New Jersey born, Atlanta based artist, Radcliffe Bailey, despite his young age (37) has had an outstanding career and is one of the most prolific artist on the upper levels of the contemporary art scene. Like many of the masters of the twentieth century, he is inspired by jazz, and his mixed media compositions are improvised creations of vintage photographs, found objects and paint, melted wax and what ever he feels necessary to produce the desired image, which often explores themes from African American, or his own family history.

The Brilliant Color in his works is not only paint, but papers stained by tobacco leaves and with actual indigo plants brought to Atlanta by a friend of the artist from West Africa. One of the works takes the form of a baby grand piano, showing the hammers of its keys covered in black wax. Under the clear top, planets sit among the strings in homage to Thelonius Monk, Sun Ra, and Duke Ellington, three touchstones in Bailey’s artistic lineage.

Another piece in this show, the exhibition’s largest piece, is a meditation on physical forces and the power of water. Growing in the artist’s mind since he was caught in a flood two years ago in Texas, the work locates itself in events of the past year: the Southeast Asian Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the 1927 flooding of the Mississippi River and its flooding again during more recent years. Within these images of water is the image of a large canoe, its paddles painted with a luminescent automobile paint referencing traditional funereal ceremonies or West Africa where a king would be placed upon his death in a large canoe and sent down the river to sea.

 

Bailey has exhibited extensively in museums and galleries both nationally and internationally. Currently he has an exceptional exhibition at the Jack Shainman Gallery in Chelsea. Bailey’s work seeks to tie the present day into history through culture’s incorporation of natural processes. Another work, possibly a self-portrait of the artist, includes paint brushes layered in black wax. A small forked branch painted bright red sits at the center of the work.
 

The colors red and black reference Eshu, the Yoruba “trickster” deity. Eshu is the guardian of the crossroads and mediator of opposites. Currently a work from the permanent collection of the High Museum, Atlanta is on view in their new Renzo Piano addition. Recent group exhibitions include “The Whole World is Rotten: Free Radicals and the Gold Coast Slave Castles of Paa Joe”, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY (2005), “Common Ground, Discovering Community in 150 Years of Art”, Selections from the collection of Julia Norrell, Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington, DC (2004), “Hair Stories”, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL traveling to Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, Arizona (2003-04), “Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Aikulapo-Kuti,” curated by Trever Schoonmaker opened at the New Museum, New York, NY and traveled to Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK (2003-04).

The Radcliffe Bailey exhibition, From the Cabinet: Reflections of Winding Roads, will run until December 22nd. The Jack Shainman Gallery is at 513 W. 20th St.