Artwork Description
Clarence Heyward – Invisible Man
Dimensions: 37 x 73″ framed / 36 x 72″ unframed
Year: 2021
Medium: acrylic on canvas
UNSEEN is Clarence Heyward‘s first museum solo exhibition, its premise being what would happen to his wife and two young daughters if he was one of the black men he watches be killed on the nightly news. Heyward was driven to create Invisible Man, above, by the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police. Here, Heyward depicts himself as the victim of police brutality.
Clarence was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. He is a painter and collagist whose work explores notions of the Black American experience. Heyward tackles cultural truths, stereotypes, and questions identity in his work. He “paints his truth” and uses persons of color as subjects in his work as homage to his culture. Among his most prevalent subjects are members of his own family, as well as himself. His intimate knowledge of their lived experience informs his fresh and direct approach to contemporary figuration. He often uses the chromakey green color to reference the video concept of a green screen, upon which any background or reality can be superimposed. In his painting “Invisible Man” Clarence explores the imagery of George Floyd in the context of being a family man. His use of chroma key in his recent paintings evokes a sense of possibility within identity, and a recognition that who we see is a function of who we are as observers.
Though Clarence is brand new on the contemporary art scene, two museums have already purchased his work and offered him exhibitions–the Contemporary Art Museum of Raleigh, and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. The Harvey Gantt Center for African American Art and Culture will exhibit his work for 2022.