“How I Got Over: Contemporary Black Southern Portraiture” At Charlotte Rowe Galleries Aug 16-Sept 24
How I Got Over: Contemporary Black Southern Portraiture, A testimony of community, joy, and triumph, curated by Yvonne Bynoe, features works by a multi-generational group of eight artists from across the American South: Aliyah Bonnette, Jessica C. Dunston, Asia Hanon, Lori Starnes Isom, Jay McKay, DeMarcus McGaughey, Terron Cooper Sorrels, and Dammit Wesley.
The artists, through their diverse portraiture, not only present their narratives but also an understanding of how Black Southerners see themselves as both Americans and ancestral standard bearers. Black Southerners are the genesis of the African American identity. For African Americans who don’t live in the South, most have a parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent who did. Southern Black culture inhabits the specters of West African captives who influenced the food, hairstyles, language, and artifacts. It’s a very rich terrain that birthed the socially conservative “Black church,” a legion of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), several American music genres, and numerous artists, such as Romare Bearden, who was born in Mecklenburg County.
The Civil Rights Movement was formed and led primarily by Black Southerners. Gospel legend Mahalia Jackson was a confidante to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. She performed the spiritual “How I Got Over” at the “March On Washington for Jobs and Freedom” in 1963. The exhibition takes its title from the popular hymn that exemplifies a people who for centuries have faced insurmountable barriers and triumphed by leaning on their faith in God and in themselves. The show is on view in Rowe Upper and Lower Galleries August 16 through September 24.
Pictured: “Migration” (2023-24) by Terrell Cooper Sorrells