Artists Get Personal In Newhallville Show

The painting, titled transformation, is literally visceral, but fantastical at the same time. It is an act of carnage, though not necessarily one of violence. Are we witnessing creation or destruction? Are they part of the same thing?

The piece is by MO, a young artist and curator who has opened his first group art show — ​“APRIL,” an acronym for Artists Prospering Really Is Limitless — at 91 Shelton Ave., featuring a mix of artists from New Haven and beyond. That show opened April 15 and runs through April 26. Meanwhile, MO’s artistic and curatorial vision is already resulting in concrete plans for more shows downtown later in the spring, through Omola Studio. 

MO was born in Lagos, Nigeria, raised in Georgia, and went to Bard College, where he got the opportunity to study with New Haven-based artist Tschabalala Self, who teaches at Bard. ​“I took one of her classes my senior year. She was looking for studio assistants. I reached out to apply. She gave me an internship, and then she hired me full time” as studio manager two years ago. He has also worked as a gallery representative at NADA Miami 2022 and Zona Maco in Mexico City this year. 

He had always thought of having a gallery 10 or 15 years down the line. But in a short time he felt ​“I learned so much and was really doing a lot of the management of a gallery.” When he returned from Mexico City in February, he committed to ​“making an exhibition space, and showing artists’ works who weren’t shown.” He realized a great first date for a show would be during the Yale School of Art’s open studios, which happened in mid-April. ​“People were going to be in town” for the Yale show, he said. His show could be a satellite. MO was familiar with 91 Shelton’s reputation as a place where artists could rent space; he talked to the building owner and got his own space in early April. From there, he reached out to artists whose work he admired, bringing together people from New Haven and elsewhere. ​“There are so many unrecognized talents in the city itself,” he said. 

Humbly, MO included a couple of his own pieces, including transformation. ​“The imagery came to mind two years ago when I was an undergrad,” he said. He thought of the story of Adam and Eve, and of Eve being fashioned from Adam’s rib. He thought of the birth of Athena from Zeus’s head in Greek mythology, and about ​“transformation, rebirth, connection, intimacy as well.” He wanted to explore the power dynamic involved there — ​“how do we connect with people, and how do we represent that visually?” In MO’s reading, the female figure is emerging from the yellow figure, but it’s open to interpretation too — ​“emergence, connection, intertwining.” The dynamic grows richer the more one looks. 

Johan Orellana is a New York City-based photographer who was a classmate of MO’s at Bard. ​“I’ve always loved his photography,” MO said, ​“and we’ve always kept in contact.” The photographs in the show were shot between 2020 and this year. ​“There’s intimacy and there’s dichotomy” in the images, MO said. He sees perhaps unexpected echoes from one photograph to the next, whether the subject is a couple kissing or a pair of vultures in the woods. They’re bound together by the photographer’s eye, and the way he uses the camera.

Pap Souleye Fall graduated from Yale in 2022 and ​“we met through a mutual friend,” MO said. Fall’s senior thesis involved a ​“giant peanut that filled up the entire space,” and subsequent work has expanded on the idea of using the gallery itself as part of the art. He turned the setup of CON 1 in the Shelton Avenue gallery into a half-hour-long performance art piece complete with audience participation. The piece is simultaneously inviting and elusive, made with objects of this world but seemingly coming from somewhere else. It’s in keeping with his artistic statement that ​“he became fascinated with the ways art could be embedded in everyday life, activating common materials and encounters to explore themes such as diaspora, post-apocalypse, Utopia, identity, notions of masculinity, Africanisms, and Afro-futurism.”

Chris Jones graduated from Southern Connecticut State University and, once again, MO met them through a mutual friend. ​“I just love the way that they render their imagery in their work,” MO said. The painting Cocoon is from a larger series revolving around the Garden of Eden and is ​“a portrait of the artist themselves” with some fantastical elements involved. The paintings stem from ​“their love of nature, Christian upbringing, and Black, Queer identity.

Their paintings are visual manifestations of safe spaces … vivid nature dreamscapes to honor creation, spiritual healing, and sexuality through a queer lens. They approach their painting process with sensitivity, softness, and an open mind to keep on evolving the work with their truths. This vulnerability aspires to create a visual realm of community and relief for viewers and to reinforce the need for safe spaces to exist beyond the paintings,” Jones writes. MO noted that when ​“rotated vertically … the composition changes entirely” and ​“that’s a conversation to have with the artist.” Jones’s use of plants and figures together in their work is both pastoral and eerie.

Sophie Harpo is a comic artist from Ohio with a ​“really in-depth knowledge” of their medium, MO said. The pages in the exhibition are part of a much larger body of work stretching back years; their art explores ​“the intersections of race, gender, magic, and mythology” and ​“pushes viewers to reconsider the boundaries of fine art, commercial visual
culture, and everyday life.” MO met Harpo through Fall, and ​“I just really loved the way they built up the texture on the paper. It makes it really dimensional,” almost ​“sculptural,” he said.

Finally, New Haven-based artist Amira Brown included pieces centered around the problems of many ​“Black elders” in the face of ​“medical racism” and its ​“generational impact across America.” Brown used her pieces to explore the tension between respecting that history and making sure people get the care they need today. ​“I’ve been building up this body of work” on the question of ​“what is wisdom,” Brown said.

The pieces gave her a chance to explore using other materials. ​“I’ve been taking a break from the general body of work I’m known for,” she said, turning to ​“different aspects of my practice that I think needed some attention.” She has been collecting found materials for years and is focusing on them, and more monochromatic work. For Brown, these pieces are in the service of the goals of exploring racial tragedies in a different way.

The connections among the artists and the work weren’t a driving force in organizing the exhibition. ​“Initially the show came about as being a showcase of artists” and ​“not theme-driven, exactly,” MO said. ​“But I think there is a thread that ties the works together” — centered around ideas regarding intimacy and personal history. ​“I feel like it’s all mixed very well together,” he said. He’s proud of the ​“collaboration that happened between all of us doing this together.”

After the show closes on Shelton Avenue on April 26, MO is partnering with the Town Green District to organize another show, featuring different works by the same artists, at the Blake Hotel. That show will be timed to be up during Yale’s commencement, when the hotel will be busy with guests. In June, he plans to curate a more theme-driven show also at the Blake Hotel.

MO considers himself as one of a group of many young artists who are making their marks on the New Haven visual arts scene. ​“I’m exciting to see what happens in the next year or two in New Haven.” There is a ​“metamorphosis” happening, and ​“it’ll probably take time, as all things do. But people are being intentional,” he said, and translating those intentions into more work — and more action.

“APRIL” runs at 91 Shelton Ave. through April 26. Visit Omola’s website for more information.