More than 100 people were at the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning for the opening of the \u201c2026: Memory Vault\u201d exhibit, featuring work from painters, a photographer, sculptor and muralist on March 13.<\/p>\n
The work, which is on display at 161-04 Jamaica Ave. through May 22, is by Coulibaly Adama Nanguin Abib Jr., Anoushka Bhalla, Jashawn Johnson, Edgie Amisial, Keilley Banks and Quiana Lewis, emerging artists in JCAL\u2019s ARTWorks Fellowship, which supports people from Queens and those underrepresented in the industry.<\/p>\n
Sherwin Banfield serves as the fellowship\u2019s program manager and the work was curated by Margarita Lila Rosa, who challenged artists to move from the deeply personal to the broadly cultural in their works.<\/p>\n
Lewis, a Trinidadian-American painter and muralist from West Babylon, LI, who made \u201cThe pixie cut\u201d and \u201cWhere do I belong,\u201d told the Chronicle Rosa is an amazing curator who pushed her \u201cto step outside my comfort zone.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the first time the painter did a project that is canvas on canvas, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was definitely outside the box,\u201d Lewis said. The muralist is also thankful for the program, which along with helping the fellows develop in the industry, introduces them to mid-career artists via studio tours.<\/p>\n
Lewis met Guy Philoche, a Haitian-American artist who would go to Manhattan to hand out pamphlets with photographs of himself well-dressed that touted him as a big-name artist, leading to interest in his work before he became established.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis story was inspiring,\u201d said the fellow West Indian.<\/p>\n
Her work, \u201cPixie\u201d is partially inspired by her mother, Raquel Bland, who wore her hair short, and her dad, Perry Lewis, who owned barbershops along Jamaica Avenue in Jamaica, not too far from JCAL.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a full circle moment, because my dad would have me run errands during the summer and I would pass this place all the time, not knowing what it was,\u201d said Lewis. \u201cThere is not a lot of opportunity for artists, especially those who look like me, from where I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 19, she cut her hair. Her very strict Trinidadian father was apprehensive at first, but would go on to say she looks like her mom and then cut it for her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was also inspired by women like Nia Long and Halle Berry, who would have short hair, going against the trend,\u201d said Lewis.<\/p>\n
Her second piece is about Liam Ramos, the 5-year-old detained by federal immigration agents who advocates say used him as bait to detain his asylum-seeking father.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt reminded me of Ruby Bridges,\u201d said Lewis. \u201cShe was 6 years old when she received so much vitriol when she was integrating a school. … That is recent Black history, because she is still alive today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bridges is 71.<\/p>\n