New City Arts presents a solo exhibition by Somé Louis at Welcome Gallery featuring work she created during her New City Arts Fellowship.
New City Arts' Welcome Gallery
114 3rd St. NE, Charlottesville, VA 22902
Art on Display
Walk by Welcome Gallery at 114 3rd St. NE to see Somé's work through the large storefront window.
Gallery Hours
Want to see the work up close? Private, free, in-person viewings are available between March 22 and 25. Make an appointment here.
Sponsors: The New City Arts Fellowship in March at Welcome Gallery is supported by The JLRS Family Fund, a Community Recovery & Catalyst grant from the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, and Maurice Wallace and Pam Sutton-Wallace.
About the Fellowship
The New City Arts Fellowship at Welcome Gallery supports six Charlottesville-area artists from January-June 2021 working on projects related to the theme Next Breath: History, Hate, Possibility, written by Maurice Wallace. During their fellowship, artists are working to address the ongoing impacts of systemic racism and the COVID-19 pandemic through creative projects that deeply and imaginatively relate to breath as the essence of life and freedom. Each artist receives one month in 2021 to transform Welcome Gallery into their studio space, a $400 honorarium, a stocked pantry with their favorite snacks, and an opportunity to engage the community with their work at the conclusion of their fellowship.
To learn more about these artists and their fellowship projects, visit our website. Opportunities to engage with their work are ongoing from January to June 2021.
About the Artist
Somé Louis’ creative practice consists of collection (ephemeral items and natural materials), production (writing, drawing, printing, collage), and curation (arranging/installing works and materials, photographing, and sharing with others). Somé’s work is currently preoccupied with the observation and celebration of small and simple occurrences of everyday life.
During her Fellowship at New City Arts in March 2021, Somé will create journals, collages, drawings, and prints that record mundane personal observations and day to day happenings. While these journals frequently function as an act of centering for the artist, they can also be considered an act of rebellion. As a Black woman whose existence is perpetually debated, scrutinized, and pigeonholed into a variety of stereotypes that facilitate white supremacist power structures, Somé is energized by the concept of Black people, comfortably and freely existing and reflecting their simple interests, even for a moment, outside of the multitude of external pressures that aim to fragment their sense of being.
Images courtesy of the artist.
Photos by Jesús Pino Photography
