Curated by Amy Andrieux
Made possible thanks to the generous contributions of:
On View: April 22 – June 19, 2022
Opening Reception: April 21 @ 6:30PM @ MoCADA BK | CLOSED
Location: MoCADA BK, 80 Hanson Place Brooklyn | SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT
Artist Talk Details: May 14, 2022 @ 3PM, @ MoCADA BK | RSVP
Featured image above: “Urban Repartee” by Kimberly Becoat (2022)
Acrylic, painted collage, collage elements on strathmore paper
30 x 43.5 in
SUMMARY
Kimberly M. Becoat is no stranger to MoCADA. Over the years, her mixed media work has been featured in more than a handful of our exhibitions, and she has served as both a teaching artist and facilitator of MoCADA educational initiatives. But Kimberly’s artistic capacity certainly swells far beyond the Brooklyn artistic scene….
In the 20 years that she has been a consistent voice in the contemporary Black arts movement, most notably, Kimberly has centered her practice on excavating the oft-ignored history and contributions of Black life in New York City. From her work on the 19th-century African American settlement, Seneca Village, through to URBANIA, an evolving body of work which is the subject of this MoCADA solo exhibition, Kimberly thoughtfully investigates urban displacement through the intimate lens of her childhood in public housing. Using Black cultural production as a mechanism for reclamation, viewers are afforded the artist’s undeniable social commentary on liberation, cultural preservation, and her insatiable call to restorative play.
Why now? After two years in almost total isolation at the hands of the pandemic, a force beyond our control (much like the political systems that continue to ensnare us), this epoch has yielded tremendous grief and insurmountable loss for many of us. URBANIA, like a beacon of nostalgia, instigates a reflective contemplation on the public versus private representations of our cultural production for the deliberate purpose of setting us all free.
MUSEUM NOTES
Here’s a guide to assist you as you explore the exhibition. Just scan the QR code for more.
FEATURED ARTIST
Kimberly M. Becoat is a contemporary mixed media artist whose work is a stylistic abstraction with a conceptual investigation of new materials and visual experiences with social commentary.
She uses a variety of art materials including acrylic paint, sumi ink, and watercolor as well as less conventional items like sand, tar paper, foil, candy wrappers and other detritus. Her most recent abstract & conceptual work is an investigation of urban environments meant to create “urban displacement”, such as in public housing – aimed to surgically remove “massive amounts of Blacks and Latinos” into designated forgotten pockets of city landscapes.
Kimberly has been featured in a number of exhibits including her current solo exhibition; URBANIA at MoCADA Museum in New York; Welcome to Urbania at RUSH Arts Gallery, NY (solo exhibit); New Abstractions at Essie Green Galleries (solo exhibit); as well as at Capital One Bank in NY; the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM); 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, and Deutsche Bank. Her work has also appeared on television shows including Insecure on HBO; the Netflix Original Series, Luke Cage; and the FX series, The Americans. A few other notable exhibitions include Last Supper, Latchkey Gallery, NY; Creative Climate Award Art Nominee, Human Impacts Institute, NY; Prizm Fair, Miami, FL.; In Plain Sight/Site, ArtSpace, New Haven, CT; Pressure Points, Art on the Vine, Martha’s Vineyard; Dadaesque, 701 CCA Gallery, SC; Respond, SMACK Mellon Gallery, NY; Honoring Romare Bearden, The Corridor Gallery, NY; and Dirty Sensibilities: A 21st Century Exploration of the New American Black South, at the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, NY.
Kimberly is a native New Yorker, born in Harlem, NY, who presently resides and works as an artist in Brooklyn.
SELECT WORKS
“Quenepas y Plátanos en la Ciudad”
Kimberly M. Becoat
(2022)
Acrylic, sumi inkdrawing, on strathmore paper
38 x 48 in
“They Give Us Concrete Gardens”
Kimberly M. Becoat
(2018)
Acrylic sand mix painted and collaged, and gold leaf on paper
40 x 30 in
“Exonerated – Central Park Jubilee”
Kimberly M. Becoat
(2022)
Acrylic, collaged painted graphix sheets on strathmore paper
38 x 48 in
Photos by Ajamu Kojo.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Click to view more…
Your support goes in a long way in helping MoCADA create exhibitions and other special programs that benefit the community. Click GiveMo to give a gift today.
