COMMUNITY FOLK ART CENTER OPENS EXHIBITION:
"Selections from The Dar-ul-Islam Historical Photographic Collection
by Khalil Abdulkhabir"
Artist:Khalil AbdulKhabir
Run: January 17- March 7, 2009
*Artist Talk: Saturday, February 21, 2009
Time: 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Location: Corridor Gallery
Venue: Community Folk Art Center
Address: 805 East Genesee Street - Syracuse, New York 13210
Phone: 315-442-2230
Syracuse, NY - Community Folk Art Center, 805 East Genesee Street in Syracuse, has opened a new exhibition in its Corridor Gallery. Selections From the Dar-ul-Islam Historical Photographic Collection by Khalil Abdulkhabir features photographs documenting the Dar-ul-Islam movement in Brooklyn in the 1970's and early 1980's. The exhibition will be on view now through March 7th, 2009. Regular Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Khalil Abdulkhabir will give a gallery talk on Saturday, February 21st at 2:00 p.m. at CFAC.
The Dar-ul-Islam movement (1962-1983) was a grassroots movement that began in Brooklyn, New York and eventually grew to over forty branches in the United States, Canada and Trinidad. Its purpose was to empower indigenous American Muslims. The goal of the Dar was to establish a fully functioning community complete with schools, places of worship and a governing body.
Syracuse photographer Khalil Abdulkhabir was born in Brooklyn, New York. He credits photographers from the Kamoinge workshop, created by Roy DeCarava, as being particularly important in his artistic development. Recently, Abdulkhabir has begun archiving images of the Dar that he took between 1970 and 1983 as well as those taken by other photographers during the same time period. For the initial phase of this project,
Abdulkhabir has chosen to exhibit his own works. Of the project, Abdulkhabir says, "My work is a collection of photos that depict a facet of my life as a Muslim in the 1970’s in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY. It presents the viewer an inside-out view of the people, activities, and experiences of the Dar-ul-Islam Movement. This allows the viewer who is not familiar with the Islamic experience to expand his knowledge of this group and Muslims, and for the Muslim too, who hopefully, will positively identify with the subject matter."
The Community Folk Art Center (CFAC) is a branch of the African American Studies Department in the College of Arts & Sciences at Syracuse University.
CFAC is sponsored, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts, the Cultural Resources Council, The Coalition of Museums & Art Centers at Syracuse University and The Office of the Chancellor at Syracuse University.
Our Media sponsors are WAER 88.3 and Urban CNY. The Genesee Grande and Park View Hotels are the official accommodations for guests of the Community Folk Art Center.
For more information about the exhibition and gallery talk, please call Community Folk Art Center at 442-2230 or e-mail cfac@syr.edu.
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By Espi Frazier
By Herman Futrell
By Professor David MacDonald
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CONTEMPORARY CRAFT MASTERS
Espi Frazier, Hermon Futrell, David MacDonald
Exhibition: January 17- March 7, 2009
Panel & Reception: Saturday, February 7, 2009
Time: 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: Community Folk Art Center
Address: 805 East Genesee Street
Contact: 315-442-2230
Admission: FREE
Syracuse, NY – From January 17 to March 7, 2009, Community Folk Art Center (CFAC) will exhibit the work of three artists whose works were featured on HGTV’s Modern Masters: African American Artisans Program in 2003. Featured artists include, Espi Frazier, Hermon Futrell and David MacDonald. These artists are at the forefront of contemporary crafts and reflect the diverse and innovative palette of today’s artists.
Community Folk Art Center invites the public to a reception and panel discussion with the artists Saturday, February 7, 2009 from 2-4pm.The opening is free and we encourage the public to join the discussion about the artists’ work and issues relevant to contemporary art.
Espi Frazier
It is never a mere scratch, with each deliberate stroke Espi Frazier releases from her wooden canvas graceful female forms. Her mahogany figures reside amongst deftly carved undulating vines, flowers or roots. Each panel invites the viewer into a discourse about femininity, beauty and nature. Frazier reflecting on her work stated, “Every piece of art that I create expresses me wholly as an African-American woman. I wish to convey Black womanhood and family in its greater beauty, spirituality and raw essence.
Frazier holds an MFA from the Maryland College of Art and a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago. She has exhibited her work widely in the east coast and Midwest, including exhibitions at the Washington Project for the Arts in Washington, DC and at the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum in Washington, DC.
Frazier currently teaches art at the Friends Middle School in Baltimore Maryland.
Hermon Futrell coaxes spare willow limbs into organic furniture pieces that reveal a hint of the artist’s early architectural training. Each Adirondack rustic throne announces its presence in the space with brightly painted surfaces of green, red or yellow. Those left bare without the added veneer draw the viewer in to observe the craftsmanship. All of the furniture joints are resolved to their purpose and scoff at the need for screw, nail or hammer. Though skillfully and masterfully crafted, the pieces are offered without pomp, any chair could comfortably return to the artist’s Upstate woodland muse without issue. It is the natural, simple and functional that are most earnestly celebrated in these works.
Futrell immersed himself in architectural, and industrial design studies in his formative years, studying at City College in New York, New York and Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit, Michigan. His painting, sculptures and art furniture are represented in private and corporate collections throughout the United States.
Professor David MacDonald is one of this country’s most highly regarded African American ceramic artists. MacDonald creates a wide variety of work including vessels for daily use and one-of-a-kind pieces for exhibition. His earth-tone vessels bear rhythmic valleys, which pay homage to the surface decorations that are found in the many cultural groups of sub-Saharan Africa.
MacDonald received his MFA from the University of Michigan and his BS from Virginia’s Hampton Institute. MacDonald was recently named professor emeritus after teaching studio arts for nearly four decades in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. He is a founder and board member of the Community Folk Art Center. His work is represented in many private and public collections throughout the United States.
The Community Folk Art Center is a unit of the African American Studies Department in the College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University. CFAC is a vibrant cultural and artistic hub committed to the promotion and development of artists of the African Diaspora. The mission of the center is to exalt cultural and artistic pluralism by collecting, exhibiting, teaching and interpreting the visual & expressive arts.
The Community Folk Art Center is sponsored, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts, the Cultural Resources Council, The Coalition of Museums & Art Centers at Syracuse University and The Office of the Chancellor at Syracuse University. Our media sponsors are CNY Latino, Urban CNY and WAER 88.3. The Genesee Grande and Park View Hotels are the official accommodations for guests of the Community Folk Art Center.
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