The exhibition at Sandler Hudson Gallery, Middle Passages Redux by Yanique Norman, will feature new graphite drawings that would introduce the experimental use of collage and gouache. This new body of work grew out of the artist’s search for understanding how to visually capture the emotional and psychological postures of the black subconscious mind. As she embarked on this quest the figural elements slowly dissipated from drawings and the body became an abstract hybrid of the mythological and fantastical. Now, they emerge again more emotionally charged than ever before yet having an elegant simplicity to them. The works explore themes of profound alienation and an insatiable longing not only from the imagined perspective of an African slave enroute across the Atlantic but simultaneously captures the emotional, sexual and spatial estrangements that plague the contemporary black man. Thinking metaphorically about the soulish underpinnings of the literal and abstract slave, the works can be read almost as a personal narrative that sketches the rough and turbulent emotional landscapes of the black subconscious mind.
Yanique Norman is a self-taught artist living in Sandy Springs. She was educated at Brooklyn College in Brooklyn, NY and began drawing on her own after relocating to Atlanta. Since her first exhibition in 2005 she has exhibited her work locally at The High Museum, Hartsfield Jackson International Airport, Sandler Hudson Gallery, the City Gallery East, Mason Murer Gallery, Agnes Scott’s Dalton Gallery, Chastain Gallery, Spruill Gallery and the Rialto Center for the Performing Arts. Her work is included in many private collections throughout the region. Norman was chosen as one of the two studio assistants to 2007/2008 Working Artist Project winner, Larry Walker. She was also included in the 2009 MOCA GA exhibition Dissolving Stereotypes/Forging New Dialogues: An Exhibition Beyond Race, curated by Larry Walker as well as hand-selected within that same year for MOCA GA Salutes the Rising Movers and Shakers of the Georgia Art Scene. Also with the strong encouragement by her mentor, Mr. Walker, Norman is currently pursuing her BFA degree at Georgia State University.
