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TAJ MATUMBI: WESTWORLD
October 28 - December 17, 2022
"History, pop culture, urban folklore, and improvisation drive my work as an image maker. I’m interested in how this source material translates to shape, text, and color that coalesce into meaning within abstract fields. In recent paintings, I blend formal abstraction with poorly rendered figures that recall my primary school days - an intentionally naive and self-taught drawing approach that allows my subject matter to more fluidly inhabit both real and imagined worlds.
Westword comprises a selection of paintings that evolved amidst Trump’s rise to power, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the explosive civil rights protests that emerged in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by the Minneapolis Police in May of 2020. This period of turmoil prompted a reflective turn inward in my studio practice, resulting in more overt exploration of my identity as an African American through kindred themes of isolation, otherness, trauma, and rites of passage."
- Taj Matumbi, October 2022
Taj Matumbi
Camouflage Cowboy
2020
acrylic and oil stick on fabric
approx. 54.5 by 54.5 in.
(ca. 138,4 by 138,4 cm)
permanent collection of the Wiregrass Museum of Art, Dothan, Alabama
"Camouflage Cowboy" further explores tensions between concealing and revealing text and image. The text is sourced from a skateboarding film called GX1000. Skateboarders have historically been at odds with police and property owners. The text in this piece is a quote from the skate boarding video where a local San Fransisco property owner yells, "I hope you're recording in sound you stupid motherfuckers," at the skate crew skating their property.
In "Camouflage Cowboy" I obfuscate the sourced text which has personal weight as a person who grew up skateboarding in California and who's dealt with authority figures, aiming to blur the lines between civility, private property, and unchecked authority.
- Taj Matumbi, October 28, 2022
Taj Matumbi
Cage Free vs. Free Range
2020
acrylic and oil stick on paper on canvas
approx. 59.5 by 60.5 in.
(ca. 151,1 by 153,7 cm)
permanent collection of the LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
“Cage Free vs. Free Range” came from a desire to explore the concept of social distancing through the lens of class, privilege, and specifically race. Thinking about bodies that were unable to practice social distancing based on material conditions (critiquing the incarceration of African American peoples in America as a continuation of slavery), and how the Covid-19 pandemic experience differed from person to person based on class and access.
The title riffs with the meaningless marketing slogan Cage Free Vs. Free Range eggs made me reflect on the histories and the relationships African Americans endured and overcome post emancipation - the reconstruction era leading into the Modern Era post-civil rights accomplishments post-Brown v. Board of Education. It may be a little on the nose but I am asking viewers if we are more or less free during these times also arguing that slavery never stopped just transformed into another beast that makes society conscience guilt-free.
- Taj Matumbi, October 28, 2022
Taj Matumbi
Food Bank
2020
acrylic and oil pastel on paper on canvas
approx. 41.25 by 55.25 in.
(ca. 104,8 by 140,3 cm)
permanent collection of the Paul R. Jones Museum, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
"Food Bank" explores the proximity of space and place within forced conditions and circumstances during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic similar to the other works in the exhibition.
The inspiration for this piece came from the African American painter and illustrator Jerry Butler, specifically from one of Butler's illustrations from a book titled "Sweet Words So Brave, The Story of African American literature.”
In "Food Bank" I aimed to shed light on the unequal impact the pandemic had on marginalized groups, especially African Americans.
- Taj Matumbi, October 28, 2022
Taj Matumbi
Red Rover
2020
acrylic and oil stick on paper on canvas
approx. 61 by 63 in.
(ca. 155 by 160 cm)
private US collection
“Red Rover” was painted post George Floyd’s Protest and I was thinking about authority and unchecked power. Formally I was inspired by Kerry James Marshall’s painting "When Frustration Threatens Desire," which pushed me to paint a horizontal figure anchoring the composition. Beyond the formal needs of the work, the figures standing frontal towards the viewer and the tension between the horizontal figure symbolize inequality and over-reach of power.
The title “Red Rover” came from a game I played in elementary school: two opposing rows of people with arms linked, one team facing the other. The object is to break the other team's line by sending someone from your side to break through the chain of people using force.
In an effort to blend my naive childhood memories and the cold reality of our contemporary world, the work symbolizes the imbalance of one vs. many most of us may feel during our lives.”
- Taj Matumbi, October 28, 2022
Taj Matumbi
Southern Sun
2019
acrylic, spray paint, presto whiteout, vinyl, and felt on canvas
approx. 48 by 48 in.
(ca. 121,9 by 121,9 cm)
private US collection
“Southern Sun" was one of the first paintings in which I explicitly explored my identity. The composition is made up of iconography and text which I felt plays with the tension of concealing and revealing simultaneously, similar to the painting "Camouflage Cowboy”.
As I reflected on the deficit of housing equity in America between races and living in the Midwest, and seeing how segregation still proliferates the nation, the painting aims to question the notion of "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" which I see as a constructed myth in order tell ourselves things are fair as long as you work hard enough. "Southern Sun" aims to challenge American individualism and the myth of " the American Dream."
- Taj Matumbi, October 28, 2022