Exhibitions - Artist: Damond Howard

America's Greatest Problem Still; Continued the works of Damond Howard.
September 16 - November 4, 2007

Damond Howard is a graduate of South Carolina State University (B.S. Art Education) and University of Florida (M.F.A. Studio Art). Damond Howard is an artist, who combines art and history in distinctive ways. His interest and experience in African-American culture is latent in his figurative drawings. His drawings explore issues of identity and subjecthood of African-Americans that are at once arresting, but deeply engaging and thought-provoking as well. He has contributed illustrations to a PBS documentary on Civil-Rights activist Harry T. Moore. He also created commemorative depictions of Martin Luther King, Jr. and other notable African-Americans. Among the many impressive venues, Howard's works have been recognized and exhibited in The College of Wooster Art Museum (Ohio), MOJA Arts Festival (Charleston, South Carolina), Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago, Illinois), and a solo Exhibition at Kresge Art Gallery of Lyon College (Batesville, Arkansas). His writing and drawings have been featured in Envisioning, a journal produced by Binghamton University (New York).

Mr. Howard is currently a professor in the Department of Art - School of Humanities & Social Sciences at Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

Artist Statement
Nearly one decade has passed since the dragging death of a black man in Jasper, Texas by three white men reportedly with ties to the KKK, yet racially-motivated crimes against blacks continue. Just last year in my home state of South Carolina, a black teenage-girl was raped, stabbed, and left for dead by two white men, also with ties to the KKK reportedly. And most recently, incidents escalate between Blacks and Whites after a hangman's noose was placed in a tree at a high school in Jena, Louisiana. Even more troubling is the recent murder of blacks by blacks in rising gang-related activities in small rural towns across America. Are these violent acts somehow connected? Why is there such low regard for African-American life in these incidents today? It harks back to dangerous times in American history when blacks were considered sub-human or worse. It is this premise that this body of work addresses.

My artworks in this exhibition are variations on a theme and done in series, uniquely. My show is entitled, America's Greatest Problem Still-Cont'd, and is appropriated from R.W. Shufeldt's book titled America's greatest problem: the Negro. It is a continuation of research I am doing on the origins of black caricatures and stereotypes in America. In my work, I use the self-portrait as a means to question and explore relationships that construct African-American identity and subjecthood. White and black "colors" are metaphors in my work. In Separate But Equal, completed in 2001, my idea is to present the stereotype and caricature in white, as a mask, and the naturalistic portrait, a self-portrait, in black. Which image is the imposed one and which one inhabits is the question. These ideas are furthered in works completed in 2005. This group (2005) takes its cue from historical documents used in the perpetuation of racism through science in the nineteenth century. Among the drawings completed in 2005 are two, diptychs, that are the beginnings of another series entitled Wearing The Mask: Cut-Outs. In Diptych I and II, the look of vintage paper doll cut-outs presented new, exciting possibilities, and was employed as a metaphor for identity. In these pieces, and in the works completed recently, my goal is to re-contextualize negative historical imagery and mediate its present effects.

Tour Information:
Call 404.612.0500 for information about guided educational tours.
Available with the exhibit - "Viewpoint" a children's interactive handout developed for each exhibition and the video tape viewing of the artist talk.
Ask about the West End Cultural Tour which includes a Hammonds House Museum tour and a visit to the Wren's Nest House Museum.