from Canton, MS. I currently live and work in Memphis, TN as an artist and designer. I attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Memphis College of Art where I received my BFA and MFA. Carl E. Moore, Studio Visit, June 2017 Carl E. Moore, Studio Visit, June 2017 Carl E. Moore, Studio Visit, June 2017 The work I’ve created over the last few years has dealt with identity an...

The things that inspire me are the absurd people and events I encounter on a daily basis. I'm basically holding up a funhouse mirror to the insanity/stupidity that I see. But I have to laugh at these things, otherwise it would be extremely depressing. - Alex Paulus, June 2017 Alex Paulus, Studio Visit, June 2017 Alex Paulus, Studio Visit, June 2017 Alex Paulus, Studio Visit, June 2017 Alex Paulus is originally from southeast Missouri, but has been a resident of Memphis, TN since 2007....

Lester Merriweather's collages use imagery from printed advertising material in fashion and lifestyle magazines. In re-contextualizing these images, Merriweather examines ads and media materials that promote notions of racial prominence and inferiority. Lester Merriweather, Studio Visit, June 2017 Lester Merriweather, Studio Visit, June 2017 Lester Julian Merriweather (b.1978) is a Memphis-based visual artist. He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture. He holds an MFA from Memphis College of Art and a BA from Jackson State University. Lester Merriweather, Studio Visit,...