Image courtesy of the artist
From March 3-31, 2023, New City Arts presents Razed To Be Born Again, an installation by Jay Simple.
Jay is generously donating 100% of the proceeds from the sale of archival pigment prints, with 50% going to The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative and 50% going to New City Arts. To view available prints and learn how to make a purchase, visit this page.
New City Arts' Welcome Gallery
114 3rd St. NE, Charlottesville, VA 22902
Covid-19 Visitor Policy
Please do not come to Welcome Gallery if you have been exposed to COVID-19, are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, or have been advised to isolate or quarantine.
First Fridays
March 3 from 5-7:30PM; Artist talk and performance from 7:30-8PM.
Free and open to the public. All ages welcome.
Gallery Hours
Wednesday-Saturday from 10AM-5PM
Exhibition Events
Listen to the Exhibition Playlist 🎧
Exhibition Statement (courtesy of the artist)
This installation brings forth for consideration over 100 years of a cycle that includes the destruction and recreation of black communities in the USA. This is a reflection of my experiences. It is not a manifesto, a declaration, a document of objectivity, a resource, or a well of knowledge needed to ensure the future. It is at best and worst a reflection of the moment in which it was made. It does not aim to explain the past under today’s positions, nor does it lay a certain path for the future; a future that, in most likelihood, will necessitate a structure that doesn’t reflect today’s reality. It weaves between moments, some mine and some others. It is a display of the cycle of building and destroying within this nation and asks how will we navigate through it together if we dare to be brave.
About the Artist (courtesy of the artist)
Jay Simple is a visual artist and scholar from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the Executive Director of The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative and he is also the Founder and Director of The Photographers Green Book, a resource for inclusion, equity, and diversity within the photographic medium. He has previously served as an Assistant Professor of Photography at The New School and Visiting Assistant Professor of Photography at Longwood University. Working through photography and a variety of mediums, Simple creates introspective and at times playful musings that morph, examine, and critique social and cultural systems that surround him. As a producer and cinematographer he continues to collaborate to create documentary films that examine arts and culture nationally and internationally. Simple holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from Columbia College Chicago, a Master of Liberal Art from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master of Fine Arts in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design. He has had recent solo exhibitions at Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Hampden Sydney College, and Longwood University. Simple has shown in group exhibitions at Silver Eye Center for Photography(2021), Candela Books + Gallery(2020), and Jamestown Art Center(2020). Published through The Photographer’s Green Book he authored Vol.1 an anthology of contemporary research in photography, and his research and practice has been included in contemporary and scholarly publications like True Colors (or, Affirmations in a Crisis) by Zora J Murff or Driving The Green Book by Alvin Hall.
This exhibition is made possible with support from the Bama Works Fund of Dave Matthews Band at the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation.
Photos by Ézé Amos.
