installation view
“I’m just doing what I want to do. Age is not a factor to me. It’s about the work, the idea, and the energy.” – Betye Saar (1926-2026)
Artists who emerge later in life benefit from a sense of identity forged over a lifetime of experience. The discipline and resilience gained through years of navigating jobs, families, relationships and aging results in a deliberate focus that may be elusive to younger artists who are finding their footing.
This deliberate focus can be seen in “Common Threads,” a magnetic exhibition of exquisite mixed-media artworks by Darryl Alexander Hines at Special Effects Gallery, a contemporary art gallery operated by artists Amy and Misha Kligman, located in the Studios Inc building at 1708 Campbell.
The path to this deliberate focus was a long one. In 1979, Hines earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Toledo Law School and embarked on a 35-year career as a trial lawyer. Forty-three years later, in 2022, he earned his MFA with honors from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Half a century older than his classmates, Hines candidly states “Being a septuagenarian among cohorts in their twenties helped me think beyond traditional painting and explore creative and innovative methodologies.”
According to the curatorial statement provided by Special Effects Gallery, “Darryl Alexander Hines is compelled to tell stories. These narratives take the shape of large-scale pictorial compositions constructed from a range of materials. Images, patterns and textures are stitched, tufted, painted and collaged.
The result is a collection of aesthetically efficient artworks, each telling a chapter of Hines’ story without loose strings or unnecessary elements. These riveting artworks are an engaging visual conversation with a wise griot, seasoned with age and experience, who isn’t trying to impress or dazzle but whose purpose lies solely in telling the story. Exuding confidence and restraint, they are simultaneously gripping and comforting.
Bounce, Roll, Skate, a large work consisting of heirloom and found fabric appliques and acrylic, transports the viewer back to the roller-skating parties that were a staple of the ’60s and ’70s Black teenage experience. The textural mix creates an exciting and energetic artwork. By juxtaposing flatter, simpler textures for the subject’s skin with more colorful and complex textures for clothing, Hines infuses the figures with youth and vibrancy, successfully capturing the exuberant atmosphere of a nearly forgotten time and place. The artist utilizes symmetry and movement to draw the viewer from a trio of interlocking women skaters to a male skater lying on the floor, a common scene that took place when a skater attempted to show off for the ladies. Hines doesn’t just capture the look of the skating party but the celebratory youthfulness of its atmosphere. The strategic use of solids and negative space keeps the focus on the story; it is confident and restrained.
Hines’ ability to tell the story succinctly and effectively continues with Block Party, which is made of found and heirloom fabric applique, oil and acrylic mounted on vinyl. This engaging work is a scene of an impromptu block party. Portraying a boombox atop a car, ladies dancing, and police helicopters circling overhead, Block Party embodies that joyful resistance found in the urban core and the casual, sometimes spontaneous, recreational gatherings of Black folk in Black communities and those moments that we never forget.
Hines’ choices of textiles are masterful. A police helicopter is rendered with a fabric that resembles military camouflage. The dark blue paisley fabric used for the car reminds one of the old-school Cadillacs with fins easing their way down the street. The hands-on-jutted-hip position of the main subject evokes notions of “She can walk with a switch and talk with street slang. I love it when a woman ain’t scared to do her thing” from LL Cool J’s song Around the Way Girl. A yellow ribbon with the words “Caution Police Barrier” reminds the viewer that these moments of Black joy took place within the context of heavily policed communities. There are no unnecessary elements here, every piece of textile serves a purpose. Like all of Hines’ work, the efficiency of the work is the foundation of its effectiveness.
All of the works in this exhibition are noteworthy and stand on their own merits. 1619-1865, a moving work referencing enslavement, evokes notions of Aaron Douglas’ classic painting Into Bondage. 1965, complete with portraits of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and President John F. Kennedy, invites the viewer into a Civil Rights-era Black interior. Jimi and Janis gone and Angela on the run, which utilizes shag rug, is a tender homage to some of the Black revolutionary figures of the artist’s formative years.
We are in a time where the lure of capitalism, commercialization and commodification is drawing many artists to pursue work in styles and content that appear to be the most commercially successful. The result is a growing aesthetic echo chamber lacking the excitement and innovation that keeps the institution of art alive. Hines’ work is a welcome counterweight that lives and breathes outside the chamber and stretches the canon of American art.
“Darryl Alexander Hines: Common Threads” continues at Special Effects Gallery, 1708 Campbell St. #2, through Oct. 10. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. For more information, www.specialfxgallery.com.
