By Avery Harrison
A D.C. art gallery curated an entire exhibition to celebrate and spotlight African American artists in the community as part of Black History Month.
Zenith Gallery, established in 1978, regularly hosts exhibitions by artists who create in the mediums of contemporary, abstract, and African American art, according to the gallery’s website,
From Feb. 2 through March 2, the gallery presented “Awareness: Through an African American Lens,” an exhibition with multimedia pieces all done by Black artists.
Every Saturday during this year’s Black History Month, this small gallery hosts an artist talk where local artists will come in and talk about their work.
Margery E. Goldberg was in front of the guests, waiting for the artists to talk. All of the artist’s works were put up on the walls. (Avery Harrison/Howard University News Service)
“I’ve always shown African American Art,” said Margery E. Goldberg, the founder and director of the gallery. She said such art has been featured since the day she opened the gallery.
Goldberg not only runs the gallery but also picks the artists who are featured.
She said she even helped name the pieces.
Goldberg said she has been in the art business for a long time and, being an artist herself, is passionate about the work shown, especially for Black artists.
“An artist doesn’t need representation one month every three years when they have a one-person show,” she said. “They need representation every single solitary day.”
She said this specific exhibition aims to celebrate and honor black artists’ contributions and heritage.
“Everybody is so different, and they tell their own stories, or they tell stories of history,” Goldberg said. “I like all my artists to be different.”
Featured artists included Ram Brisueno, a Baltimore-based mixed media artist with at least five pieces in the exhibition.
“I’ve been doing art for the last 20 years, early 90s,” Brisueno said. “I found using collage was what was best for me, and I like to use it in a way to bring magical realism to life.”
Brisueno pulls inspiration from his life when creating his art. He said he finds beauty in everyday life and creates from there.
“I’m Black and Puerto Rican, so a lot of that Latin American magical realism stories I like to use in my artwork to create and tell stories,” Brisueno said.
He said he takes his characters and puts them in “different gardens and situations and atmospheres in the world of mystery and joy.”.
But not just from his life. He said he also draws inspiration from people in his family, particularly his mother.
“A lot of my work has a sort of quality of my mother,” Brisueno said.
He said he had used all the old magazines his mother used to read for some pieces. He has cut them into scraps to use in collages.
Brisueno said he has seen how receptive this art has been to the artistic community.
“The art scene here is great, and it’s very nurturing and very supportive,” Brisueno said. “I’ve met a lot of people, a lot of artists, that are very supportive of sharing their artwork and sharing what they know.”
“Their knowledge makes you feel acknowledged, and you want to do your art more and go further with your art,” Brisueno said.
A series of paintings in the gallery represent the Peanuts gang but as black at the entrance of the house gallery. (Avery Harrison/Howard University News Service)
Edwin Hines dropped in to see the exhibition. He said his sister has a friend with pieces displayed, and that brought him and his nephew to pay a visit.
“I am not an artist per se, but I enjoy it very much,” he said. “I do tend to be a judge, but I try to keep the judging inside.
The Zenith Gallery will continue to have artists’ talks on Saturdays at 2 pm for the rest of the exhibition run and hopes people will come in, find a piece they like, and buy it.
