WH on Cottage. "Contemporary Contemplation" Shaping Narratives in Conversation
"Art is Business" for more information call: 312-351-0573
B’Rael Ali Thunder is a painter, poet, dancer, and curator from the South Side of Chicago. His visual artwork draws from rhythm and dance. With detail and compositions designed from the figurative image of the dancer, he composes narratives that describe the African American experience, largely addressing identity and value. Dance is the physical cultivation of the spirit through mental release and rhythmic process. Both historically and presently, dance is a large part of African and African American culture, being used for ritual, ceremonial, and social purposes. B’Rael’s practice conveys narratives that connect history with the contemporary moment.
He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Southern Illinois University of Carbondale in Painting and Drawing, minoring in Art History with a strong emphasis on Art Education. B’Rael graduated with the “Drum Major for Social Justice Award”, “Campus and Community Award” and the “Rickert-Ziebold Award” for his thesis series “Blood on the Leaves”
B’Rael’s artwork and poetry serve as a form of education, displaying the lessons and philosophies learned from meditation and other spiritual practice such as IFA, Buddhism, Egyptology, and Christianity as well as philosophies learned from growing up on the South Side of Chicago.
Art is his language and his way of creating solutions for the problems of today as well as a way of displaying the richness of culture. B’Rael is currently a Resident Artist/ Curator at the Hunter International Gallery and a member of the National Youth Art Movement Against Gun Violence.
Caesar Conde- Zhou B Art Center
People inspire me. I am influenced by the many cultures from different countries I have visited and by those who I meet in life. I find that ART can be a tool to fight injustices and inequality.
I communicate through the human form. I am a contemporary realist painter who loves the human emotion and drama expressed in the faces, eyes, hands, and bodies of those I paint. While painting, I get to celebrate them. Mourn with them. Suffer with them. Contemplate with them. I feel their presence.
My paintings are a celebration of Humanity. They are an homage to the oppressed, to the beggars I call "Saints", to women who still suffer inequity and most of the injustices in this post-modern, post-colonial, mostly "Patriarchal" world. They are dedicated to children who are trapped in the cycle of poverty, to the marginalized, forgotten, neglected, invisible They are for us, immigrants, people of color who to this day suffer brutality at the hands of the law and most inequity in our world. You are all my big heroes, my gurus, and my saints.
I paint because I truly believe that art can serve as a platform for dialogue and debate. They can provide a safe space for reflection and serve as a jumping point for action towards social justice.
Dionne Victoria- Zhou B Art Center
Dionne Victoria was born in Chicago to Victor Simmons Sr. and Dionne Milton. Throughout her childhood, she moved all over the city. During her earliest years, she lived in the Oakland area. She then resided in Roseland where she attended both public and private schooling. Through it all, her parents maintained her participation in the arts. By the time she reached high school she was being commissioned to do family portraits. Her first painting received the All City Poster Award and was featured on all the promotional materials for the exhibition in 2007. She has been given an honorable mention in the Black Creativity exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry and has been exhibited in the Congress Library in Washington D.C.
She graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2011. During her time in school, she interned for Peter Mars Gallery, 4Art Inc. and the Good, Bad and Ugly Gallery located within the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2012, she traveled abroad to teach English in Korea. There she learned to use the arts to teach English as a second language. In 2013, she began volunteering at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center facilitating therapeutic art.
Dionne currently works as a teaching artist for Sky Art. Recently she has developed an arts integration program at the National Teachers Academy. Her art has been shown internationally and published on the cover of a limited-edition book titled Man, Woman, and Child by Dr. Delbert Blair.
Artist Statement
We are not bastards. We are life’s longing for existence. We are “love”. Our very presence depicts our determination. Our strides leave a mark that identifies our lives as a triumph in the world of lackluster. We are the color; the representation of life!
We have suffered and so have you! We can’t continue to ignore the love needed to mend the pain that has taken place. Everybody is suffering, both the oppressed and oppressors and we would disservice ourselves to ignore that fact.
It’s time for happy healing. These pieces are about love, about character and about making a change from inside out. My goal is to spread the love by repeating words of healing and happiness and show healthy images that look like me and those around me.
