TRUTH & INAUGURATION
FEATURING CHARLES FARRAR & ANDREW WILSON
Our first digital exhibition examines the history of Inauguration Day in the United States of America. Featuring Virginia-based woodturner Charles Farrar and Detroit-based textile artist Andrew Wilson, this show features artwork that is a meditation on slow craft and how this slowness collects, amplifies, and transports the viewer through care. In the words of Andrew Wilson, the making of the work “is the way I peer into the archive and interrogate the histories that shape the fabric of Blackness.” Farrar, whose work was included in the Obama White House Collection, pays homage to woodturning’s north African roots through evocative pieces that explore the African American experience.
The 20th Amendment to the Constitution specifies that the term of each elected President of the United States begins at noon on January 20 of the year following the election. The word inauguration stems from the Latin augur, which refers to the rituals of ancient Roman priests seeking to interpret if it was the will of the gods for a public official to be deemed worthy to assume office. Each president must take the oath of office before assuming the duties of the position. What does history tell us about the will that led the way to January 20, 2025? How do artists whose work centers on untold – or under told – stories provide context and meaning to this moment in time? This exhibition explores history through the lens of contemplative contemporary artwork born of dedication and devotion to truth telling.
Andrew Wilson
What We Mutter Under Our Breath
Cyanotype, muslin, poplar, ebony, bronze, toned, hand-quilted
114 x 60 in
Andrew Wilson
What They Yell in the Streets
Cyanotype muslin, poplar, ebony, bronze, toned, hand-quilted
114 x 60 in
Andrew Wilson, What They Yell in the Streets detail
Charles Farrar
Hammered Wood Vessel with lid
Maple
7 x 7 x 7 in
Charles Farrar
Hollow Turned Vessel with lid
Ambrosia Maple
7.5 x 9.5 x 9.5 in
Charles Farrar, Hammered Wood Vessel with lid detail
Andrew Wilson
Point of Departure
Cyanotype on cotton, muslin, toned, hand-quilted
93 x 64 in
Andrew Wilson
When it Blooms, Sleeping Apparatus
Cyanotype on cotton, boutis, toned, hand-quilted
92 x 59 in
DEAR BLACK BOY
YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL
SETTING OVER
LIKE THE SUN
THE PACIFIC
Andrew Wilson, When it Blooms, Sleeping Apparatus detail
Charles Farrar
Natural Edge Bowl
African Jarrah
3.5 x 8.75 x 8.75 in
Charles Farrar
Hollow Turned Vessel
Ambrosia Maple
7.5 x 9 x 9 in
WE SAW THE LIGHTNING AND THAT WAS THE GUNS;
AND THEN WE HEARD THE THUNDER AND THAT WAS THE BIG GUNS;
AND THEN WE HEARD THE RAIN FALLING AND THAT WAS THE BLOOD FALLING;
WHEN WE CAME TO GET IN THE CROPS;
IT WAS DEAD MEN WE REAPED
Andrew Wilson
Harvest for the World
Cyanotype on cotton, brass, boutis
92 x 60 in
Charles Farrar
African Honey Pot carved with lid
Ambrosia Maple, cocobolo
13 x 10.5 x 10.5 in
Charles Farrar
Homage to Sharecroppers | 🔴 SOLD
Spalted Maple
60 x 48 in
Charles Farrar, African Honey Pot carved with lid detail
Andrew Wilson
…And its Afterlives
Cyanotype on mixed fabrics (cotton, denim, silk, dutch was, toned, hand quilted
112 x 68 in
Andrew Wilson received his BFA from Ohio Wesleyan University in 2013 with a concentration in Jewelry/Metals and his MFA from the University of California, Berkeley in 2017. Wilson’s work has been in many galleries and institutions including: The Berkeley Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SOMArts, and the Museum of the African Diaspora. He has received such awards and honors as: the Jack K. and Gertrude Murphy Award, an Emergency Grant from the Foundation of Contemporary Arts, the Carr Center Independent Scholars Fellowship, the McColl Center and more.
Wilson has also worked with Carrie Mae Weems on The Spirit that Resides in Havana, Cuba alongside the Havana Biennial and The Future is Now Parade for the opening of The REACH in Washington D.C. His work has been collected by Michigan State University and the University of New Mexico.
Charles Farrar is an internationally celebrated wood artist whose artworks honor the valuable skills and creative abilities that enslaved Africans brought with them to the North and South American continents. Using hand-selected woods, Farrar creates fine art vessels that hold and emotionally convey ideas and concepts. In many of his works, Farrar taps into the universal symbols of totality, wholeness and timeliness to open the viewer’s eyes to the expansiveness of the cycles in time, life and nature itself. His works evoke a sense of wonder as they mirror the aesthetic standard of today while also providing a window into the historical context of the time.
Farrar regularly teaches at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Tennessee and the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina. His work is held in the private collections of former Essence magazine editor Susan Taylor, actress Debbie Allen, retired General Wesley Clark, and the John & Vivian Hewitt Collection of African-American Art. It is also featured in corporate and museum collections such as Bank of America; the David Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles; Danville Museum of Fine Art; Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture; The White House Collection; the Archbishop of Canterbury; and is held on permanent loan at the U.S. Embassy in Madagascar by the U.S. State Department.
ADDITIONAL PROGRAMMING:
CONVERSATION WITH DR. GOODWIN | JAN. 29, 2025 from 4 - 5p
View the video recording from our Zoom conversation with award-winning author, advocate, professor, and social commentator Dr. Michele Bratcher Goodwin. Dr. Goodwin is a renowned bioethicist, constitutional legal scholar, prolific writer, and podcast host. Her work interrogates the narratives we are told about ourselves, and how those narratives continue by operation of law and social constructs. We will discuss with Dr. Goodwin the power of seeing and thinking about those narratives in the context of Inauguration Day 2025, and how being clear about our full history as a country is critical to understanding the present and our future.
Dr. Goodwin is a global thought leader and advisor. Her scholarship and advocacy have forged a path for justice in civil liberties, educational access, and reproductive health and rights. She is the host of the popular podcast, On the Issues with Michele Goodwin, at Ms. magazine. Her writings address pressing matters of law, society, and global health. An award-winning author, her publications appear across five books and more than one hundred law review articles, book chapters, and commentaries. Her opinion editorials and commentaries can be found in the New York Times, LA Times, The Atlantic, Politico, Forbes, The Nation, the Christian Science Monitor, and other platforms. She is a frequent contributor to Ms. magazine.
