Paper Airplane Jane affecionetly know as Jane, presents her first solo art show "Whimsicolor". A dive into a mind of fantasy escapism set from the femme Afro American gaze. On April 10th in the heart of the city she calls home and on the same road where Jane learned how to tattoo, she invites you to step into her world of magic, a taste of black whimsy. Where things are not only possible but they have happened.
The work consists of acrylic paintings , color pencil drawings on wood, painted thrifted glass material, sculpted pieces, and old toys found on the side of the road. A perfect mixture of the old and the new. Consistently making art from nothing. Which we as African Americans are no stranger to.
Originally from Rockford,Illinois, Jane moved to Georgia with her recently converted family, which included her mom and older sister. Converting to Islam in the beginning of 2001 and moving to the south, could quite literally be the catalyst to this show, and well everything else she does artistically. For the next couple of years her escapism , her fantasies fueled her art. Feeling different in so many ways but playing the part in all of them created a world inside her head that often times spilled over into the margins of her school papers. And then onto canvases .
A lot of her work presented at this show is a harsh commentary on not only America but the state of the world these last couple of years. While the work definitely transports you to another time, another place, where different things might be possible there is always this nagging eeriness amongst the vibrant
color. The idea that something isn't quite right. That the juxtaposition of the bright colors and sparkles will distract you from the true message of the piece. Which often times it succeeds in.
Whimsicolor is an homage to the black bodies that are often left out the genre of fantasy. How we are not seen as fantatsical. How technicolor was not originally made to capture our pigment. How in so many ways our bodies have embodied escapism all along . Whimsicolor is the exploration of black whimsy. Why black playfulness ,
why black unusalness is.
