The artwork on display this month in the Hank & Dolly’s Gallery is by Boxx the Artist. The exhibit brings a contemporary sensibility through a combination of digital and acrylic paint, as Boxx examines the idea of being human— or “hueman,” as it is stylized in the show. Through dynamic portraiture, she displays people we know, like James Baldwin and Erikah Badu, and people we don’t, some lacking facial features entirely. They explore the intersectionality of identities: “race, class, and gender through the Black Experience.”

Baduism, Afrofuturism Series. Digital, acrylic on canvas. 30” x 40”

In selecting multiple pieces from different series, Boxx expands the intersectional view even further. While only a few of the works come from a collection on Afrofuturism, the entire exhibit is modern and digital, not just in the medium of digital paint but in the images themselves. Boxx scatters graphic symbols over the paintings, playing with our perception of the forms as they take on a three-dimensional quality, with the symbols and lines floating around the human figures.

Hueman Care (Hand Wash, Don't Bleach Series). Acrylic on canvas. 30” x 40.”

Premiering in this exhibit is the series “Hand Wash, Don’t Bleach,” which sets familiar symbols of laundry within the context of a cultural view of Blackness. The icons, which typically denote a delicate fabric that should be treated with extra care, here describe issues of colorism. As those of African descent experience racism and oppression, it is within that system that the darkest skin tones on the spectrum are the most stigmatized, so much so that dangerous bleaching creams and treatments are used to lighten dark skin.

This series, in contrast, centers “huemans” with the deepest skin colors, as in “Hueman Care.” The piece shows someone carefully combing the hair of a younger person. This image of attention and intimacy opposes the harshness of judgment and chemicals often used to “tame” Black hair and change Black skin. Boxx’s collection is “unifying and shows the delicacy and beauty in a culture that should be handled with fine care and challenges the miseducation [of colorism].”

The Black experience involves both the inward and the outward, where an action has a particular meaning within a social context, like the quiet defiance of “Black Girls Do Ballet.” Many of the portraits have abstracted facial forms or eye-obstructing glasses; if they do have eyes, one of them is blank and whited out. Perhaps it is the two lenses through which Blackness is seen: the self and the culture. Maybe it is an allusion to the ancient archetype of a blind oracle, with one eye that is turned toward the spiritual world of wisdom. “Identity” may also explore the inner world, featuring swirling, layered images with collaged texts. The words may come from one’s mind, or others may use them as terms to define what it means to be Black, a central theme of “Intersections.”

“Intersections: race, class, and gender through the Black Experience” by Boxx the Artist will be on display in the Hank & Dolly’s Gallery for the month of December. The exhibit can be viewed by appointment and in our online gallery, where all pieces are available for purchase.

Intersections: Race, Class, and Gender Through the Black Experience