Urban Forage Winery Art Show

It’s been a long time since I’ve displayed any of my fine art photography anywhere. This Friday (June 7th) we are having the gallery opening at Urban Forage Winery on East Lake. This is your official invitation, so please stop by from 6-8pm to view my pieces along with Nana Aforo’s oil paintings.

As a wedding and branding photographer, I still believe that what I create is art, but fine art is different. My fine arts pieces are about me and come from my perspective. Although I am still telling a story with each piece, the stories are mine to tell.

My fine art pieces are photo collages that I created during my time living in Madison, Wisconsin. I believe that photographs are more than visual; they encase a moment in time. When I moved away from my friends and family, I found photographs captured not only their faces, but an essence of their lives. With the technique of photo collage, I am able to show not only personal spaces, but the objects and movements that define them. The process of taking apart pictures and reassembling them allows me to reconnect with memories. It also forces the viewer to follow the work and point out these details.

The other side of the gallery will be featuring the work of Nana Aforo. Nana is an interdisciplinary artist based in Minneapolis, MN who hybridizes oil painting, and electronic, and acoustic music.

As a black, bisexual, Catholic, Ghanaian artist and musician, he uses
his minority background as a point of contact and empathy. He makes large oil paintings that use the
figure and abstracted backgrounds to depict scenes of great suffering or joy. Aforo recently completed a
BFA in studio art from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. He has worked on multiple
international commissions in Ghana and the United States. Aforo’s works have been exhibited locally
in Minneapolis at the Q.arma Building during Art-a-Whirl and the Arts Quarter Festival at the Regis
West Gallery.

He address themes of racism, homophobia, pride, pain, music, religion, solitude, love, and family in his paintings.

“This coexistence of themes is the human story. My art is my understanding of my own story informed by being a black, bisexual, Ghanaian, Catholic, musician. Through life experiences made visual, I create highly textured, large-scale impasto oil paintings, layering a diverse range of colors to give a sense of rough beauty. I see rough beauty as an honest descriptor of life. I combine surrealism and realism to give the impression of an emotional scene without being literal, as the literal does not fully encompass the true depth of human emotion. For me, art is freedom on my own terms.”

Please come support our show by attending the gallery opening this FRIDAY (June 7th) at Urban Forage Winery. We would love to see you, and plus, there will be home made cider, wine and meads. Feel free to reach out to me here with any questions.

Did you know my art was once made into a cake? Check out this blog post from Jo Garrison-
https://www.jogarrisoncakes.com/cake-and-colab