Grandmother at the White House 2019

Jammie Holmes made this painting, Grandmother at the White House, and you can see the way he's put it together bit by bit. It looks like he's figuring it out as he goes along. Look closely, and you'll see how the surface is built up. It's not just about making a picture, it's about the paint itself. The white of the White House is layered on, not quite covering what’s underneath, and it almost dissolves into the sky. He is using the paint to give real weight to that grandmothers' dark hands. And what about the scribbles, like notations, across the bottom of the frame? These are like thoughts, barely formed, yet crucial to the whole. It reminds me of Kerry James Marshall, in how it deals with questions of what it means to represent Black figures in painting. Art’s a conversation, and this piece has a lot to say.