‘New Power Generation’ Exhibit Opens At Hampton U Museum

HAMPTON
The Hampton University Museum opened its annual National Juried Exhibition on January 29 to showcase the works of emerging and working artists of African descent. The exhibit, entitled New Power Generations, will continue through May 14, 2016.

The idea of the exhibit was conceived in 2002 by former curator of exhibitions, Jeffrey Bruce and was to emulate the spirit of the Armory Show and the Atlanta University Annual Exhibition.
Forty-eight works from 24 artists were selected by jurors Stella Jones, M.D., and Alvia Wardlaw, Ph.D. This was the first time that two jurors had selected the works for the exhibition.

Juror Stella Jones, M.D. wrote in the program’s booklet that the artists selected to have their works displayed “are the visual recorders of contemporary American society and have a responsibility to be true to yourselves and your communities by telling your own stories…so that the collective story of the African Diaspora people will not and cannot be written by others.”

Local artists whose works are displayed in New Power Generations are Greg Adams (Hampton); Aretha Henderson (Newport News); H. Prenell Johnson (Norfolk); Ernest Lowery (Chesapeake); Maizelle (Norfolk); Jackie Merritt (Hampton); Patrick Mills (Newport News); Richard Ward (Hampton); and, Donald Wilson (Chesapeake). Other artists on display come from Washington, D.C., Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Richmond, Va.