Liz Gomez- International House
Liz Gomez was born in San Angelo, Texas but was predominantly raised in San Antonio and other sunny places. She received her Associate of Arts in San Antonio and spent several years working as a portrait artist in various theme parks around the United States before moving to Chicago for her education. She completed her BFA in 2014, from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and remains based in Illinois. Her practice focuses on broadening the spectrum of large-scale portraiture to include those who in the past have been overlooked or misrepresented. Liz’s current practice focuses on a series of collaborative full length and life-size portraits of very close and inspiring women in her life. Through conversation, they combine their ideas and create paintings that not only represents the person at that time in life but nurture Liz’s personal artistic expression of form, color, and material.
In this series, she has made the conscious decision to paint mostly women. Individuals from different lifestyles, social classes, ages, and cultures. This is because within portraiture there is a history of women as seen through the eyes of men, from the perspective of the wealthy, or as an object of beauty to be captured but not mentally considered. Her work seeks to further complicate the spectrums of culture and self-perception in relation to the art of portraiture and representation. Bringing not only her experiences into the work but also the minds and histories of the individuals she portrays.
Zachary Williams-
Zachary J Williams is an artist specializing in traditional oil painting. Originally from Sacramento, CA, Zachary received his BA in Art from San Francisco State University in 2003, after which he returned to his hometown to curate and assist gallery exhibitions while managing an art studio. In 2009, he moved to Chicago where he continues to work and reside. He has exhibited work across the U.S., including the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco CA, the Hyde Park & Zhou B. Art Centers in Chicago IL, and most recently the JanKossen Contemporary Gallery in New York, NY. Additionally, he has been a guest lecturer at multiple California schools, has received several artist grants, and has served as a professional mentor for various student-led art groups at the University of Chicago.
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| "After Dark", Oil on canvas, 40" x 28", by Zachery Williams |
"Contemporary Contemplation" Shaping Narratives in Conversation
Featured Artists:
B’Rael Ali Thunder
Cesar Conde
Dionne Victoria
Liz Gomez-
Zachary Williams
Opening November 10th, 6-9pm
6144 S. Cottage Grove, Chicago IL, 60637
Exhibit Statement.
Each artist was selected because of their connection to contemporary contemplation issues in their artworks and their art practices. Each artist uses their love of photorealism, neon-photo realism, to shape narratives in conversation.
Alpha Bruton- Chief Curator for the Phantom Gallery Chicago Network, was invited to curate the November exhibition at the WH on Cottage, at the POAH development, by gallery director William G. Hill.
B Rael Ali- International HouseB’Rael Ali Thunder is a painter, poet, dancer, and curator from the South Side of Chicago. His visual artwork draws from rhythm and dance. With detail and compositions designed from the figurative image of the dancer, he composes narratives that describe the African American experience, largely addressing identity and value. Dance is the physical cultivation of the spirit through mental release and rhythmic process. Both historically and presently, dance is a large part of African and African American culture, being used for ritual, ceremonial, and social purposes. B’Rael’s practice conveys narratives that connect history with the contemporary moment.
He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Southern Illinois University of Carbondale in Painting and Drawing, minoring in Art History with a strong emphasis on Art Education. B’Rael graduated with the “Drum Major for Social Justice Award”, “Campus and Community Award” and the “Rickert-Ziebold Award” for his thesis series “Blood on the Leaves”
B’Rael’s artwork and poetry serve as a form of education, displaying the lessons and philosophies learned from meditation and other spiritual practice such as IFA, Buddhism, Egyptology, and Christianity as well as philosophies learned from growing up on the South Side of Chicago.
Art is his language and his way of creating solutions for the problems of today as well as a way of displaying the richness of culture. B’Rael is currently a Resident Artist/ Curator at the Hunter International Gallery and a member of the National Youth Art Movement Against Gun Violence.
Caesar Conde- Zhou B Art Center
People inspire me. I am influenced by the many cultures from different countries I have visited and by those who I meet in life. I find that ART can be a tool to fight injustices and inequality.
I communicate through the human form. I am a contemporary realist painter who loves the human emotion and drama expressed in the faces, eyes, hands, and bodies of those I paint. While painting, I get to celebrate them. Mourn with them. Suffer with them. Contemplate with them. I feel their presence.
