Khaleelah I. L. Harris' Curatorial Portfolio
CUSP
A Solo Exhibition by Gherdai Hassell
September 14 - October 29th | Mehari Sequar Gallery
"In an exploration of identity, migration, and self-expression, Gherdai Hassell brilliantly layers the color Black and engages elements of Bermudian cultural history to articulate possibilities for the future. Through figurative mixed media collage on paper and tapestry, and abstract mixed media collage work on wood, Hassell uses her anthropomorphic "alibi" figures and profound yet unintelligable moments to present Black Women with a telegram from the future. Their messages are clear--we are on the CUSP of something greater. "
- Khaleelah I. L. Harris, Exhibition Curator
MORE TRUE THAN FACT
A Retrospective Body of Work by Djibril Drame
July 20th - September 4th | Mehari Sequar Gallery
"More True Than Fact" is a retrospective exhibition that explores the themes and concepts articulated in the works of Senegalese photographer Djibril Drame. The exhibition draws together key elements of the lived experiences explored and the narratives articulated over the course of Drame's 15 year career to present his particular vision for the future of African people. Natural elements, scenes, and customs of senegalese culture are presented and positioned to aid Drame in articulating his vision for the future.
Although the future we are attempting to build is merely a figment of our imaginations, not yet intelligible through our ways of knowing, the momentousness of our freedom makes every vision constructed more true than fact.
- Khaleelah I. L. Harris, Exhibition Curator
Overgrown
A Solo Exhibition by Shara Mays
March 30th - May 8th 2023 | Mehari Sequar Gallery
Overgrown is a solo exhibition in which 10 works of abstraction, one sculptural installation, and one sound recording come together to track movement through a transdimensional plain. The sculpture that uses old clothing from both Shara and her mother, and the audio recordings of phone conversations between the two, present the profound interiority of Black Women’s familial relationships. While the show beautifully explores abstracted landscapes similar to prior pieces by the artist, it incorporates an evolution of the ideas within her studio practice. In particular, visually archiving memories through the act of painting.
The work of Shara Mays is abstraction. The density of the ethos and ancestry that informs her work, and the work and lives of so many others, creates figuration. It makes intelligible and logical the intuitive and chaotic world in which her work is constructed. Her works are performances of both subconscious motions and are in constant conversation with the natural world. Originally from Princeville, North Carolina, her new body of work seeks to document and archive memories of her early childhood in The South. What is the importance of the North Carolinian-in-origin, Shara-in-design, and transregional-in-praxis lineages of these works?
- Khaleelah I. L. Harris, Exhibition Curator
An Aesthetic of Blackness: The Sacred & The Profound
A Solo Exhibition by Jamilla Okubo
November - December 2022 | Mehari Sequar Gallery
An Aesthetic of Blackness: The Sacred and the Profound is a theoretical intervention which considers the home as the most significant site of intimacy, Black Femininity and style. The ability to see oneself, and for others to see you, is a form of validation. Where do we truly see, unsee and examine ourselves the most? In her third solo exhibition, Jamilla Okubo takes a leap in a new direction. Through muted colors and an emphasis on the objects that characterize our most significant site of intimacy, Okubo reveals her subjects in a new way.
The homes that set as the backdrop for the different periods in our lives are determined by the figures that dominated those spaces. In consideration of the glamorous, sexy, assured, stylish subjects she admires, Okubo is interested in embracing and validating the existence of Black Women through the presentation of this particular site of intimacy.
In this exhibition, Okubo offers a new visual language for Black womanhood. This is a pivotal moment in the early career of Jamilla Okubo, as it reveals a new stage of her portrayal of Black women. While her subjects remain centered conceptually, they are truly articulated through their surroundings. We get an opportunity to consider how the stages of our lives are reflected in the figures and objects that shift in our home. Through the relationship between the painter and her subject, we also get a fresh perspective into the ways in which black women aid one another in the process of determining themselves.
Jamilla Okubo’s third solo exhibition is a testament to the power and necessity of intimate spaces in the efforts to build ourselves and our futures. It is a message to the world that reveals the profundity of identity formation at the most significant sites of intimacy, and how visually stunning those sacred moments can truly be.
- Khaleelah I. L. Harris, Exhibition Curator
Space Between
A Solo Exhibition by Redeat Assefa
May 20th - June 29th 2022 | Mehari Sequar Gallery
Redeat Assefa’s exhibition prompts
us, “What lies between presence and absence, what exists in the binary spac- es?” In the space between the culmina- tion of a thought and the formation of a new thing lies a world of visuals that express the philosophical conundrums which a rational existence thrusts upon us.
As this exhibition holds a mixture of older and never before seen pieces, I encourage a kind of consumption of Asse- fa’s delicately titled works of abstraction that engenders consideration of time, space, and light through what is visual, in hopes that you might find respite. With oil paint, strategic and mesmerizing strokes both lead the way towards personal reflection while accommodating self-lead meditation. Between and amidst the stains, gradients, and more visible brush strokes you will hear from the inner depths of yourselves an exclamation; “you plucked your soul out of its secret place and brought it to the mirror of your eye!”
- Khaleelah I. L. Harris, Exhibition Curator
Allegories, Renditions, & A Small Nation of Women
A Collage Exhibition
October 18th 2021 - January 28th 2022 | Sarah G. Smith Gallery at
Yale University Divinity School
Allegories, Renditions and A Small Nation of Women is a visual art and public history exhibition which examines African American Women’s History, Christianity, and the citizenship project of the turn of the 19th century. This collage art exhibition is placed in conversation with a public history exhibition, curated by Harris and examines the way in which African American portraits can reveal the machinations of Black and Mixed Race women seeking to elevate their social stature in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Contemporary visual art is paired with historical artifacts, aiding viewers as they visualize what the archives could not hold and the particular way in which these women sought full citizenship through identity formation practices in post-emancipation U.S. In both secular and sacred spaces, innovation and freedom erupted out of the principals and practices of a Christian-American identity. They existed as Black renditions of constructions of Womanhood that depended on their contorted existence, and they were a small burgeoning nation of women.
- Khaleelah I. L. Harris, Exhibition Curator