Cora Perkins, Assistant Spectrum Editor
A new group exhibition, “Black Queer GRITS: (Girls Raised In The South) is on view at ART 180’s Atlas Gallery until April 17.
The exhibition, created by and for Black, queer, feminine-presenting people, originally began as a dissertation project by Chandler Golden, a doctoral candidate in the VCU counseling psychology program.
“I wanted my dissertation to examine the lived experiences of SBQ [Southern, Black, queer] femmes using a method called photovoice,” Golden said. “Photovoice has people take photos that represent their experiences in hopes that it can impact their community.”
It was during the eight-week period of working on her project that Golden, and nine other SBQ femmes alongside her, decided to create an exhibition from the project.
“We picked ART 180 as our primary gallery of interest because of their reputation in the community, the fact that they were located in a historically Black neighborhood, and had a variety of Black femmes on their staff,” Golden said. “All those things were very important to us because we wanted to know that where the photos were potentially shown would mirror our own commitments.”
Golden has many hopes for what the exhibition will accomplish in the Richmond community.
“First, more than anything I hope that this exhibition will somehow help Black, queer femmes [and folx broadly] to feel valued and to know that they do have community,” Golden said. “I’m hoping at the reception people can mix and mingle and leave with new connections or deepen existing ones because we’re navigating very difficult times and I think the best way we can get through it is together, with a community.”
Attendees of “Black Queer GRITS” can expect to see the Polaroids from Golden’s original project, as well as work from SBQ femmes in the community who celebrate southern, Black, queer life, according to Golden.
Everyone is an expert in their own experience, and Black, queer women exist at a unique intersection of identities, according to Isabella Salcedo, a sewist whose work will be featured.
“I love that the “Black Queer GRITS” project privileges Black, queer women because it allows for all of this collective knowledge to exist in the same room for a few hours, to learn from each other and to engage with each person’s unique perspective on the world,” Salcedo said.
Salcedo is showing her piece “Camellia,” a baby quilt inspired by familial heirlooms. To her, it is a physical manifestation of love passed on from generation to generation.
“Putting in the significant effort to make something that is beautiful, longlasting and useful has allowed me to understand love as a verb, an action one can take,” Salcedo said.
Black, queer women are a vital part of the fabric of every single group, especially the queer community, yet they are often excluded and shown little consideration, said Shannon Wright, a mixed-media artist whose work is included in the showcase.
“So to have an art exhibition that explicitly celebrates the magnitude of Black, queer women is a wonderful sight to see,” Wright said. “I’m a strong believer in giving people their flowers and, to me, Black, queer women deserve that and so much more.”
Wright’s artwork “Outer Blue,” a mixed-media piece, explores the complicated, and almost alien, feeling a lot of Black women feel in terms of their own gender, according to Wright.
“The color palette was very intentional and calls reference to the color ‘haint blue’ most commonly used in the South,” Wright said. “I wanted to bridge color, gender and my deep love for the otherworldly together into a single piece. ‘Outer Blue’ depicts my back-and-forth desire to fit into the mold of what it means to be a Black woman, yet feeling like a strange entity in my own body: stretched thin, fragmented and billowing.”
Wright thinks the exhibition will be a great way for Black, queer women to come together and continue to grow and flourish.
“I think it will bring important conversations to the art scene and serve as a way for people to wake up and pay attention to the voices and artists who have forever existed and will continue to exist,” Wright said.
“Black Queer GRITS” is on view at ART 180’s Atlas Gallery until April 17. The gallery is located at 114 W. Marshall St. More information is available at art180.org.