THE JANUS EFFECT: New Photographs from Old Techniques exhibited 3/15/2013 - 4/27/2013
DONALD BLACK JR
Artist StatementPhotography is my first love and I relish the sensory rewards of working with my hands as I engage in traditional darkroom practices. I find those rewards missing with digital photography, so in an attempt to regain them, I turned to a method of capturing images that is as old as the origins of photography itself: photogravure - a process that produces a continuous tone photograph from an etched copper plate. Rather than using the plate as a negative to produce a print, I am using the plate as my positive print. I chose to produce a unique, one-of-a-kind life-size image by conjoining copper plates and presenting them as my final product.
Donald Black Jr BiographyThere is a very pleasing story about photographer Donald Black Jr. and his desire to be an artist. At a young age, Black instinctively recognized there was something missing from art. He felt disconnected from art because he didn’t see himself in the works that surrounded him. Black often wondered where was the art that represented the world in which he was experiencing – a world filled with dysfunction as it relates to being black. This seemingly haunting instinct and disconnection would follow Black upon graduating from Cleveland School of the Arts in 1998, and throughout his studies at Ohio University where he studied commercial photography. During his senior year at Ohio University, a closed friend asked Black the following: “Do you see yourself or where you come from in your work?” The question forced Black to face his childhood thoughts about the links between art and self-discovery. Instantly, it all connected for Black. In response, he went to the local hardware store and purchased four feet of metal chain – an object (along with bars and cages) that would serve as a reoccurring symbol in his work to represent imprisonment, captivity and the desire to be free. In 2007, Black was awarded third place in Nikon’s International Competition for his photograph, “Self-Imprisonment”. Black spent five years living in New York after his years at Ohio University. In New York, he discovered there was still a striking absence in his work. His attraction to permanency, history, legend and black culture is what returned Black to his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. Returning home has positioned Black to reunite with all things familiar and imperative to him. He is most concerned with creating art that reveals truth and fills the voids he experienced as a child.
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Education2012 Cape fear Press Photogravure Etching Workshop
2009–2010 Cleveland Institute of Art Life Drawing 2003 Graduated from Ohio University with a Bachelor of Science in Commercial Photography 1989–1998 attended The Cleveland School of the Arts (Major was photography) 1997–1998 Cleveland Institute of Art (shadowing program) Tobias France(CSA alum 1994) 1996 Cleveland Institute of Art (Life Drawing Classes) Exhibitions/Achievements2010 Lakeland Community College
2010 June “Voices worth Hearing” group show Wall Eye Gallery 2009 November “For Closure” Solo exhibition Convivium 33 2009 Lakeland Community College 2008 October “No Copper” group show Cleveland Public Art 2008 December “Still in Chains” group show Cleveland State University 2008 Sankofa Fine Art Plus Emerging Artist 2008 September “Envision Cleveland” group show Cleveland State University 2008 April “In My Hood” group show Cleveland Public Library 2008 Jewish Community Center Annual Photography Show (juried exhibition) Beach Wood, OH 2007 March 3rd place in Nikon International photo competition 2007 April Exhibiting two shows “The Crisis of Realism” and “The Cycle of being Bound” Bloomingdales (Soho) –New York, NY 2007 Feb. Solo Showing “Black Like Me” at Vanel’s on First–New York, NY 2006 May-Dec. Group Exhibition “Silent Voices, Loud Echoes” The African American Museum –Philadelphia, PA 2006 April Group Exhibition “Hedonism” featured artist Apache Café ¬–Atlanta, GA 2006 Feb. Solo Exhibition “Beauty” Lindley Cultural Center 2005 Nov. featured by Art Noir Gallery at “October Galley” African American art Expo –Philadelphia, PA 2005 June featured at the “Galla” charity event held by “The Urban League”–Philadelphia, PA 2004 May Solo Exhibition"Art of Form II” Lindley Cultural Center –Athens, OH 2003 March Solo Exhibition “Art of Form” held at Lindley Cultural Center–Athens, OH 2000–2003 exhibited in Ohio University’s Visual Communication juried show 2002 awarded the Kodak Scholarship for outstanding photographer at Ohio University (first African American to receive this award at O.U.) 2002 awarded a scholarship to attend N.A.P.P. National Association of Photoshop Professionals Conference –Tampa, FL 1998 awarded the only person to have 13 years of perfect attendance 1997–1998 Look Up to Cleveland (leadership program) CSA rep. 1994–1998 Internship with Plain Dealer 1994–1998 Peer Mediator 1998 Governs Show award winner 1998 Cleveland Scholastic Art Show, 2 Silver keys and 1 Bronze key 1997 Cleveland Scholastic Art Show, Gold key 1997 apprentice Dawoud Bey artist in residence |
