DESTINEE ROSS-SUTTON and
ROSS-SUTTON GALLERY
Present “A Friendly Exchange” April 10 - May 2, 2021
After the much celebrated inaugural exhibition “BLACK VOICES: Friend of My Mind” hailed to have been the largest exhibition of contemporary African Diasporan art in NY, a pop-up in the former Paula Cooper Gallery space in SoHo, Ross-Sutton Gallery is opening a new more permanent gallery at
14 Wooster Street ("14 Wooster Projects") (next door to Jeffrey Deitch Gallery) in SoHo, NY
Lagos, Nigeria-based artists Adegboyega Adesina and Johnson Eziefula are brought together for a joint show by Destinee Ross-Sutton and the Ross-Sutton Gallery.
Seeing is believing. Destinee Ross-Sutton's Ross-Sutton Gallery delivers - A show of kindred spirits, by duo Adegboyega Adesina and Johnson Eziefula.
Curated by Destinee Ross-Sutton, this new show 'A Friendly Exchange' features a conversation between Lagos-based artists Adeboyega Adesina and Johnson Eziefula, kindred spirits. They are fully committed to interpreting what is happening in Lagos now. The full expression, confidence, beauty, and luxuriating of life are the driving forces here. In no way a contrast to what is happening politically. These works beautifully capture the bravery and confidence of today's youth. In essence, the 'And Still I Rise' of 2021.
To quote Maya Angelou -
'Does my sassiness upset you?/Why are you beset with gloom?/'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells/Pumping in my living room.'
Fresh from the Ross-Sutton premier New York show, “BLACK VOICES: Friend of My Mind', this winter, each artist shines with the stroke of their brush. These works are deeply pigmented and unabashedly hued. They are clear and perfectly complement one another as brightly as Basquiat and Warhol’s ever did.
Take, for instance, Eziefula's 'Girl with the Bantu Knots' (Mixed Media on canvas, 46 x 37 ins.) With a Mona Lisa smile and a branded crop top to match - it is clear she knows something you don't. Beginning with tradition and this very moment, she allows us to know she is well acquainted with herself. Her family would be proud. A reply could be Adesina's, 'My Dream Suit' and an update to Larry Blackmon's well-known quaffed and crowned visage. He provides subsonic reinforcement to what it means to be young, in a world ever closer, but unable, in many cases, to connect. Their pallets inject fresh, compelling narratives that work. Ross-Sutton says of the project, “‘A Friendly Exchange' represents a commitment to making an excellent and timeless artistic statement. These works have struck a deep chord in my heart that I hope continues to resonate in yours.”
The show features works that beam with springtime freshness and the timelessness of joy and a well-put-together look. Not to be outdone by any photograph (yes, photograph) of today. The golden light showed wholeness and personhood in each painting - the sort that we have been yearning for many months on in this new world.
‘A Friendly Exchange’ renders interesting, provocative melodies in this duet and harmonies that will keep you wanting more. The lyrics of these works are personal and convey a host of emotions from navigating reality, the imagination, and life as a human being in today’s world.
Opening reception Saturday April 10 from 12 - 7pm (no reservation required)
General Opening hours Wednesday - Sunday 11-6
14 Wooster Street, New York, NY 10013
A, C and E at Canal Street or 4, 6, N, Q, R, W at Canal Street
Works will be viewable on Artsy https://www.artsy.net/ross-sutton-gallery
Johnson Eziefula: Studio portrait
Adegboyega Adesina: Portrait in Studio
Destinee Ross-Sutton & Assoc.
Art Curation, Advisory and Management
PRESS RELEASE
DESTINEE ROSS-SUTTON OPENS THE ROSS-SUTTON GALLERY
ROSS-SUTTON Gallery presents its inaugural exhibition, BLACK VOICES: Friend of My Mind
in a 8250 sqf Gallery Space in SoHo, New York
December 19 - January 8, 2021 online on VorticXR until February 28, 2021
"I want to show us thriving, reclining, enjoying small moments of happiness or quiet". - Destinee Ross-Sutton
“She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.” - Toni Morrison
(1931 - 2019) Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, essayist, book editor, and college professor
BLACK VOICES: Friend of My Mind is a new exhibition from Destinee Ross-Sutton, international art curator, advisor, gallerist, artist manager and advocate based in NY, marking the the launch of her newest endeavor, a commitment to physical spaces.
Destinee Ross-Sutton notes: 'I am proud to be launching my own gallery with "BLACK VOICES: Friend of My Mind", it is a testament to the commitment of the artists that I work with and the collectors who see the cultural and long-term value of the work being created. The show and gallery open on December 19th. It is the premiere US edition of my "BLACK VOICES" - exhibition series.'
Ross-Sutton continued, “In the physical realm, my gallery will be a nomadic international gallery, and in this iteration we will be showing a selection of works from this exhibition in the former SoHo space of renowned fellow female gallerist and friend of the artist, Paula Cooper, 155 Wooster Street.' The Ross-Sutton gallery will be a place for artists to learn, grow and be supported.”
