New Exhibit in the RSM Gallery: The Resurrection of Ifé Franklin. Artist Talk & Opening Reception Jan. 23, 5-7pm.

RSM Art Gallery proudly presents The Resurrection of Ifé Franklin, a solo exhibition of drawings and mixed media sculptures by Ifé Franklin, whose multi-genre artistic practice is inspired by slave narratives, dreams, dance, song, and visions. All are invited to the artist talk and opening reception on Thursday, January 23, 5:00-7:00pm. The talk will start at 5:00pm and reception follows from 5:30-7:00pm. We hope you can join us!

The Resurrection of Ifé Franklin
Ifé Franklin
January 15–March 1, 2025

Artist Talk and Opening Reception
Thursday, January 23
artist talk at 5:00pm | reception 5:30–7:00pm
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About the Exhibit

RSM Gallery proudly presents The Resurrection of Ifé Franklin, a solo exhibition of drawings and mixed media sculptures by Ifé Franklin, whose multi-genre artistic practice is inspired by slave narratives, dreams, dance, song, and visions. Spirituality, activism, and historical research are all integral to Franklin’s artistic practice. Ifé Franklin’s Indigo Project has been developed over the last decade to honor the lives, culture, and history of formerly enslaved Africans and African Americans, whose labor produced the materials that built the wealth of nations. Community involvement through processions, performances, workshops, and the collaborative construction of life-size replicas of slave cabins are key aspects of the Indigo Project. The Ancestor Slave Cabin sculptures incorporate Adire fabric: indigo-dyed cotton cloths created through a traditional Yoruba resist dyeing technique to create distinctive blue and white patterns. The artist will bring Adire panels from her fourth Ancestor Slave Cabin sculpture to create the installation “A Cabin in the Sky” in the center of the RSM Gallery, surrounded by her large Dogon, Sirius B, and Ancestor drawings and conjure bottle sculptures. The drawings and sculpture exemplify the intertwined roles of historical research, spirituality, and Afrofuturism within Franklin’s creative practice. Circle and cross forms figure prominently in the mixed media drawings, references to the Congo Cosmogram; a central symbol in the Bakongo religion that represents the relationship between the spaces and time of the spiritual and physical world. The drawings play with our geospatial perception, galaxies of white dots and circles are mapped on black ground, woven through line and shape patterns built over color-washed shapes to create environments that oscillate between celestial and cellular. The pattern language of the drawings is evident on many of the Conjure bottles, these vessels are deeply informed by Nkisi – a term from the Central African Bakongo culture – which refers to a spirit or a physical object believed to be inhabited by a spirit. Nkisi plays a role in rituals that invoke spiritual power, seek protection or enforce justice. The kinship of spiritual practice and the pursuit of justice is central to Franklin's Indigo Project, honoring the enslaved through love, joy, respect, and remembrance.