James Kalm is occasionally asked why he has two KZfaq channels(?) One partial answer is that your correspondent believes that showing artworks in comparison helps a viewer locate them within their personal aesthetic spectrum. Mickalene Thomas’s “je t’adore” is a series of photo collage assemblages that play on the notion and image of “everyday, familiar Black women positioned and posed as alluring beauties.” Referencing images from “Jet Magazine” and the French “Nus Exotique” from the 1960s through 1980s, one can’t help but consider the time and place and the impact these pictures carried during that period.
Michael A. Cummings displays a series of master fabric works that chart the arch of his sixty-year career. Using a rich trove of color, sheen, pattern, and stitching, these “quilts” have achieved for Cummings a 2023 National Endowment for the National Heritage Fellowship, and he was honored for his work at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. September, 2023. A musical introduction is provided by Rainforest Dance. This program was recorded October 12th and 17th 2023. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk