Home. Say It Loud 2017

Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s painting, "Home. Say It Loud", seems to have emerged slowly, in layers, like a memory being pieced together. I can feel the artist building up the image, letting it shift and settle, through error and intuition. I really sympathize with Crosby, trying to conjure up a place that’s both real and imagined. There’s a sense of history and culture embedded in the very surfaces of this room. The walls and floor are covered in photo transfers that are layered with acrylic, pastel, and colored pencil – look at the way they blur and merge, creating this sort of psychic wallpaper! It makes me think about the physical act of painting, the push and pull of the medium, and how that translates into emotional resonance. That cool blue color is the key to everything, isn’t it? It reminds me of how painters are always in conversation across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Ultimately, painting is this embodied expression that thrives on ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations.