JRRNNYS
This exhibition at Night Gallery, which opened February 2nd, 2019, was Derek Fordjour’s first exhibition in LA. The unique title ‘JRRNNYS’ (aka journeys) “situates this range of perspectives within the realm of the personal voyage, a site of evolution by means of discovery.”
The exhibition consists of sculptures and paintings. The paintings focus on constant themes in Fordjour’s work which are crowds and athletic competitions. These themes “illustrate the entrenchment of power relations, capital flows, and racial inequality within the economic and social systems of the United States.”
“I’m thinking a lot about incarceration and my own experiences with the criminal justice system, and growing up in the ’90s and seeing the crack era, and where we are now with sentencing.” - Derek Fordjour for Cultured
In one room of the exhibit “STOCKROOM Ezekiel,” is inspired by “1884 letters of Ezekiel Archey, a 25-year-old unjustly held as a prisoner sent to labor at the Pratt Coal Mines in Birmingham”
“Every Day some one of us were carried to our last resting, the grave. No humane being can tell… yet we hear. Fate seems to curse a convict.” – Ezekiel Archey, letter to R.H. Dawson, 1884
Pictured are ‘cells’ - 1000 in total that Fordjour has created in his installation that are filled with lights and other objects as an illustration of “unjust structures that define American life.”
About the artist
Derek Fordjour has quite an impressive academic record. He graduated from undergrad at Morehouse College, then went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Art Education from Harvard University, and an MFA in painting at Hunter College.
He's represented by the following galleries:
Night Gallery - Los Angeles
Petzel Gallery - New York
Josh Lilley Gallery - London
He just recently had his first major solo museum show at the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis.
