A special guest-curated exhibition comes to SECCA's Main Gallery.
Above Image: Destinie Adelakun, Ade – Oya and Oshun's Crown, 2020.
On View November 19, 2021 – April 17, 2022 | Main Gallery
The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) is proud to present Black@Intersection: Contemporary Black Voices in Art, a special exhibition with guest curator Duane Cyrus, coming to SECCA in November 2021. A Bessie Award nominated performer and a professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Duane Cyrus was selected as guest curator for the exhibition from a pool of more than 30 applicants. The exhibition will open Friday, November 19 in SECCA's Main Gallery, with a special opening reception from 5–8pm. Admission is free, with a suggested $10 donation.
EXHIBITING ARTISTS
Destinie Adelakun — Toronto, CA
Ajamu — London, UK
Anicka Austin — Clarkston, GA
Jasmine Best — Greensboro, NC
Kelly-Ann Bobb — Trinidad & Tobago
Stephanie Brown — Atlanta, GA
Kemari Bryant — Greensboro, NC
Steven Cozart — Greensboro, NC
Jamison Curcio — Washington, DC
Duane Cyrus — Greensboro, NC
Nichole Fink — Atlanta, GA
Azaria Gadson — Greensboro, NC
Ikwe & Kino Galbraith — Brooklyn, NY
Courtney Geiger — Lexington, SC
GOODW.Y.N. — New York, NY
Sanaa Lacore — Norfolk, VA
Wolly McNair — Charlotte, NC
Ibou Ndoye — Jersey City, NJ
Devin Newkirk — Greensboro, NC
Ransome — Rhinebeck, NY
Sloane Siobhan — Charlotte, NC
Jurne Smith — Greensboro, NC
Cameron Ugbodu — London, UK
Tamara Williams — Charlotte, NC
EXHIBITION PROGRAMMING
Nov. 19, 2021, 5–8pm | Exhibition Opening Reception
Free and open to the public.
Dec. 2, 2021, 6–8pm | Film Screenings
An evening of short films selected from Black@Intersection. Each film offers a unique perspective around concepts of Blackness, showing how diverse representations of Blackness can help to shift our cultural landscape.
Feb. 3, 2022, 6–8pm | Evening with the Creative Class: What Is Your Lens?
Explore courageous conversations through art and movement. Meet artists from Black@Intersection, then engage with art through a guided discussion and movement-based experiences led by the exhibition's curator, Duane Cyrus.
Feb. 17, 2022, 6–8pm | Black Voices in Cinema: Meet the Filmmakers
An evening of short films selected from Black@Intersection, followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers led by the exhibition's curator, Duane Cyrus. Each film in this program offers a unique perspective around concepts of Blackness, showing how diverse representations of Blackness can help to shift our cultural landscape.
Mar. 3, 2022, 6–8pm | Black Women & Photography: The Power of the Lens
How Black Women photographers are transforming the field. Discover how Black women artists are using the power of photography to expand our cultural landscape during this guided tour and panel discussion. Featuring artists from Black@Intersection and a panel discussion led by the exhibition's curator, Duane Cyrus.
April 7, 2022 | Closing Performance
Celebrate Black@Intersection with spoken word and dance performances by artists featured in the exhibition.
EXHIBITION BACKGROUND
In January 2021, SECCA posted an open call for guest curator submissions, seeking new voices and new perspectives for an upcoming project. SECCA hoped to develop a collaborative exhibition that showcases work being produced in response to the current moment, primarily the onset of and quarantine surrounding COVID-19 and the protests and events surrounding the death of George Floyd and the wider Black Lives Matter movement.
After evaluating numerous exceptional applications, SECCA selected Duane Cyrus for the guest curator position based on his exhibition proposal for Black@Intersection: Contemporary Black Voices in Art. The proposed exhibition draws on Cyrus' extensive experience in the performing arts while incorporating other artistic disciplines including photography, film, and sculpture.
Black@Intersection will feature Black and African Diasporic artists from North Carolina and beyond. The artists simultaneously exemplify and defy––yet continue to redefine the perceived norms around concepts of Blackness as we see it in our world. They resist the nullifying commodification of blackness into a type of monolith and do so by creating works that reify the world on their own terms.
Duane Cyrus previously exhibited work at SECCA in 2020 as part of Escapes and Revelations, a group exhibition of the 21 different artists who received the 2018-2019 North Carolina Arts Council Artist Fellowship.
CURATOR BIOGRAPHY
Duane Cyrus is a Bessie Award nominated performer and a professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where he teaches Choreography, Improvisation, Repertory, and Career Strategies for Artists.
He is also the director of Theatre of Movement, a collective that produces performing and visual art collaborations and curations––meshing Cyrus' dance background with photographers, filmmakers, actors, poets, and musicians. Duane holds a BFA from the Juilliard School and an MFA from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He danced with the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, in musical theater (including the original London production of Disney's The Lion King), on television, and in a variety of other venues nationally and internationally. He regularly works as an independent artist throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia as teacher, performer, and choreographer. Duane Cyrus consistently shares his knowledge and experience through his method for creating live performance called Theatre of Movement.
As an educator, Duane has developed curricula for community outreach, intensives, and arts-in-education programs for New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Circuit Productions, Museum of the City of New York, Charlotte Ballet, Ailey Camp, and American Ballet Theater among others. Duane has received commissions and developed projects for Martha Graham Dance Company, American Dance Festival, and Charlotte Ballet among others. He has received grants from the Princess Grace Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, North Carolina Arts Council, Arts Greensboro, and New Music/USA among others.