A solo exhibition at Providence College Galleries, Cherry's Dirtypower showcases an installation of sculptural paintings that merge two of the artist’s recent interests: imagery warped by Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) monitor technology, and the representation of black female bodies in the media. Using figurative painting to portray black women in Ivy League collegiate gear, Cherry’s paintings are rendered and wall-mounted on metal swivel arms to look like flat-screen televisions. To reposition the outmoded idea of the paintings as a window to literal and figurative worlds, each artwork instead proposes painting as a screen—an addictively interactive and luminous surface that is central to everyday life while also mediating it —that won’t let the viewer look away. To mimic the solarized imagery of a tilted or malfunctioning LCD screen, Cherry paints with inverted kaleidoscopic color palettes. She distorts her female subjects to suggest the classist, racist and sexist stereotypes that might be implied by exaggerated facial features and revealing fashion. Combined with serious attitude and humor, however, the depicted women ooze a knowing awareness and rejection of objectification.
The result is a mesmerizing series of portraits of an array of characters who tell stories of their own but also of their artist-author. They convey Cherry’s rejection of an artist’s obligation to combat stereotypes. Her artwork as the primary method, she instead pursues cultural reclamation and the eradication of gender, all the while working toward the creation of infinite possibilities for future feminists.
Dirtypower is organized by Jamilee Lacy, PC–G Director and Curator. The exhibition, conjunctive programming and fully- illustrated publication (forthcoming February 2019) is generously co-supported by Providence College's Black Studies Program, Center @ Moore Hall, Department of Art & Art History and Women's Studies Program. Additional funding is provided by The Reilly Gallery Fund, a gift of the late Robert F. Reilly (PC '42).
