narkita: i found myself in the mountains
SEPTEMBER 21, 2023 - JANUARY 14, 2024
Opening reception: September 21, 2023
Artist talk: November 2, 4:30pm - Emmanuel Art Gallery (walkthrough of exhibition to follow at 5:30pm)
Narkita (b. 1987, Prince George's County, Maryland) interlaces text, textiles, photography, found objects, and performance to create site-specific installations and photographic assemblages that reveal the complexities and contradictions of her interior life. Borrowed from a poem written by Narkita, i found myself in the mountains explores her role as a visual artist, writer, and storyteller.
Her practice is deeply grounded in her experience of being a Black woman in America. She engages the self, the body, and her lived experience processed through Black feminist thought as the basis of her own theoretical thinking. Her careful intertwining of materials creates a universe charged with associations that signal the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade and proposes creative ways to heal the transgenerational trauma of colonialism.
the dash between is a new collection of diaristic images that speaks to the role of memory in her work, fulfills her desire to document humanity, and invites us to contemplate the challenges and possibilities of our existence. Each moment in this presentation of theorized personal anecdotes welcomes the viewer to slow down, breathe, look deeper, take notice, and envision an unwritten future rooted in care, love, and compassion.
Funded by The College of Arts & Media at the University of Colorado Denver
Curatorial Acknowledgments: Andrew Palamara, Larry Ossei-Mensah, Nichole Frocheur, Eric Dallimore
Special Thanks: Kathy Engel, Ron Landucci, Tatter Blue Textile Library, Textile Arts Center, the artist’s friends & family
All photographs of the exhibition and opening reception by Tomas Bernal
Artist 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 a 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.
This film, created by Tim Brown, features interviews with Narkita and curator/gallery coordinator Andrew Palamara, as well as footage of the exhibition itself. With this show, she’s using a lot of different media, from traditional media like photography to unconventional materials like yoga mats. This sets her up to do what she does best: communicate ideas in a variety of ways. These artworks are a manifestation of community, spirituality, and self-discovery, and the film brings it all to light.
Shot and edited by Tim Brown. Photographs in the film taken by Tomas Bernal and Amanda Tipton. Additional footage provided by Narkita.
