CHELLE BARBOUR / Juxtaposing Afro-Surrealism

February 7 – May 3, 2024

Surrealism was a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and the word was re-contextualized in the 1970s by author Amiri Baraka, who coined the term Afro-Surrealism. He raised the notion that the experience of being black in America was a profoundly surreal experience that went beyond the average person's imagination. Through the lens of Afro-Surrealism, artist Chelle Barbour’s collages examine societal fractures, tearing apart visual fragments of life to reimagine the sum of the whole. She reassembles these fragments to create a narrative that is other worldly – perceptually different and mythical.

Header image: Untitled, Chelle Barbour

Referencing Afro-Futurism, the African Diaspora, and Dadaism, Barbour’s collages juxtapose disparate photos to fit symbolically together, resulting in depictions of Black women who are confident and regal, and whose assuredness envelops the viewer. Layered in the images, the viewer can identify architectural and decorative elements, vintage newsprint, weapons, animal skins, and body parts taken from found photographs and books that form representational themes and metaphors.

This body of work is inspired by W.E.B. Dubois’ compilation of photographic images in the “American Negro” exhibit at the 1900 Paris Exposition. He organized 363 images into albums entitled “Types of American Negroes.” Respectively, Barbour’s collages feature 100 images divided into four volumes: young Black women of the African Diaspora, the vintage photographs from the “American Negro” exhibit, remarkable Black American women, and Black female authors. The female figures represent the complete archetype of a Black woman— unapologetically colorful and beyond objectification. These women epitomize queens, warriors, and heroines who portray their vulnerability, strength, resistance, and power.

About the Artist

Chelle Barbour is a mixed media artist with an interdisciplinary practice based in Los Angeles. She is widely recognized for her Afro-Futurist and Afro-Surrealist collages which challenge the notion of agency, black beauty, and performativity. Through her use of allegory, myth, and resilience, Barbour’s collage portraiture explores the inherently complex narratives in the black female experience.

With exhibitions nationwide, Barbour’s debut solo show, “You IS Pretty! Surrealism and The Black Imaginary,” was presented in Los Angeles at Band of Vices Gallery, and Barbour was one of three American artists selected to participate in the European exhibition, “The Medea Insurrection: Radical Women Artists Behind the Iron Curtain” at the Wende Museum of the Cold War, Culver City, California. Her work was also presented in "Vision and Spirit African American Art: Works from the Bank of America Collection" at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Art, North Carolina, International Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter project at the Project Row Houses in Houston, Texas, “The Mothership: Voyage into Afro-Futurism” at the Oakland Museum of California, and most recently in the notable traveling exhibition "Black American Portraits” launched at Los Angeles County Art Museum.

Barbour received her BFA and Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California. She was nominated for The Rema Hort Mann Foundation award and received the distinguished Established Art Fellow Award from the California Arts Council. Her work is in many collections, including the Seavest Collection, Bank of America Collection, Los Angeles County Art Museum (LACMA), Wende Museum, California African American Art Museum, and the J. Paul Getty Museum photo archive. chellebarbour.com