Zaire McPhearson, Melanin Bloom, 2021, 24”x36”

For Colored Girls by Zaire McPhearson is presented by Pop Box Gallery at Bright Black a Durham-based, family-owned candle company that pays tribute to Black greatness, one beautifully crafted candle at a time. The exhibit is up October 28 - December 22, 2022.

Please join us for a reception on Friday, November 18, 2022 from 6-8pm during Third Friday Durham and a Slow Art Tour on Saturday, November 19 at 1pm.

In For Colored Girls, Zaire McPhearson challenges constructed perceptions of race, color, and subject.

She writes: “As a Black woman, I feel responsible for ensuring that my work shifts the narrative away from the mythology of a predominately white art historical canon and instead celebrates the existence of Black bodies and Black stories. This is the work that I have always felt motivated to create. I consider my work a love letter to Black womanhood.

I have been exploring colors and their relationship to the Black body. What does it mean to be a “colored” woman? And how do we see colors on the skin? How is race defined and embodied within systems of power?

The portraits depict introspective women in their teens to their mid-70s. Each woman's face is presented in oil and acrylic painted color blocks with various hues of red, blue, yellow, orange, violet, green, and teal. Each color represents the strength and struggle that Black women endure. Layered brush strokes create texture and collage elements convey fragmented histories and personal stories. Although the palette is the same throughout the series, the colors on each subject were selected to represent individual personal stories.

The relationship between African Americans and the construct of race is a complex one. In this series, I explore what it means to be a Black woman through color, shape, texture, and form to reimagine the power structures that define dominant cultural perceptions of people of color in the Americas.”