My paintings are a celebration of Humanity. They are an homage to the oppressed, to the beggars I call "Saints", to women who still suffer inequity and most of the injustices in this post-modern, post-colonial, mostly "Patriarchal" world. They are dedicated to children who are trapped in the cycle of poverty, to the marginalized, forgotten, neglected, invisible They are for us, immigrants, people of color who to this day suffer brutality at the hands of the law and most inequity in our world. You are all my big heroes, my gurus, and my saints.
I paint because I truly believe that art can serve as a platform for dialogue and debate. They can provide a safe space for reflection and serve as a jumping point for action towards social justice.
Dionne Victoria- Zhou B Art Center
Dionne Victoria was born in Chicago to Victor Simmons Sr. and Dionne Milton. Throughout her childhood, she moved all over the city. During her earliest years, she lived in the Oakland area. She then resided in Roseland where she attended both public and private schooling. Through it all, her parents maintained her participation in the arts. By the time she reached high school she was being commissioned to do family portraits. Her first painting received the All City Poster Award and was featured on all the promotional materials for the exhibition in 2007. She has been given an honorable mention in the Black Creativity exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry and has been exhibited in the Congress Library in Washington D.C.
She graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2011. During her time in school, she interned for Peter Mars Gallery, 4Art Inc. and the Good, Bad and Ugly Gallery located within the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2012, she traveled abroad to teach English in Korea. There she learned to use the arts to teach English as a second language. In 2013, she began volunteering at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center facilitating therapeutic art.
Dionne currently works as a teaching artist for Sky Art. Recently she has developed an arts integration program at the National Teachers Academy. Her art has been shown internationally and published on the cover of a limited-edition book titled Man, Woman, and Child by Dr. Delbert Blair.
Artist Statement
We are not bastards. We are life’s longing for existence. We are “love”. Our very presence depicts our determination. Our strides leave a mark that identifies our lives as a triumph in the world of lackluster. We are the color; the representation of life!
We have suffered and so have you! We can’t continue to ignore the love needed to mend the pain that has taken place. Everybody is suffering, both the oppressed and oppressors and we would disservice ourselves to ignore that fact.
It’s time for happy healing. These pieces are about love, about character and about making a change from inside out. My goal is to spread the love by repeating words of healing and happiness and show healthy images that look like me and those around me.
Liz Gomez- International House
Liz Gomez was born in San Angelo, Texas but was predominantly raised in San Antonio and other sunny places. She received her Associate of Arts in San Antonio and spent several years working as a portrait artist in various theme parks around the United States before moving to Chicago for her education. She completed her BFA in 2014, from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and remains based in Illinois. Her practice focuses on broadening the spectrum of large-scale portraiture to include those who in the past have been overlooked or misrepresented. Liz’s current practice focuses on a series of collaborative full length and life-size portraits of very close and inspiring women in her life. Through conversation, they combine their ideas and create paintings that not only represents the person at that time in life but nurture Liz’s personal artistic expression of form, color, and material.
In this series, she has made the conscious decision to paint mostly women. Individuals from different lifestyles, social classes, ages, and cultures. This is because within portraiture there is a history of women as seen through the eyes of men, from the perspective of the wealthy, or as an object of beauty to be captured but not mentally considered. Her work seeks to further complicate the spectrums of culture and self-perception in relation to the art of portraiture and representation. Bringing not only her experiences into the work but also the minds and histories of the individuals she portrays.
Zachary Williams-
Zachary J Williams is an artist specializing in traditional oil painting. Originally from Sacramento, CA, Zachary received his BA in Art from San Francisco State University in 2003, after which he returned to his hometown to curate and assist gallery exhibitions while managing an art studio. In 2009, he moved to Chicago where he continues to work and reside. He has exhibited work across the U.S., including the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco CA, the Hyde Park & Zhou B. Art Centers in Chicago IL, and most recently the JanKossen Contemporary Gallery in New York, NY. Additionally, he has been a guest lecturer at multiple California schools, has received several artist grants, and has served as a professional mentor for various student-led art groups at the University of Chicago.
