Oakland

Black Women Power, Shown Large

by Sarah Bass | Nov 14, 2023 4:50 pm

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Posted to: Visual Art

Throughline: An Art and Culinary Experience
1500 Broadway St, Oakland
Through Nov. 19

In a city like Oakland, damn near everyone, especially in the arts, is connected in some way or another. Or will be soon.

Curator Xavier Cunningham, painter Taylor Smalls, and poet Michael Wayne Turner III sought to highlight that sense of connection when they dreamt up Throughline, a multidisciplinary art show celebrating the powerhouses of black women that Oakland, and everywhere, boasts.

Smalls and Turner met at his one-man show two years ago, and they got to talking. With Cunningham to corral the logistics, photographer Brandon Ruffin to provide nuanced black and white portraits to work from, and local singer/songwriter Mara Hruby to share live vocals and scenes of her life, an event was born.

Hosted on the second story of a large plate-glass-windowed building in downtown Oakland (incidentally, the same space where office scenes in Sorry to Bother You were filmed), Throughline​’s design and programming took advantage of the high ceilings, industrial-chic aesthetic, and noise-canceling glass conference cubes. (It could have stood to incorporate additional customized elements, as the polished concrete still took center stage.)Each evening the multimedia show is open to a limited number of guests, around 65. Cunningham predicted this intimacy will be a central aspect of the experience for people: Guests are encouraged to really take their time with the paintings, the poetry, and the bites.

The subjects of the paintings were Dr. Akilah Cadet, Ashara Ekundayo, Elisha Greenwell, Goapele, Joyce Gordon, Kai Frazier, Kalkidan Gebreyohannes-Royster, Niema Jordan, Rachel Wolfe-Goldsmith, Robin McBride, Sherri McMullen, Swan Dotson, and Tanya Holland. A couple have attained national acclaim; the others are local, regional, and industry heroes and heavyweights. This was all alluded to, but, in my opinion, not fully explained.

Beside each painting, or paintings, was a poem by Turner topped with a paint swatch matching the canvases.

I was familiar with the work and persons of a few honorees, including Wolfe-Goldsmith, a local muralist and organizer; and Tanya Holland, chef and owner of Brown Sugar Kitchen, an Oakland culinary icon. But even with those I did know, I wished for more information, a thread of reasoning why they were chosen from the thousands of options.

Smalls stated in a promotional video (made by Sean Johnson and played on loop in one of the slightly dystopian glass cubes) that the paintings, with their limited color palettes and watered-down medium, were a major departure for her. They featured a new looseness, and a contrast of light washes of color against the thicker, textural paint style for which she is known.

Her reverence for her subjects came through too. Her delight was evident in blowing up their features, caressing a curl or encircling a bald dome, perfecting their eyes’ twinkle and draping them in luscious painted fabrics. As with all artists, a glimmer of Smalls’ self was visible in each, a dozen self portraits hidden within a portrait gallery.

The sheer size of most pieces, dwarfing the guests and filling the huge walls, was a testament to the months of labor she had invested. I did not understand the link between chosen colors for each, while others, like Holland’s Beet Blood, felt a bit too on the nose, but nonetheless I enjoyed losing myself in the combination of intricacy and soft, searching strokes.

With culinary arts in the title and hosted from the hours of 7 – 10 p.m., there were three passed appetizers: a trio of beets salad, oysters, and a mushroom bite. I did not sample the oysters but was assured they were excellent (though not local). I found the beets and mushroom super tasty but not in a way that encouraged eating more than a couple. I was informed that there are 13 different dishes on rotation throughout the duration of the event dates, each in honor of one of the subjects, but only at the end of the night. 

The love, effort, and sheer time taken to produce this event were on clear display, from Smalls’ studies of details of her subjects to the clarity and comfort visible in the photographs Ruffin produced to the mound of lost lines in Turner’s writer’s corner. These peeks into the workings of the artists, the process shared with guests, did feel intimate. But in a space so corporate, so large, so clearly coded for the wealthy, it was hard to feel too comfortable or fully in community. 

But maybe, just maybe, you’ll follow them too, as they forge their collective paths forward (to a city near you).

Throughline runs through this coming weekend, with the possibility of an extension. Tickets can be purchased here.

Tags: paintings , oakland , throughline , community