.aesthetic talk
*Alteronce Gumby
written & interview Abigail Hart
Picasso, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the Power Rangers—the language of art that Alteronce Gumby speaks is filled with limitless thinkers and POP icons.
Working in painting and mixed media, Gumby explores the limits created by cultural definitions of concepts like color, form and value. By pushing beyond those limits, Gumby seeks to create space for interpretation and curiousity.
Alteronce Gumby
Studio Portrait, 2021
Photo by Katharina Balgavy. Image courtesy Bode Projects.
Alteronce Gumby’s journey as an artist began with color, inspired by possibly one of the greatest masters of color—Picasso. Following in the footsteps of the Abstract Expressionists, Gumby has spent his career examining his own avenues of expression and definition. Based in New York City, Gumby has a BFA from Hunter College and an MFA from Yale, and it was during these studies that he became interested in the absence of diversity in fine art. Inspired to create a dialogue on social justice, Gumby’s art holds space for a viewer to experience color, feel it, and consider it. Gumby also holds up other concepts for consideration—the nature of art, society, race and identity.
“I’ve always been fascinated by color. As an artist, I’m constantly asking myself questions about it. Where does it come from? How is it defined and understood?”
As visual elements can be expressed through infinite variations, with layers of texture and finish expanding and effecting the viewer’s perception, Gumby questions the definitions that limit our perceptions.
Gumby operates in a world inspired by culture, but he uses art to explore beyond the world he lives in. He engages with the viewer to question the preconceptions they might hold, and perhaps to choose a freer, truer version of their lives and themselves. Gumby found the freedom to explore and express his own experiences through abstract art and is sharing that freedom with the world.
TELL US ABOUT WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO BECOME AN ARTIST, AND HOW YOU GOT STARTED IN THE ART WORLD.
The first time I stepped foot into an art museum was in 2006. It was at the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, Spain and during that visit I knew I wanted to become an artist. The creative mind of Picasso spoke to me in a way that formal education hadn’t. He saw the world differently and made a space for himself to exist and engage on his own terms. I wanted that space for myself. It was two years later, at the MoMA in NYC where I saw the work of the Abstract Expressionists, and I was inspired to become an abstract painter. I loved the large pictures, the colors, the energy and the feeling of not fully understanding what it was looking at. I was intrigued by the unknown and wanted to explore that deeply. I enrolled at Dutchess Community College and I was eager to learn as much about art as possible. I was hungry for knowledge and I carried that same energy to Hunter College where I completed my BFA, thenYale where I received my masters'.
Alteronce Gumby
Bifröst, 2021
Photo by Katharina Balgavy. Image courtesy Bode Projects.
YOUR RECENT EXHIBITS HAVE PLACED AN EMPHASIS ON COLOR. WHY IS COLOR SO IMPORTANT TO YOU AND WHAT DO YOU EXPRESS WITH YOUR CHOICE OF COLOR?
Since I was a kid, I’ve always been fascinated by color. As an artist, I’m constantly asking myself questions about it. Where does it come from? How is it defined and understood? What sensibilities and experiences do I have when I interact with color? We live in a world of color. Color takes on so many different shapes and forms and each form is telling you something different about the world and about color. Each color is experienced differently. I believe my job as an artist is to redefine color for myself through the process of painting. To give new perspectives on this colorful world we live in.
MANY OF YOUR PIECES, FROM CERAMIC TO MIXED MEDIA TO PAINT ON CANVAS, ARE CREATED INSIDE AN ANGULAR MOTIF. WHAT DOES THAT MOTIF SYMBOLIZE AND HOW IS THAT REFLECTED THROUGHOUT YOUR DIVERSE BODY OF WORK?
The angular motif is what I refer to as my Moonwalker. It's a shape I discovered while searching for a different shape other than the rectangular frame. I consider it my “spaceship of the imagination”, a term I borrowed from Neil Degrasse Tyson. It's a vehicle that allows my consciousness to go places I haven't seen before. To consider ideas and explore other worlds I can only visit through my mind's eye. It’s my way to freedom and liberation outside of the physical world.
WHERE DO YOU DRAW THE INSPIRATION FOR YOUR NEW PIECES?
During the pandemic, I made weekly visits to the MoMA and would always admire Street, Dresden 1908 by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. His palette in this painting made use of complementary colors. I was in awe with the effects he got with simultaneous contrasting colors. In school, I read Josef Albers Interaction of Color, and studied the work of other artists that used this method in their work; Gerhard Richter, Frank Bowling, Stanley Whitney, Sam Gilliam & Katharina Grosse. I wanted to use this strategy to create a sense of force in my paintings, where the colors could take on the energy of gravity. This energy is everywhere and is a great way to reference another great unknown, the cosmos.
Alteronce Gumby
Studio Portrait, 2021
Photo by Katharina Balgavy. Image courtesy Bode Projects.
.artist talk
Alteronce Gumby
speaks with
Abigail Hart
first published in
Issue Nr. 31, POP ISSUE, 02/2021
WHAT DOES POP CULTURE MEAN TO YOU? HOW DO YOU INTERACT WITH POPULAR CULTURE IN YOUR ART?
My work is inspired by culture, yes, but as an artist I also critique it. I love music, film, poetry, theater and art. I was partly raised by television growing up. With kids today it's definitely the internet. But within the history of pop culture certain ideologies about color and race have been reinforced to keep black people mentally under oppression. This is an act of psychological warfare. Color codes have been used in mainstream media to create a sense of divide and separatism amongst humanity. For example, color codes are used in the Power Rangers to identify meaning for each character based on their race and identity. I'm a huge fan of Hype Williams' music videos where he uses monochromatic lighting to emphasize a specific mood in the video. My practice is focused on analysing and deconstructing these perspectives towards color and creating a new one that provides a more amalgamated aesthetic.
YOU HAVE BEEN OUTSPOKEN IN YOUR EXPERIENCE OF BEING A BLACK MAN WHO WENT TO YALE AND WHO IS NOW PURSUING A CAREER IN FINE ART. HOW HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED THE CONVERSATION AROUND DIVERSITY AND REPRESENTATION IN THE ART WORLD? HAS IT CHANGED SINCE YOUR DAYS AT SCHOOL OR THROUGHOUT YOUR CAREER?
When I was in school the education around art history was very white European centric. I didn’t take my first Art of the Diaspora class until I got to Yale. With the popularity of black figuration by black artists in the art market, there’s definitely been more representation of artists of color. But we’re far from any level of equality and there’s still a lot of work to be done.
WHAT IS NEXT FOR YOU? WHAT KIND OF ART WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO MORE OF?
I’d like to make more paintings in various mediums expanding my imagination and interpretation on what a painting could be, and see where that leads me.
credit header image
Alteronce Gumby
Studio Portrait
Horizon Convergence, 2021
Photo by Elizabeth Brooks. Image courtesy Charles Moffett Gallery.