quiet as it’s kept: Contemporary Black Art Exhibition

“quiet as it’s kept” at theTrolley Barn Gallery
Exhibition of Black Contemporary Art in Downtown Poughkeepsie

QUIET AS IT’S KEPT is an exhibition of contemporary Black art that explores the depths of Black expression, translating its complex aesthetic dialect and demonstrating that Black art is as unique as Black people. We are healing by recognizing ourselves as art, as worthy of art, and as part of an indelible system of artistic excellence. This is an opportunity to illuminate voices that established art systems have previously ignored. Black people have always had a place in the art world, but the magic of our practice has been as quiet as they’ve kept it. For this exhibition, we are QUIET NO MORE.

Exhibition Dates: October 6–November 10
Opening Reception: Friday, October 6, 6–8pm
For a full list of related events, click here.

As part of The Art Effect’s youth workforce development programs in creative fields, the Trolley Barn Gallery uses an innovative mentorship model to train youth to curate the gallery’s exhibitions and develop new initiatives for community engagement and placekeeping. “An exhibition like this is so important to Poughkeepsie because fostering that community relationship, and the familiarity of it, allows for peace and comfort within a group of people beyond familial lines”, says Mary Boatey, youth curator and exhibiting artist. 

Support for this exhibition is provided by Humanities NY and Dutchess Tourism through a grant administered by Arts Mid-Hudson. Additional support comes from the New York State Council on the Arts. 

Award Winners

Guest Curator’s Award: London Ladd, Perish
Youth Curator’s Award: Destiny Arianna, NO TRESPASSING: SACREDLAND
Honorable Mention Award: Imani Jones, The Sphinx and the Water Bearer || Luke 22:10

About Guest Juror: Janice Bond

Janice Bond is a cultural architect, art advisor, and gallerist based in Houston. She has led art collectives and provided invaluable insight in developing multidisciplinary programming and communications strategies for independent artists, municipalities, and brands. In 2020, Bond assumed the role of deputy director at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. In 2023, she opened ART IS BOND, a contemporary art gallery and project space with a mission to amplify the voices of diverse artists and provide a platform for their work. 

quiet as it’s kept Artwork as Installed

quiet as it’s kept Virtual Gallery

Destiny Arianna
NO TRESPASSING: SACRED LAND
Installation (digital photography, sand, grass, and wood
20” x 69” x 1.5”
Wappingers Falls, NY
NFS
As a Black and Chappaquiddick Wampanoag woman, my cultural experience has been shaped by a unique intersection of identities. Often, people’s perceptions only see me through the lens of my dark complexion, reducing me solely to being Black. This erasure of my Indigenous heritage has been a recurring challenge in my life, compelling me to continually prove my native identity to others. However, I have channeled the pain of this struggle into my art, using it as a powerful tool for self-expression and empowerment. Through my creative endeavors, I passionately focus on celebrating and amplifying my Black and Native identity, seeking to increase visibility and representation for Black Native people. My art is a vehicle for reclaiming my narratives, breaking stereotypes, and proudly embracing the richness of my heritage.

Mary Boatey
The Bluest Eye
Digital
27” x 21”
Hopewell Junction, NY
$250

Harrison Brisbon-McKinnon 
Crystal Twinning 
Photography 
16” x 40” 
Poughkeepsie, NY 
$700 
The race “Black” was created “ugly” and “unnatural” have been invisibly attached to it. Black skin mirrored in the mineral plagioclase feldspar. Both display trophies of tremendous growth. A reminder that black is organic. This diptych announces what has always been true: Black is beautiful.

Vernon Byron
To Kill a Mockingbird 2 (Walter Scott)
Folded Inkjet print and corrugated plastic on wood box
18” x 35.5” x 3”
Modena, NY
$1,200
My geographic experience living in Rockland county and later the Mid-Hudson Valley has forced me to look at culture and identity through a different lens. In living in the Newburgh area, and working as an artist, I came to be aware of how systems inform our culture and how culture reshapes itself in response to different conditions. Seeing how local government had failed the Newburgh community, and the influx of predatory real estate developers, I was inspired to create a community driven framework to produce public artworks, while also creating value for local youth in Newburgh. Between 2020 and 2022, I founded and directed 2 large scale community focused art installation projects where I redirected grant funding to pay local youth to make art and participate in the process of creating public art. Through this work, I demonstrated how public art should act as a vehicle to empower those who experience the art and live with it on a daily basis.

