Meet us at Oolite Arts for an inspiring window into Good Times, the solo exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Chris Friday with curator Laura Novoa. Rarely do we have a firsthand opportunity to experience an exhibition through the lens of its makers. On Saturday, March 18, we’ll dive a little deeper with the visionaries behind the show, replete with beverages, snacks, and a special takeaway. RSVP suggested.
In Good Times, multi-disciplinary artist Friday continues her exploration of the depiction of Black bodies and their presence/absence in contemporary space. Sourcing personal narratives, expressions of popular culture, and communal ritual, Friday utilizes drawing, video, illustration, sound, and ceramic sculpture to create installations that prompt the viewer to consider more expansive notions of blackness and where communities – known and unknown – are given a space to dialogue, reflect, and celebrate.
Friday’s subjects – family, friends, colleagues – and the settings in which they exist, become mechanisms to unsettle traditional hierarchies and arrangements of power. In particular, she presents large-scale drawings of figures in acts of leisure – playing, dancing, resting – that refuse full exposure in a slight but noticeable turning away from the viewer. By placing them in the public realm (i.e. the gallery space), but limiting access to their interiority, Friday’s works inhabit a liminal space that is at once visible and hidden, silent and defiant.
