Miss Black America: Lavaughan Jenkins
“My work is layered in Black history and pop culture embracing blackness as a signifier of difference to address the marginalization of blacks in the visual and occupied space. The black aesthetic of the figures along with the countenance of grieving, non heroic, the quiet get thrusted into the grand narrative of art.” - Lavaughan Jenkins
Abigail Ogilvy Gallery proudly presents its first solo exhibition by Boston-based painter Lavaughan Jenkins. The exhibition, titled Miss Black America, is a powerful message that honors women past and present, embraces Blackness to address the marginalization of a group that is underrepresented in visual spaces, and is a demonstration of Jenkins' personal resilience as an artist. As his career has developed, Jenkins has experimented with dimensional space, texture, and color. Heavily influenced by fashion, the resulting body of work is an explosion of dynamic patterns used to explore the intersection of race, womanhood, and the Covid-19 pandemic. The exhibition is named after a song released in 1970 by musician and activist Curtis Mayfield, and still the lyrics remain just as relevant today. The paintings themselves capture both the chaos of the past year as well as the hope for the future.
