"Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender" (Gwen) by Narkita Wiley
The title of this image is borrowed from Alice Walker’s definition of womanist, found in her 1982 publication In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose.
The woman pictured is the color purple. She told the artist so while wearing a purple shirt and lavender nails, and sitting in her lilac-painted living room. As her fingers stroke her chin, signaling deep thought, the woman throws a piercing gaze inviting the viewer to listen to her wisdom. Scan the QR code to learn what it means to be Gwen in Denver.
This photograph is from "Black in Denver" (2018-2020), a portrait and interview series by the artist that features community members.
Artist's Bio:
narkita is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans photography, textiles, text, and printmaking. Her community engagement projects, site-specific installations, and works on paper draw from the archive, oral traditions, contemporary Black narratives, and Black feminist theory.
Her projects explore identity, healing, memory, and loss. She is interested in the nature of the human condition, entangling the political with the spiritual, and bending time in search of catharsis. She also spotlights the capacity of her materials, symbolism, color, and craft to create meaning.
Her exhibition record includes Hausen Gallery (2023), Pratt Institute (2022), Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver (2021), BMoCA (2021), Colorado Photographic Arts Center (2021), among others.
narkita is an NYU HEAR US 2022 fellow. She earned her BS in Public Relations, in 2010, and a MA in Art & Public Policy at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, in 2022. She is based in Brooklyn, NY.
