"Keep Your Head to the Sky," Ashanté Kindle
At a Soho House artist’s talk the night before her exhibition opened at The Red Arrow Gallery, Ashanté Kindle spoke about what motivates her to paint.
“I make work so the people I make work about can see themselves,” she said.
Kindle’s work details the jubilation of Black hair through elements of earth, origin and discovery. Her matriarchal sense of community, she says, comes from regularly being at hair salons and barbershops in her hometown. This experience serves as a direct inspiration in Kindle’s artistic journey to capture Blackness through portraits and interpretations of Black hair.
Born and raised in Clarksville, Kindle has a B.F.A. in photography from Austin Peay State University and an M.F.A. from the University of Connecticut. She now resides in Hartford, Conn. Gesturing Joy is her first solo exhibition at Red Arrow.
At the gallery’s entrance is the largest piece in the show, “Infinitely Flowing in the Truth of My Existence.” At 60-by-96 inches, this swirling black painting looks different from every angle, its center a seemingly impossible swirl of braids.
"Infinitely Flowing in the Truth of My Existence," Ashanté Kindle
Kindle’s manipulation of acrylic paint is singular. She uses a bag to pipe the paint onto the panels, then uses found objects, actual hair tools or her hands to create a unique pattern.
There’s no presence of body in Kindle’s work — it's either hair or landscape. But the different personalities of each piece — the rhythm of each hairstyle that makes up each painting — gives an immediate feeling, so no bodies are necessary to communicate a strong female presence.
“Sounds of Blackness” is an ode to faded memories and new hopes with matte black panels surrounded by rippling glossy black textures. Part of the excitement of looking at Kindle’s numerous black paintings is seeing how she can create completely different patterns with the same color, a practice that conveys the individuality of Blackness through original and nostalgic lenses of femininity.
"Face Toward the Sky," Ashanté Kindle
At the base of the gallery stairs is “Everyone’s a Star,” which at 30-by-30 inches feels like a snapshot of freshly whipped hair relaxer spread across the canvas. The hints of pink glitter throughout the piece look innocent, almost childlike, and personifies the newness of the hair relaxer itself.
On the right side of the gallery is a 20-piece installation of Kindle’s circular paintings. The larger black paintings feel familiar and mesmerizing, while the smaller pieces made of singular or multiple colors work like focal points to draw your eye across the wall.
The purple paintings feel inspired by the regal personas of trailblazing Black women from the early 20th century. The Josephine Baker curl patterns are evident in “With the Sky on Our Shoulders 1.” In this series, Kindle guides us through famous relaxed hairstyles.
Along this wall, Kindle showcases Black hair textures from relaxed, curly, coiled and tight through different series that capture new hair growth, pay homage and provide words of affirmation. Kindle’s work has triumphantly progressed into using vibrant colors, with identities like “sunflower yellow,” that immortalizes and celebrates the complexity of female Blackness as a whole.
"Some Kind of Wonderful," Ashanté Kindle
Some of Kindle’s most intricate pieces are on the upper floor of Red Arrow. Highlights include “Some Kind of Wonderful” and “Keep Your Head to the Sky,” which feels reminiscent of a chorus of women lying in unison basking in self-acceptance and love. In this piece, Kindle subtly plays with her whipped effect of acrylic, and chooses to smooth the paint at the edges.
Kindle has pioneered a way to paint that circumvents tradition and invites painters to approach the canvas as a joyous experiment with creativity. Gesturing Joy creates space for Blackness to flourish and evolve in Nashville.
