Previously: Opening Thursday, March 4, 2021 5-8pm. Zeitgeist: A Collective Thought, curated by Kimisha Turner

Vermillion | March 2, 2021

Zeitgeist: A Collective Thought features the incredible artists of Vivid Matter Collective, the creative force that created the historic Black Lives Matter Mural in Seattle’s CHOP zone. With 2020 in the history books and 2021 still just beginning to unfold, artists are needed more than ever to share their interpretations and perspectives. Art was the needed fuel to uplift and tap into the current state of the world last year, the thing so many took for granted and never knew they needed. Although artists have always been valuable to society and the molding of our culture, it has had a renewal of appreciation and recognition during this historic time during a pandemic, civil reckoning and economic as well as environmental uncertainty. Zeitgeist: A Collective Thought presents the personal perspectives of this unprecedented time and the cautious optimism of the future.

Artists:
Brandon Thomas: www.artbreakerbt.com @artbreakerbt
Brandon “BT” Thomas (He/They) is a ripple of the Great Migration; the Nebraskan son whose Black father survived Alabama in the 1950-60s. BT’s quest to find community has placed them in the Pacific Northwest. Now in Seattle, he sharpens his paintbrushes and vigilantly uses his love and talent to combat the fascism and racism still rampant today.

Growing up as a “mixed-race” person, BT has always been hyper-aware of fusions, mixtures, and duality. Their Pop-Surrealistic style is filled with visual portmanteaus and is inspired by Kehinde Wiley, Louise Bourgeois, and Salvador Dali. BT loves to bend expectations with the juxtaposition of forms and subliminal imagery. As painting has been a personal life-saving catharsis, Brandon often makes a point to include humor in his work.

Moses Sun: www.mosessun.studio, @moses_sun
Seattle based artist, Moses Sun, creates analog, digital, and mixed media art. Sun draws much of his inspiration from his southern upbringing along with Black, African, Asian, and Latinx diasporas. He blends these influences into abstract meditative constellations of movement expressed on paper, wood, and large-scale murals. Sun’s work has been shown in both solo and group shows in Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle.
His work expresses blackness across multiple media platforms, laying bare his personal history, and humanity. He makes drawings on paper and iPad, digital and analogue photographs, sculpture, and installations, then samples them and in the hip-hop ethos of “grinding,” output them as relief sculptures, digital prints, video animations, games, and social media apps. He works intuitively, letting go of pretense so that the story reveals to the viewer an entry point, a beginning but never an end.

OneSevenNine:www.onesevennine.com –@onesevennine
My body of work centers around what it means to grow in difficult spaces. I use the natural landscape of a mural site and add vines, leaves, and patterns. I then accent the overgrowth with colors from nature and hyperintensify them with pops of complementary colors. I use intricate patterns and linework for the eye to follow while attempting to weave a story similar to how cultural textiles such as Huipilestell generational stories. I add animals and figurative work as a way to support this history and hope the viewer immerses themselves in the fairytale and folklore of the work I present; becoming not just an audience, but a participant and adding to the narrative with their own unique and personal experiences.

Perry Rhoden: www.PERRIRHODEN.com, @thecurlynugget
Perri Rhoden, is an Abstract Mixed Media Artist and Muralist inspired by color, texture, and dramatic lighting found in nature and media. Her art is representative of her personal experiences, inspirational Black women, and her manifestations of feminine energy captured on canvas.

Kimisha Turner:www.kimishaturner.com , @Kimisha Turner
Kimisha is a mixed media artist who enjoys working in various processes to execute her conceptual vision. She creates murals, sculptures, performance art and community engagement while reflecting the times. there is a familiar thread in her work of layers and beauty combined with challenging subject matter, in the hope that it is provocative yet easily digested by a varied audience. She is also a mother to an amazingly beautiful flipbook-making boy.

Barry Johnson: www.barryjohnson.co, @barryjohnson.co
As an interdisciplinary creative, Barry Johnson explores multiple modes of storytelling working across all mediums. He does it all, from writing, sculpting, curating, and painting exploring Black race, history and identity. He loves to change styles often while constantly challenging himself to explore new formats.

Perry Porter: www.perrypaints.com @perrypaints
PayPal – Perrypaintsmusic@gmail.com
CashApp – PerryPorterPerry Porter, a contemporary painter, muralist and songwriter from Tacoma, WA. Mainly using
watercolor (Acrylic for canvas and mural work), Perry’s work is known for emphasizing the aesthetics “Black Boy Joy & Black Girl Magic”, Porter work deals with the documentation of modern events and the question of how they can be represented in real time. Blurring the lines of abstract movement and recognizable human forms – the results are deconstructed to the extent that meaning is shifted and possible interpretation becomes multifaceted. His work questions the conditions of appearance of one’s own image in the context of contemporary culture; in which images, representations and ideas normally seem to function. By applying a poetic and often metaphorical language, he touches various overlapping themes and strategies. Several recurring subject matters can be recognized, such as the relation with popular culture and media, working with repetition, provocation and the investigation of the process of expectations.

Afrospk: www.thekingfroshow.com
The inspiration of my art today is focused on community, growth and preservation. Which is focused on art sustainability and building platforms for artists to showcase their work. My work begins by connecting artists to the greater Seattle art scene while also building a community and network that brings creatives together. In my art you see the influence of the african american culture and community building. Theface archetype, Grupa, which means group. In my work Grupa becomes a symbol (of a person within) that helps create growth around it, which in return helps create opportunities forcommunities to succeed. I constantly keep myself motivated in going after my dreams and with that energy I have involved myself in various communities throughout Seattle. My goal is not to change the energy of any neighborhood, but to help preserve the culture that thrives already in communities of color With my work I want to help create new energy and motivation in different communities of Color. I want to help people to go after what they want by helping support their dreams. My goals are to promote underrepresented artists and musicians, I want to connect artists while also building a community and network that brings creatives together.