Lanise Howard, “With Open Arms (The Life Bearer),” 2024. Oil on canvas, 60 x 48 in. Courtesy the artist and Mindy Solomon Gallery
Join Art + Practice for a special conversation with curator Dominique Clayton, Lanise Howard and Lex Marie from Giving you the best that I got. Together they will explore the exhibition’s themes of Black motherhood, cultural inheritance, and the power of art to tell untold stories. This intimate program offers an opportunity to hear directly from the voices shaping the exhibition, gain behind-the-scenes insights, and engage in meaningful dialogue about art, memory, and community.
Special Addition: KJLH Live at A+P
Before the program begins, KJLH 102.3 will be on-site from 5–7 p.m. with live broadcasting, games, giveaways, and music. Black motherhood organizations will also share resources, making this an evening of community celebration leading into the conversation.
Altavoces
Dominique Clayton is an arts consultant, writer, and gallerist born and raised in Los Angeles. Clayton is the founder of Dominique Gallery, a storefront turned pop-up exhibition and online program which showcases and advises emerging artists with a focus on marginalized artists and artists raising families. In addition to the gallery, Clayton also serves on the curatorial and programming committee of Destination Crenshaw, a forthcoming outdoor art museum and arts program based in the historic Crenshaw community of Los Angeles. Clayton previously worked as Manager of the Founding Director’s office at The Broad and later as an interim director at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery. Her arts writing has been featured in publications including Cultured Magazine, LALA Magazine, Artsy, Sugarcane Magazine, Blavity, and her own forthcoming Black Arts Diary.
Los Angeles–based painter Lanise Howard’s portraiture combines her interest in the digital space with her desire to depict Black bodies and paint often untold stories. “In my experience as an African American woman, I find myself thinking of an alternative to that experience, one rooted in the necessity to rewrite history,” she wrote in her artist statement. “The idea of change then becomes an element of the work, enacted through the dreamed space. My work often presents hypotheses and tries to offer possible answers, through engagement and inquiry.” Raised between Southern California and New York, Howard explores issues of censorship and assimilation. Subverted and lost histories converge in her portraits, where she depicts Black subjects in often surreal settings. In 2019, Howard was the recipient of the Women’s Painters West Award.
Lex Marie is a multidisciplinary artist who creates paintings, sculptures and installations that reflect her individual experiences yet encompasses the experiences of many in the African diaspora. Marie’s artistic practice is as an exploration of the weighty realities experienced by many African American children and children of color. Her work is a testament to the profound impact of adultification biases, food insecurity, and the systemic challenges entrenched in American school systems, healthcare systems, in the home and out in the world. Through a fusion of everyday materials, often reclaimed and repurposed, Marie offers a tangible manifestation of the intangible struggles faced by these young minds, compelling viewers to confront the profound significance inherent in the seemingly ordinary.
Marie holds a BA in studio art with a concentration in painting from the University of Maryland, College Park. Marie’s most recent solo exhibition “LetThem Kids Be Kids” opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington (2022). Marie’s work has been curated into group exhibitions including REVISIT/REIMAGINE (Banneker-Douglas Museum, 2024), In Tender Peaks, Grace Unfolds (Mitochondria Gallery, 2024), A Color Story (Cierra Britton Gallery, 2024), and Stories From My Childhood (Northern Illinois University Art Museum, 2022). Marie received the Washingtinton Studio Award from S&R Evermay in 2023 and currently works in Washington, DC.