Melissa Small Cooper
Freesia
Oils on canvas
20” x 16”
Beacon, NY
$875
I was born in the Bronx but grew up in Ossining. I was raised to be a people-pleaser, and to always go above and beyond. My father had countless experiences of racism and my mother made it very clear that we had to navigate through the world a certain way. This thinking brought about my “layers of vanity” series, which comments on ways people accentuate or conceal who they are. As a mother of 3 biracial kids, I encourage them to unapologetically be who they are. Their experiences will be very different from mine, but I hope they nurture who they are above anything else. Recently, I’ve become quite the gardener, and truly enjoy caring for plants. It’s tricky to figure out what each type of plant or flower needs to flourish. This feels so symbolic of many things in my life. Whether it is figuring out the balance between motherhood and work, nurturing a biracial family with complex roots, or addressing generational traumas, I am embracing the journey of connecting, nourishing and healing.

Melissa Small Cooper
Thistle
Oils on canvas
20” x 16”
Beacon, NY
$875
I was born in the Bronx but grew up in Ossining. I was raised to be a people-pleaser, and to always go above and beyond. My father had countless experiences of racism and my mother made it very clear that we had to navigate through the world a certain way. This thinking brought about my “layers of vanity” series, which comments on ways people accentuate or conceal who they are. As a mother of 3 biracial kids, I encourage them to unapologetically be who they are. Their experiences will be very different from mine, but I hope they nurture who they are above anything else. Recently, I’ve become quite the gardener, and truly enjoy caring for plants. It’s tricky to figure out what each type of plant or flower needs to flourish. This feels so symbolic of many things in my life. Whether it is figuring out the balance between motherhood and work, nurturing a biracial family with complex roots, or addressing generational traumas, I am embracing the journey of connecting, nourishing and healing.

Dellis Frank
Cosmopolitan Cone
Mixed Media, fiber, styrofoam
9” x 7” x 7”
Lomita, CA
$300
A mix between cotton candy, a Cosmopolitan and ice cream, this piece attacks the senses of your memory through the fluffy top to the textured bottom.

Tyrone Geter
What Goes Around…
Oil on board in old mirror frame
35” x 45” x 1”
Elgin, SC
$20,000

Dondre Green
Dreams Sold Separately
Photography
30” x 20” (each)
Bronx, NY
$600 (for each)

Stella Hendricks
An Answer of Embrace
Kozo paper, mulberry paper, hemp, string, and wire
22” x 19” x 13”
Cockeysville, MD
$800 
My Black experience is one of multitudes and layers, learning and expansion. My geographic experience has frequently made me hyper aware of myself, but also offered such a deep sense of joy communally. Life is such a miraculous, varied experience and I witness this every time I take a look around in nature. When I think of diversity, I think of ecosystems and how important it is to have variation in order for true harmony to occur. When I think of my experience of blackness, I feel how much depth and love there is for us to persist with creativity and magic, despite the odds.

Stella Hendricks
Rage Seed
Assorted Fabric, tulle, foam, mesh gutter guard
48” x 42” x 25”
Cockeysville, MD
NFS 
My Black experience is one of multitudes and layers, learning and expansion. My geographic experience has frequently made me hyper aware of myself, but also offered such a deep sense of joy communally. Life is such a miraculous, varied experience and I witness this every time I take a look around in nature. When I think of diversity, I think of ecosystems and how important it is to have variation in order for true harmony to occur. When I think of my experience of blackness, I feel how much depth and love there is for us to persist with creativity and magic, despite the odds.

Clarence Heyward
BYPRODUCT
48” x 30” x 2.5”
Clayton, NC
NFS

Tylear Jefferson
Allostatic Overload
Acrylic on canvas
24” x 24” x 1.5”
Garden City, MI
$600
Growing up as a Black military child in predominantly white spaces, my exposure to Black beauty was limited. But because my mother was a photographer, I didn’t feel an absence.Through my mother’s eyes, I was able to see myself as beautiful.  But I knew a lot of the world didn’t see me the way she did. Growing up and traveling, I noticed the attributes attached to Black women and simply certain expectations that weren’t easy to escape from. I learned that the reason people view Black women through this monolithic lens is because of their lack of exposure to Black women. With my work, I aim to break down that lens of expectation and show the beauty and diversity of Black women and their emotions. In Allostatic Overload I touch on the emotion of anger, which has always been highly attributed to Black women. But this anger is far more subtle and calm. This piece defies stereotypes and is about being completely checked out of a situation.

Imani Jones
The Sphinx and the Water Bearer || Luke 22:10
Oil on canvas • 32” x 4’
Poughkeepsie, NY
$5,000

As a Black woman with Jamaican heritage and U.S ancestral roots that connect to America’s triumphant and yet sorrowful history of slavery, in my teen years I became aware of the individual and unique experience of blackness in the 21st century of America.

