The latest visiting artist exhibit since late 2019 at the Jewett Art Gallery, “In Search of the Black Fantastic”, is up from Sept. 3 to Oct. 14, 2024. It showcases the work of Massachusetts-based artist Karmimadeebora McMillan. The title of the exhibit, and the theme of McMillan’s work, is based on the concept of “The Black Fantastic” coined by Ekow Eshun, a writer and journalist. According to Eshun, The Black Fantastic is “a way of seeing, shared by artists who grapple with the legacy of slavery … by conjuring new narratives of Black possibility.” 

“In The Black Fantastic, boundaries between dichotomies assumed to be essential are erased,” reads the info sheet at the front of the exhibit. Each piece, be it painted on scrap wood or on blocks glued together, is full of colorful, almost esoteric, depictions of nature. From trees and flowers, to the cell, life is illustrated in a bath of greens, reds, and blues with pops of other hues. 

McMillian also includes elements of collage, mostly via printed images of galaxies. They serve to break up the texture of the pieces in subtle, but impactful, ways. In many of the works, there are winding roads, vines and rivers. These entities, which in real life lead to a destination or end, are instead portrayed as pillars of infinity, looping around and off the surface in impossible ways. The ground, if it even is the ground, is often patterned like a quilt instead of grass or dirt. Yet, for all the impossibility, each landscape materializes and stretches out before you, from the teardrop leaves of “Lilith’s Trees” that gently sway in the unseen wind, to the vibrant lapping of river water in the painting “In Search of the Black Fantastic.” Other pieces displayed are strikingly 2D, like “In Search of Our Mothers Garden.” Instead of a landscape, the viewer is encouraged to focus on the intricacies of the flowers and leaves intertwining to form an aesthetic reminiscent of textile and the gilding of medieval tomes. 

With her exhibition “In Search of the Black Fantastic,” McMillian brings us into her world of vibrant possibilities under a night sky through “In Search of the Black Fantastic”.

Contact the editor responsible for this story: Anabelle Meyers