Token — a simple five-letter word with so many meanings. Keepsake … souvenir … object exchanged for admittance, service or material thing … a representative of a group.
It’s also the name of a provocative exhibition now on view at Pyramid Atlantic in Silver Spring.
Through an intriguing medley of works, the artists explore and express their viewpoints on the different sides to tokens.
“When I think of a token … I think of the one ‘other’ in a room of ‘alikes,’ ” Nina Buxenbaum explains in reference to her oil paintings that remaster the European master style, featuring African-American women surrounded by opulence and subtle, clever, thought-provoking details.
In “Subject,” Buxenbaum and Zoë Charlton collaborated on a stunning, wry update of “Blonde Odalisque,” François Boucher’s voyeuristic 1752 Rococo portrait of one of King Louis XV’s mistresses.
Rather than gazing deferentially into the ozone like the original nude, model Charlton stares straight at the viewer, pink tube socks at delightful odds with the lavish decor.
No servile token object of pleasure, she dominates the scene as a free spirit with her own identity and desires. This is large-scale work holds attention with keen technique, composition and wit.
Baltimore-based Charlton, who organized the show, also joined forces with alternate musician-artist Melissa Moore to animate Henry Ossawa Tanner’s iconic 1893 painting, “The Banjo Lesson.”
Their music video is an inventive effort to reclaim an instrument that, after decades of display in stereotyped images of blacks, had been appropriated by mainstream white culture in the 20th century.
Also featured are Christine Buckton Tillman, Lauren Sleat and Cara Ober, who has earned praise for regional exhibitions of neo-graffito works mixing media, phrases and such middle-America imagery as diary entries, vintage stencils, telling phrases and children’s book illustrations. Viewing these first-time collaborations, it’s tempting to offer the artists a token for their thoughts.
They’re sharing them April 6 at the exhibition’s closing event.
Also featured are Christine Buckton Tillman, Lauren Sleat and Cara Ober, who has earned praise for regional exhibitions of neo-graffito works mixing media, phrases and such middle-America imagery as diary entries and vintage stencils.
Token
On view through April 6
» Venue: Pyramid Atlantic
8230 Georgia Ave.
Silver Spring
» Info: 301-608-9101;
www.pyramidatlanticartcenter.org
» Event: Artists discuss tokenism
7 p.m., April 6
