Chabalala Self: Around the Way

Exhibition January 20 − July 5, 2020
Chabalala Self (b. 1990 in Harlem, New York) creates large-scale figurative paintings that combine hand-printed and found textiles, drawings, engravings, sewing and collages telling stories of city life, the body and humanity.

The first presentation of the artist in Boston and its largest to dateExhibition will include a selection of paintings and sculptures representing personal avatars, connections and everyday social exchanges inspired by city life. Together they formulate new expressions of incarnation and humanity through exaggerated forms and abundant textures of the human figure, indicating its unlimited ability to represent imaginary states, memories, aspirations and emotions. Nonetheless, Self characters have the usual grace based on reality: they are a reflection of the artist or the people she can imagine meeting in Harlem, her hometown.