Jose Duran (b. 1979, Moca, Dominican Republic) is a painter, designer, and sculptor creating fantastical worlds of cosmopolitan opulence and sumptuous, even dangerous foliage. Duran’s practice is anchored in extensive research of practices of survival, celebration, vengeance, sabotage, and aspirational desires in Black communities. He draws from baroque and rococo interiors to create scenes of architectural lavishness and femininity, producing complex compositions anchored in whimsy and play. 
Duran centers Black feminine figures as a reclamation of their contributions to European markers of taste, and as retribution for their forced labor under colonial rule. Duran’s fantasies retrospectively place Black women at the center of his lavish interiors, where they reap the fruits of their labor. His practice is an ode to the dreams and aspirations of his late mother, who, between the Bronx and the Dominican Republic, would imbue in the artist a taste for cosmopolitanism and beauty. 

Photo credit: Nelson Castillo

Artist https://joseduran.studio/
Hannah Traore Gallery https://hannahtraoregallery.com/exhibition/aleluya/
James Fuentes https://jamesfuentes.com/exhibitions/elena
NY Times https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/10/style/roze-traore-hannah-traore-gallery.html
Art Speak https://www.artspeak.nyc/home/2024/2/13/jose-duran
Island Origins Magazine https://islandoriginsmag.com/dominican-artist-jose-duran-aleluya/
Arthap https://arthap.com/hap/opening-jose-duran-aleluya/
Idiom Studio  https://idiomastudio.com/jose-duran-caught-between-fantasy-reality/


Jose Duran

In the 13th episode of Collect Wisely we are speaking with Pamela Joyner. Based in San Francisco, Pamela and her husband Fred Giuffrida’s collection consists of over 400 works, with a primary focus on abstract works by artists of the African diaspora from the 1940’s onward. 

The collection is widely recognized as one of the most significant collections of modern and contemporary art by African American artists. In September 2017, Pamela and Fred published a scholarly catalogue of the collection titled, “Four Generations: The Joyner Giuffrida Collection of Abstract Art.” Following the publication, select works from the exhibition have been included in an extensive exhibition, which opened at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, in New Orleans and has toured to several US museums.

Episode 13 - Pamela Joyner

In an inaugural episode of the Cerebral Women Podcast, we interview Brooklyn based figurative painter Deborah Brown. Her many accomplishments as an artist are impressive, as is her unrelenting advocacy and support of artists. Her paintings are in many museum, private and corporate collections. She has been a visiting artist and lecturer at several universities including Hunter College, Pace University, Columbia University, among others. She has been acknowledged in several publications including the New York Times, The New Yorker, Art Forum, Art in America and Juxtapose Magazine. In 2020, Deborah was accepted into the prestigious Shandaken Projects fellowship where she will spend six months in a series of group discussions between faculty and fellows. Her passion to support other artists both financially and intellectually is sincere and consistent. In this podcast Deborah shares with us her insightful perspectives on the art world.

http://www.shandakenprojects.org/paint-school/fellows
https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/painting/dirt-s-the-only-animal-who-will-sleep-with-you-deborah-brown-in-review/

Deborah Brown

Must Love Art

In Episode Five we feature Chela Mitchell, an art advisor based in Harlem who has extensive knowledge of the emerging black contemporary art market. She has a deep appreciation of the industry, particularly supporting black artists. Chela started collecting during her late twenties and founded her art advisory business in 2016. She provides art advisory services to private, public, and new collectors needing assistance navigating the contemporary art market. Her clients include collectors and luxury brands looking for guidance diversifying their collections. In early 2020 The Los Angeles Times featured Chela in ‘Faces of Frieze 2020: Picturing the art crowd at Los Angeles Premier’ fair.’
In December 2019, Forbes highlighted her as ‘Making Waves In The Elite Art World: Meet The Black Millennial Art Advisory Disrupting The Status Quo.’ 
During this interview Chela shares with us her upcoming and exciting project titled Komuna House.
Chela Mitchell has successfully established herself as a major figure in art advisory.


https://www.chelamitchellart.com/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/katetalbot/2019/12/05/making-waves-in-the-elite-art-world-meet-the-black-millennial-art-advisor-disrupting-the-status-quo/#715130572cdd
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-02-15/faces-of-frieze-los-angeles-2020-photos
https://www.komunahouse.com/

Chela Mitchell

In Episode Six I interview visual artist M.Florine Démosthène. She was born in the United States and raised between Haiti and New York. At times she resides in Ghana where she moved after abruptly deciding to build her practice without the drama of being an artist in New York City. 

Florine earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Parsons School for Design in New York and her Master of Fine Arts from Hunter College in New York.She has exhibited extensively through group and solo exhibitions in the USA, Caribbean, UK, Europe and Africa

She has shown with the Mariane Ibrahim Gallery in both a solo booth and group show at the The New York Armory Fair in 2019 and 2020
She is the recipient of a Tulsa Artist Fellowship, Arts Moves Africa Grant and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant. 
Florine has participated in residencies in the USA, UK, Slovakia, Ghana and Tanzania. Her work can be seen at the University of South Africa (UNISA), Lowe Museum of Art, PFF Collection of African American Art and in various private collections worldwide.

Our interview was fun. You will enjoy.

Additional information:

https://florinedemosthene.com/home.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/arts/design/armory-show-art-piers.html
https://marianeibrahim.com/artists/29-florine-demosthene/biography/
https://florinedemosthene.com/links.html

M. Florine Démosthène

Episode Thirty-Six features Francks Francois Deceus. He was born in Cap-Haitian, Haiti 1966.  He currently resides and maintains a studio in Brooklyn, NY.  Deceus received a B.A. in Sociology from Long Island University, NY in 1992 and studied Printmaking at Atlantis Arts Atelier, Gentily, France in 2007. His solo exhibitions include the Pounder-Kone Art Space, Los Angeles; Tilford Art Group, Los Angeles, CA.  Group exhibitions include the Brooklyn Museum, NY; Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts (MOCADA), Brooklyn, NY; The National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis TN; Hampton University, Hampton, VA; Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ; Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ; Prizm Art Fair Miami FL; Fridman Art Gallery, NY, NY; Gallery M, NY, NY. The works of Deceus have entered numerous public collections, including Xavier University, New Orleans, LA and the Schomburg Center, New York Public Library, NY. His work has been featured in publications such as Artillery Magazine, the International Revue of African-American Art, and The Village Voice.

www.deceusart.com
https://mocada.org/2020/04/28/digital-gallery-francks-deceus/
https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/FRANCKS-DECEUS-(1966----)-Pilgrimage-14?saleno=2535&lotNo=181&refNo=767372
https://www.instyle.com/lifestyle/girls-in-the-window-recreated?utm_source=emailshare&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-share-longform&utm_content=20200809

Francks Deceus

The Cerebral Women media platform presents Cerebral Women Art Talks, a  podcast that is an extension of @cerebral_women. Conversations offer insights into the visual art world from artists, mainly artists of color, and female artists who freely articulate what inspires their creativity. In addition, you'll hear interesting perspectives from dedicated art professionals who work with artists and the art institutions that feature them. Art Advisors, Art Critics, Collectors, Curators, Gallerists, Museum Professionals.

Jose Duran

CEREBRAL WOMEN Art Talks Podcast

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