New York, NY… On Saturday, February 1, 2020 at the Jill Newhouse Gallery on the Upper East Side, artists of color will engage in a special talk about European art for the tenth annual Master Drawings New York. Conceived by Savona Bailey-McClain and Jill Newhouse, this event hopes to diversify the conversation about art and bridge time periods, artists and audiences in this 21st century. According to Bailey-McClain, “figurative art is very popular in the Black community. Why not share commonalities, materials and themes”. The works that the artists will respond to are courtesy of the Mireille Mosler Gallery. That roster includes Johannes van Bronckhorst, Xavier Mellery, Gustave Moreau, Elisabeth Sonrel and more.

Seating is limited. Jill Newhouse Gallery is located at 4 East 81st Street, 2nd floor. The talk which will be recorded, begins at 11 a.m. RSVP at westharlemartfund12@gmail.com.

BIOS

PATRICK DOUGHER

Born and raised in Brooklyn NY, Patrick Dougher is a self-taught artist, musician, poet, educator & spiritual activist. Patrick, has played and recorded with Grammy award winners Sade, Chuck D (Public Enemy) and Dan Zanes as well as many other notables. He is the drummer on “Dub Side as the Moon” one of the best selling Reggae LP’s of all time.

He has worked as a Teaching Artist in NYC public schools, as an Art Therapist working with HIV positive children and as the Director of community arts organizations. For over 20 years, Patrick has used the arts to empower and support the socio-emotional growth and health of “at-risk” and disenfranchised youth of the city.

Through his art, Patrick seeks to inspire and to celebrate the noble beauty and divine nature of people of African descent and to connect urban African American culture to its roots in sacred African art, spirituality and ritual.

KRAIG BLUE

Kraig Blue was born in 1968 in The Bronx, New York, politicized in Washington, DC, and liberated in Los Angeles, CA. He is a multimedia sculptor using found materials as metaphors to explore complex socially constructed ideologies and paradigms; creating multilayered sculptural assemblages as altars to become vehicles for quiet contemplation and dialogue.

After graduating Mount Saint Michael Academy, at sixteen years old, he attended New York Institute of Technology as an architecture major, but soon realized his true freedom existed in image making; he took a year off and applied to Fashion Institute of Technology, and in 1989 was accepted as an illustration major. At “FIT” he was able to learn portraiture, figure drawing and painting, oils, acrylics, watercolor, graphic design, and a commercially driven work ethic.

For twenty-five years he has been a published illustrator, arts educator, and exhibiting visual artist. In 2015 he received his BFA at the Laguna College of Art & Design in figurative sculpture, painting, and drawing. While there he received the Plotkin Award for Excellence in Fine Art.

In December 2019, Kraig received his MFA in Studio Art from The City College of New York. He has been the recipient of two Conner Scholarship awards and in 2018 the Therese McCabe Ralston Conner Fellowship to study abroad throughout Cuba.

Currently he is working at the Brooklyn Museum with their criminal justice diversion program Project Reset.

DIANNE SMITH

Dianne’s career as a multidisciplinary artist spans over two decades. Her solo and group exhibitions include, I found God in Myself, 2018, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI. Dianne Smith, Re: Harlem, 2017, Artist and the Archive, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Harlem Triennial. Surface and Soul, 2012, Piedmont Art Center, Martinsville, Virginia, Connections, 2012, Art Basel, Miami, and Transformers Coiled Potentials, 2012, at the Atelierhof Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany.

In 2013 Dianne received a Fulbright from The United States Consulate General in Guayaquil, Ecuador. She worked with the Museo Municipal de Guayaquil, Museo Arte y Ciudad, and local artists to create a public art mural. She is known for her public art installations such as Gumboot Juba, 2011, Armory Week, New York City, Organic Abstract, the New York City Parks Department, Armory Week, and Bartow-Pell Mansion as well as, the Andrew Freedman Houses, Bronx, New York, 2013. 

Dianne has over a decade of experience as an educator in the field of Aesthetic Inquiry with Lincoln Center Education, which is part of New York City’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. During her tenure, she taught K-12 in public schools throughout the Tri-State area. Her work as an educator also extends to undergraduate and graduate courses in various colleges and universities such as Lehman College, Brooklyn College, Columbia University Teachers College, St. John’s University, and as an adjunct professor at the City College of New York’s Department of Education. Until most recently, she was the Director of Public Engagement at the Allentown Art Museum. As the department head, she led her team in curating dynamic, innovative, and inclusive community programming.

In 2007, she was one of the artists featured in the Boondoggle Film Documentary Colored Frames. The film took a look back at fifty years of African American Art. It also featured other artists such as Benny Andrews, Ed Clark, and Wangechi Mutu. That same year the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church, which is New York’s oldest African American church, commissioned Dianne to create the artwork commemorating their 2008 Bicentennial. She also co-produced an online radio show, the New Palette, for ArtonAir.org (Art International Radio) dedicated to visual artists of color. She was a regular contributor to the State of the Arts NYC on WBAI radio. 

Early in her career, Dianne presented both the late Poet Dr. Maya Angelou and Broadway Choreographer George Faison, each with one of her paintings: Spirit of My Ancestors I and II. Her work is also in the private collections of Danny Simmons, Vivica A. Fox, Rev. and Mrs. Calvin O. Butts, III, Cicely Tyson, the late Arthur Mitchell, Reginald Van Lee, Tasha Smith, and Terry McMillian. Dianne Smith is a Bronx native of Belizean descent. She attended LaGuardia High School of Music and Art, the Otis School of Design, and the Fashion Institute of Technology. Smith received her MFA at Transart Institute in Berlin, and she currently lives and creates in Harlem, NY.

SAVONA BAILEY-MCCLAIN

McClain is the Executive Director/Chief Curator of the West Harlem Art Fund, which has organized high-profile public arts exhibits throughout New York City for the past 20 years, including Times Square, DUMBO, SoHo, Governors Island and Harlem. Her public art installations encompass sculpture, drawings, performance, sound, and mixed media, and have been covered extensively by the New York Times, Art Daily, Artnet, Los Angeles Times and Huffington Post, among many others. She is host/ producer of “State of the Arts NYC,” a weekly radio program on iTunes, Radio Public, Youtube, Mixcloud and other audio platforms. She is also a member of ArtTable and the Governors Island Advisory Council.