I battled  with my own psyche on the conventions and ideologies that were taught to me as a child by institutions that aimed to feed me a false perception of myself, of my own people and culture. As I deprogrammed what was fed to me, and I re-learned and read my history, I became aware of the horrors and the beauty of my culture and of my own inner self. My aim was to always showcase paintings that tell the story of our inner worlds, of my own inner world and experiences of horrors and beauty. Through the act of painting, I want to broaden the idea of Black experience, figurative painting, and psychology.

London Ladd
Perish
Mixed Media on Illustration board
10” x 7”
North Syracuse, NY
NFS
Black representation will always be a subject for me to contemplate because of my desire to understand what it means to be a Black person. As someone who didn’t grow up in a predominantly Black community, it is a topic that fascinates me. I’ve always felt like an outsider desiring to be included in something I believe to be special. I feel a sense of comfort in being connected to the joys and pains of the black experience. It fills me with pride knowing that I come from strong, intelligent people who have endured so much and persevered through struggles that continue today.

Samantha Modder
Wearer of All Socks
12’ x 20’
Tampa, FL
$8,000
Growing up as a little Black girl in South Asia, I was a spectacle. The finger-pointing, jokes, and stares were a constant reminder that my Blackness was not only different but supposedly inferior. In my work, I reclaim being this spectacle, drawing self-portraiture that takes up space unapologetically. My self-portraits tell new narratives that go beyond the here and now. For me, this is the power of the imaginary within the Black diaspora. For a people whose “here and now” has often featured the worst forms of physical, mental, cultural, and spiritual oppression, the Black imaginary enables moments of relief, pleasure, and breakthrough, even while speaking to those difficult realities. In this safe creative space, I join those that work toward a reality that might one day imitate narrative.

Ari Montford
Black Indians in Space
Mixed media collage on paper with oil crayon
41.5” x 29” (unframed)
Beverly, MA
NFS

Ari Montford
Black Indians in Space: The Great Creator Giving Seed
Mixed media collage on paper with oil crayon
13” x 13”
Beverly, MA
NFS

Ari Montford
Black Indians in Space: The Annunciation
Mixed media collage on paper with oil crayon
13” x 13”
Beverly, MA
NFS

Emmanuel Ofori
Mamme ni Abofraa III
Mixed media
40” x 30”
Wappingers Falls, NY
$1,600

Emmanuel Ofori
Nsu Bura
Mixed media
32” x 22”
Wappingers Falls, NY
$1,000

Ashley Page
Nigreos Seminbus (Black Seed)
Mixed media: paper, steel, and Spanish moss
48” x 72” x 36”
Portland, ME
NFS

Ransome
The Block #3
Acrylic and collage on wood
92” x 23” x 23” (with stand)
Rhinebeck, NY
$15,000

Mark A. Reed
Wild Geese Flying Over Mountain Peak
Sculpture
17.5” x 16” x 13”
Park Forest, IL
NFS
This ‘Silent Bonsai’ is a full-cascade style bonsai conforming to ‘Art of Bonsai’ guidelines and fashioned with soil of the American Southwest Colorado Plateau region. Its artistic expression represents an unpretentious human heroic tenacity over hardships in the face of extreme adversity.

Mark A. Reed
Let Our Rejoicing Rise
Sculpture
27” x 12” x 22”
Park Forest, IL
NFS
This ‘Silent Bonsai’ is a windswept Literati style bonsai conforming to ‘Art of Bonsai’ guidelines and fashioned with soil of the American Southwest Colorado Plateau region. Its artistic expression represents an unpretentious human heroic tenacity over hardships in the face of extreme adversity.

Theda Sandiford
All Dressed Up With Nowhere To Go
Vintage hat, shoes and bag, 3 ply cotton rope, pearls, rhinestones, wrapped rope, yarn, trim, beading on steel structure
72” x 56” x 24”
Jersey City, NJ
NFS

Raven Smith
Trick-shot
Oil paint on stretched canvas
36” x 48”
Evergreen Park, IL
$7,500

Jean-Marc Superville Sovak
3 Letters to Toussaint
Video installation on fabric
Runtime: 02:00 each, 3 videos
Wallkill, NY
NFS

Stephen J. Tyson
Offbeat
Acrylic on canvas
30” x 24”
Saratoga Springs, NY
NFS

Lisa Diane Wedgeworth
20 Aura (20 Women)
Mixed media
26” x 73”
Los Angeles, CA
Price upon request