Join us this June for A Joy Unexpected curated by Root Division's inaugural Curatorial Fellow Tavarus Blackmon. Artists make themselves used-to the unexpected, our present state notwithstanding. Artists must shift as the economy shifts, reinvent themselves—quickly organize their space, life, studio or business—edit the image of self as the one true revision in a time of somber repose. For example, the artists in A Joy Unexpected all had to face the unexpected over the last year and did not recoil, but met it with work, time in the studio, and an investigation into what their future might become through an art practice in a world changing around them. How has the role of the artist changed, in regards to protest having entered our lives to change us in this time of demand for social justice? The unexpected is everywhere, but the artist has a toolset meant to unravel the tide and wash of unknowing. In fact, the artist’s question, the interminable kernel of doubt is a rhetorical one, leading them toward more concern in lifting the stones that reveal what is yet to be discovered. Consequently, precipitating the unknown becomes a practice.
A Joy Unexpected reveals what is difficult to see within us during times of comfort.
Image Credit: Manuel Fernando Rios, The Reawakening of Joaquin , 2020, Oil on canvas, 28 x 38 in.
Curator Bio:
Tavarus Blackmon, also known by the Anglo-Saxon, Blackmonster, is a devoted Black, Father and Partner with three children in the City of Trees, Sacramento, California. He earned his MFA as Provost Fellow at the University of California Davis and his MA in Studio Art at CSU, Sacramento. He has been under Fellowship at the Headlands Center for the Arts and is the recent Parent Artist Fellow at the Kala Art Institute. His is the recipient of the 2020-2021 Kala Art Institute Fellowship and the Curatorial Fellowship at Root Division. He is the winter, 2021, AiR at Caldera Arts in Sisters, OR. His practice is interdisciplinary and intermedium. His work has appeared in Susurrus, Calaveras Station, The Suisun Valley Review, Sacramento City Exchange, Instagram; he has contributed to The Sacramento News and Review: Arts and Culture, Reverb, Voices against mass incarceration, CURA, Literary Magazine of Art and Action, Fordham University, IO Literary Journal and Brushfire Journal, Edition 72, vol. 2, University of Nevada, Reno. He has exhibited in San Francisco; at American Steel Studios, Oakland; Los Angeles at The Center for Digital Arts; Chicago (Arc Gallery); New York (Limner Gallery); Mexico City and Berlin (Blue Banana Video Art Festival). Tavarus Blackmon has curated panel discussions, presentations and exhibitions, at Beatnik Gallery, The Golden One Center’s digital media displays, Axis Gallery, the Master of Art in Studio Art Thesis Exhibition, Critical Response at CSU, Sacramento and is founder and webmaster of Art Music Lit Space, an online gallery presenting virtual exhibitions. He is an artist member and Vice President at Axis Gallery, Sacramento. He also serves on the Marketing and eCommerce committees and is webmaster of the eCommerce website, Axis Editions. He has developed and published work for the web including the sites Tavarus Blackmon Art, Awedio Codex and Black Monster Night Light. His site, BlackmonsteReview hosts his thesis, The Politics of the Cartoon and Contemporary Art. Additional and substantive video and audio can be found under the profiles Tavarus Blackmon and Black Audio Monster on Vimeo and Soundcloud, respectively. His current body of sound art, Lock Down, is released through Spinnup, a Universal Music Group platform. Learn more about Tavarus here: tavarusblackmonart.com | @tavarusblackmon
