ABOUT THE WORK
STATEMENT OF THE ARTIST: LISA JONES GENTRY
I consider myself to be part of the Contemporary Afro Futurism movement inart, reflected in my work as a way of looking within to see a world that is beyondthat which we see with our physical eyes. By looking within, I believe that weare able to transmute and neutralize some of the pain that is part of thehistorical and present-day experience of African Americans and otherdescendants of the Diaspora as well as Africans on the continent who sufferedunder the chains of colonialism.
My work represents a look inside out--- a deconstruction of the unspeakable toreveal the inner peace and love that is always there even in times of despair. Forme that world is awash in brilliant color and abstraction that represents thepain in a way that allows us to move beyond it into a new present-day realitywhere it can no longer define or limit us.
I believe that in abstraction, there can be peace because we are able toovercome that which has kept us in emotional shackles even after the removalof physical restraints. I paint and create that new reality that has been openedup to us as individuals who have overcome and now can fully claim a newfuture.
The work in my new series JOURNEYS OF THE DIASPORA reflects my belief thatin looking within to that world that has always existed through the inner eye,we can create a new lens with which to examine a part of history that stillresonates in the present-day experience.