Along with galleries such as David Zwirner, Victoria Miro, Thaddeus Ropac, Pilar Corrias, among others, Ross-Sutton will be the first Black owned gallery to join the VorticXR digital platform family of galleries.
This edition of the Black Voices: explores rest and wellness, self-love and care, introspection and comfort. In the many instances where others attempt to deny us simple pleasures, we are encouraged to deny ourselves. That this is a truism is due to the preoccupation many Black folks have with basic mental, physical and spiritual survival.
Since 1619, the narrative of the black body, black voice and black mind being of less value has been expressed in the press, our laws, and oral histories. People being maligned via violence, prejudice, disenfranchisement, written out of history books and museums or worse, being murdered while walking down the street, eating, while they sleep or even, while playing with their toys in their yards. What is not often conveyed is the humanity of the individual, the love and care they experienced, their joys, or even their visage in a relatable and respectable manner.
What many do not know or are acquainted with is that joy, our joy. Our smiles, our quiet moments. This is mainly because these moments again, are relatable. Humane. Black people having fun, resting, smiling, being at ease and loving each other is a real thing. A daily facet of our lives, as well.
In this show, ‘BLACK VOICES: Friend of My Mind’ we LIVE, and show our defiance of a constructed system by enjoying everything, ourselves included. For this inaugural exhibition, Ross-Sutton is honored to include 70 works by 40 artists, Stacey Gillian Abe, Adegboyega Adesina, Julius Agbaje, Marcellina Akpojotor, Joshua Michael Adokuru, Amoako Boafo, Debra Cartwright, Ikeroah Chisom Chi-Fada, Ekene Emeka-Maduka, Johnson Eziefula, Vanessa L German, Glenn Hardy, Lanise Howard, Isshaq Ismail, Jonathan Key, Dodi King, Amani Lewis, Sthenjwa Luthuli, Nelson Makamo, Tiff Massey, Milo Matthieu, Raphael Adjetey Adjei Mayne, Murjoni Merriweather, Sungi Mlengeya, Sphephelo Mnguni, Collins Obijiaku, Odinaka Okoroafor, Ayanfe Olarinde, Idowu Oluwaseun, Eniwaye Oluwaseyi, Zéh Palito, Miguel Payano, Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Stan Squirewell, Ekene Stanley, David ‘Mr StarCity’ White, Katlego Tlabela, Khari Turner, WonderBuhle and Rufai Zakari.
We have seen many aspects of society but what Ross-Sutton has chosen to highlight in this exhibition is life, humanity, along with the unity and healing that is required this year. Bearing witness to worldwide protests, to Ross-Sutton - location is now secondary. Whether it be in the US, now in Nigeria or elsewhere. Physical support was a hallmark of happenings but it was the mental healing and leaning on one another that was a profound realization within these moments that she experienced beyond the metaphor.
“BLACK VOICES: Friend of My Mind”, is an expansion and continuation of the conversation based on the multidimensionality of the Black experience. BLACK VOICES: Friend of My Mind is Destinee Ross-Sutton’s second exhibition in this series. Her first was inaugurated with the much celebrated “BLACK VOICES/BLACK MICROCOSM” at CFHILL in Stockholm, Sweden April 8-May 16, 2020.
One could easily focus on a narrative of struggle, oppression, suffering and hardship, imagery we are all too familiar with, we see enough of that on a daily basis. In spite of the odds being against us, Ross-Sutton aims for the art in this exhibition to uplift, to celebrate us, our beauty, our strength, our resilience, our being, our joy. This is not a minstrel show. This is our life, our kindness and our humanity. And many non-black people also aren’t too familiar with that imagery. It is time for a conversation.
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
~ Audre Lorde (1934 - 1992)
Black feminist, lesbian, poet, mother, and warrior.
About Destinee Ross-Sutton:
Ms. Ross-Sutton is a young international art curator, advisor, gallerist, artist manager and advocate based in NY. She has co-curated and curated successful international group exhibitions at renowned institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) and CFHILL, Stockholm, Sweden as well as Christie’s “SAY IT LOUD (I’m Black and I’m Proud),” a virtual selling exhibition dedicated to the promotion and empowerment of Black art. The show ran from July 31 – August 18, 2020.
Independently, she advises several private institutions, international collectors and organizations on acquisitions of particularly –but not exclusively– within the field of contemporary African and African American art. The main body of her curatorial work over the last three years has been carried out in her capacity as curator for a major Black Arts Foundation opening in 2021. In her eyes, “showing a wide range of opinions, voices, and countless expressions of beauty is essential in a world where compassion and connection is needed now more than ever”
(D. Ross-Sutton, quoted in exh. cat., BLACK VOICES/BLACK MICROCOSM, 8 April-9 May 2020, https://www.cfhill.com/black-voices-black-microcosm-by-destinee-ross).
Destinee Ross-Sutton
Destinee Ross-Sutton & Associates
Art Curation, Advisory and Management
Ross-Sutton.com
Instagram @Desti.knee
RossSuttonGallery@gmail.com