New York Artists Equity/Equity Gallery, New York City, (“Artists Equity”) and Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, Oklahoma City, (“Oklahoma Contemporary”) present the collaboration “You Don’t Belong Here,” an exhibition connecting two cities to each other, to history, and to the continued white-washing of American history, featuring the works of Crystal Z Campbell and Bryce Zackery at the 2018 edition of SPRING/BREAK Art Show. Jennifer Scanlan, Curatorial and Exhibitions Director at Oklahoma Contemporary, states: “In a country that often seems divided into two parts, red states and blue states, we wanted to present the history that ties us together. We present this exhibition as a dialogue between two artists, two cities, with a shared legacy.”
Crystal Z Campbell’s installation emerges from her research into the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. Mob violence and firebombing during the Tulsa Race Massacre resulted in the destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District––one of the wealthiest African-American enclaves of that period that was often referred to as “Black Wall Street.” Of her works, Campbell notes: “As we approach the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre, Red Summer, and other race riots that took place across the country, I offer this installation to ponder the architecture of our country and its relationship to justice, reparations, accountability, privilege, civic responsibility, codes of silence, generational trauma, tradition, legacy, apology, national inheritance, and reconciliation.”
Harlem-based artist Bryce Zackery draws inspiration from the New York City Draft Riots of 1863. White New Yorkers protesting the draft attacked black citizens throughout the city and burned down two Protestant churches and the Colored Orphan Asylum. Zackery's work—comprised of thickly-sewn visual narratives—portrays intimate acts of violence visualized from the riots themselves, with portraits of battered figures as symbols of the aftermath. Jessica Porter, Executive Director of New York Artists Equity, says “Bryce has an amazing ability to tackle very large, convoluted subject matter and to create something with alarming precision that goes to the heart of the matter.”
Through the works of Crystal Z Campbell and Bryce Zackery, Artists Equity and Oklahoma Contemporary hope to encourage awareness of our collective histories and provide insight into perpetual episodes of displacement. During this time of unrest, “You Don’t Belong Here” portrays the alienation of Americans from their own cities and homes and examines the echoing consequences of these historical events.
You Don’t Belong Here
Curatorial Collaboration between New York Artists Equity and Oklahoma Contemporary
Artists: Crystal Z Campbell and Bryce Zackery
Location: SPRING/ BREAK Art Show, 4 Times Square, NYC
March 6 - March 12, 2018
Image (from left): Detail from Notes From Black Wall Street (aka I Ain’t Sorry), Crystal Z Campbell. 300 Dollar Man, Bryce Zackery.
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Crystal Z Campbell is a visual artist and writer of African-American, Filipino, & Chinese descents. Campbell uses art as a tool and history as material to rupture collective memory, imagine social transformations, and question the politics of witnessing. Campbell exhibits internationally; selected honors include Skowhegan, Rijksakademie, Whitney Museum ISP, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Smithsonian Fellowship, Yaddo, and MacDowell Colony.
Bryce Zackery is a painter and sculptor based in New York City. His work has been exhibited in New York at Regina Rex Gallery, H\D: Harlem Dream and the Frieze Art Fair. He has exhibited internationally in Montreal and Toronto with Arsenal. He earned his B.S. in Communications from Saint Cloud State University.
SPRING/BREAK Art Show is an internationally recognized exhibition platform using underused, atypical and historic New York City exhibition spaces to activate and challenge the traditional cultural landscape of the art market, typically but not exclusively during Armory Arts Week. The seventh annual fair will be held March 6th –March 12th, 2018 at 4 Times Square. Low-cost exhibition space and low-cost entry for art patrons, public, and practitioners alike aims to widen the arts audience in New York and broaden the dialog of what constitutes value and economy in a 21st Century city.
New York Artists Equity Association, Inc. ("Artists Equity") is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1947 by artists and art patrons with the mission to promote opportunities for artists. It operates Equity Gallery, an art space located on the Lower East Side of New York City. Equity Gallery opened in October 2015 and is designed to be a fluid and flexible new model that is responsive to a range of artists’ needs. It simultaneously serves as a gallery for artists to exhibit and sell their work; a hub for professional workshops and innovative programming exploring critical issues of interest to artists and curators; and a gathering place for artists, curators and patrons. With today’s increased focus on the art market, Artists Equity aims to provide a space focused on process, where entrepreneurial spirit and the artist as creative provocateur are celebrated.
Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, founded as City Arts Center in 1989 by Christian Keesee, is an Oklahoma City nonprofit committed to providing accessible, inclusive arts experiences through free exhibitions, events and performances and offering low-cost, high-quality arts classes and camps for youth and adults. With Artistic Director Jeremiah Matthew Davis at the helm, Oklahoma Contemporary aims to ignite creativity and encourage artistic expression in all its forms. The organization is in the midst of building a spectacular new arts campus in downtown Oklahoma City. In addition to providing a world-class facility for exhibitions, performance and education, the new campus will become a "creative commons," a place for community to gather, create and experience art.
