Charlotte Rowe Galleries Hosting Exhibition Curated By Yvonne Bynoe
The College of Arts + Architecture is pleased to present the exhibition How I Got Over: Contemporary Black Southern Portraiture, A testimony of community, joy and triumph, curated by Yvonne Bynoe. The exhibition will be on view from August 16 through September 23 in the lower gallery of Rowe Arts on the main university campus, with a reception and artists talk on September 12.
How I Got Over: Contemporary Black Southern Portraiture, A testimony of community, joy and triumph features 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 Sorrells, and Dammit Wesley. The exhibition also includes four works from internationally acclaimed artist Romare Bearden (1911-1988), a native of Charlotte who has inspired generations of artists. The works are on loan from the Jerald Melberg Gallery.
Through their diverse portraiture, these artists not only present their personal narratives, but also an understanding about how Black Southerners see themselves as both Americans and ancestral standard bearers.
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.
How I Got Over: Contemporary Black Southern Portraiture, A testimony of community, joy and triumph is the first in a series of three planned exhibitions at UNC Charlotte focused on Black southern portraiture. The group exhibition will be followed in the spring/summer of 2025 by solo exhibitions by the 2021 Bennett Prize winner Ayana Ross and Robert Peterson, both curated by Yvonne Bynoe and both presented at the Projective Eye Gallery at UNC Charlotte Center City.
Brief bios of the How I Got Over featured artists appear below. They will speak about their work at the exhibition reception on September 12.
1. Aliyah Bonnette
Born in Silver Spring, MD
Lives and works in Raleigh, NC
Textile Artist
Bonnette is an improvisational quilter who combines textile manipulation and oil painting to present scenes of Southern Black womanhood and African Diasporic identity. She says, “My work is heavily influenced by my relationships with my late grandmothers, my ancestors, or my ‘Kindred’ as I call them. I discovered quilting three years ago at age 20 after learning that quilting may have been used in the underground railroad to aid slaves to freedom…”
2. Jessica C. Dunston
Born in Raleigh, NC
Lives and works in Charlotte, NC
Dunston is an analogue photographer whose work is centered on the celebration of brown skin. Her photos in How I Got Over were taken in North Carolina.
3. Asia Hanon
Atlanta, GA
Although a young artist, UNC Charlotte alumna Asia Hanon has already participated in numerous group exhibitions, including “The New South V” (2024), annual art in paper exhibition, Kai Lin Gallery, Atlanta, GA; “Disrupting The Matrix: An Exploration of Printmaking Techniques and Narratives” (2023) at Elder Gallery, Charlotte; “Diasporic Dream Landing” (2023) at Goodyear Arts, Charlotte. Black Creativity Juried Art Exhibition, Chicago Museum of Science.
4. Lori Starnes Isom
Born in Brooklyn, NY
Lives and works in Columbia, SC
Isom was born and raised in New York City by Southern parents. She studied at Parson School of Design. After returning to her familial roots in South Carolina, she was the artist-in-residence for the City of North Charleston, 2012-2013.
5. Jay McKay
New Orleans, LA
Visual Artist, Tattoo Artist, Advocate for New Orleans arts and culture
A Hurricane Katrina survivor, McKay studied art in Cape Town, South Africa, and lived in Washington, DC, for several years. He has been a performance set designer for singer Janelle Monae and the Essence Music Festival in his hometown of New Orleans.
6. DeMarcus McGaughey
Born in Dallas, TX/based in Brooklyn, NY
Represented by Daisha Board Gallery, Dallas, TX
McGaughey’s works that are featured in How I Got Over are from his “Kindred” series of 40 mixed media works that explore spirituality, identity and memory. The KINDRED series was inspired by McGaughey rediscovering family photographs and the stories behind them, which reaffirmed the importance of his Southern heritage and the contributions of the five generations of his family members.
7. Terron Cooper Sorrels
Portsmouth, VA
Represented by Richard Beavers Gallery, Brooklyn and Soho, New York
Sorrells is gaining a reputation for large scale works rooted in American Southern history and culture. The paintings intertwine everyday people with incidents from the past to challenge the perceptions of African American culture. Sorrells says that his work is centered on the “neglected narratives of African American history.”
8. Dammit Wesley
Charlotte, NC
Wesley’s debut solo exhibition, “Ballad of Bella Noches,” occurred at Elder Gallery in Charlotte in 2023, and he participated in the group exhibition, “My Presence is History: Interpretations of Afro-Surrealism From the American South,” at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture that same year.
About the Curator:
Yvonne Bynoe is an independent curator and the founder of @shelovesblackart, an online platform that boasts nearly 46,000 followers from around the globe. It is the premier online platform for art representing the African diaspora. @SheLovesBlackArt was established in late December, 2018 as a curated page on Instagram to showcase the work of emerging and established visual artists of African descent. @sheloveblackart’s boasts a global and multi-racial audience that also includes collectors, artists and art professionals. The platform has grown rapidly without paid advertising.
In 2022 Bynoe partnered with Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture in to develop and host four panel discussions on art for Black History Month. She is also a regular contributor to the online and print publication Black Art In America and the author of several books on popular culture. Her curatorial debut was the group exhibition “The Renaissance of Brooklyn: History is Present” (2023) at the Brooklyn Collective Gallery in Charlotte. Her philosophy as a curator is to highlight stories that have been lost or intentionally erased and to include narratives that are overlooked or undervalued.
Bynoe is a native of Brooklyn, NY, who began learning about art by visiting area galleries and museums with her parents as a child. She is a former attorney and the author of several books on popular culture.
She is a graduate of Howard University and Fordham University School of Law. She is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Sorority, Inc., the oldest collegiate sorority for Black American women in the nation.