Our special exhibition Keith Haring: A Radiant Legacy celebrates this iconic artist’s life, work, and activism. Join us for a members-only panel conversation that explores Haring’s artistic legacy and how it has influenced and inspired Seattle artists barry johnson and Xavier Kelley. The panel will be moderated by MOPOP Senior Curator Amalia Kozloff and includes time for Q+A.
Photo provided courtesy of Allan Tannenbaum.
barry johnson is a visual artist based in Washington State, whose work explores the figure and its relationship to space. Through his art, he strives to address the historical erasure of Black figures in art and bring visibility to underrepresented communities.
His focus on the figure allows him to capture the human experience and emotions, while space serves as a backdrop for the narrative. For the past decade, Johnson has engaged in a unique studio practice where he devotes a year to exploring a specific theme. This theme could focus on a particular medium, narrative, or color. At the end of the year, he departs from the series and begins something new.
Through his art, Barry hopes to inspire conversations and promote social change. As a Black artist, he is committed to using his platform to amplify marginalized voices and tell stories that have been neglected in the art world. His art is a reflection of his personal experiences and those of the people around him.
barry's art has been recognized through numerous awards, including the Edwin T. Pratt Award, the smART Ventures Award, and the GAP Award. He was a finalist for Seattle Art Museum's Betty Bowen Award and the Cornish School of the Arts' Neddy Award. His work has been exhibited and collected across the United States, including the State Department collection in Washington D.C. Johnson has participated in residencies at Amazon, Facebook, and BASE Experimental Space, and he has created multiple public artworks across the Pacific Northwest.
johnson is represented by Winston Wachter.
Xavier Kelley is a 23 year old painter from Seattle’s Central District. His paintings focus on Afrofuturism, examining the histories, present experiences, and future possibilities of Afro indigenous bodies. Kelley's narrative paintings tell stories of human interaction and the experience of black and indigenous bodies, using various mediums, aesthetic iconographies of ancient culture, academia, sports, music, black culture, and art history. Informed by Afrofuturism and graffiti art, Kelley recontextualizes past histories through highly saturated, idealized figures and glyphs, blueprinting future possibilities and actualizations that have not previously been accessible to marginalized identities. Kelley pinpoints and animates the ambition of ascension. Through splintered narratives and vibrating lines that hint at a colorful language nearly within reach, Kelley creates his own ecosystem of an emergent future that might already exist but requires thoughtful excavation.
“Sports is also used in my practice as a metaphor for the ways marginalized groups must maneuver ‘athletically’ through society to achieve upward mobility. The wide-eyed BIPOC cartoon characters illustrate a juxtaposition of childlike curiosity through the medium of cartoon, while the subjects depict the anxieties and restricted autonomy of being Black/Indigenous in the contemporary climate of America and the World. Motifs such as the pencil and pyramid represent making a mark on the world through the act of creation. Animals represent childhood fascination in my work, and a longing to connect more deeply with the natural world.” — Xavier Kelley
Xavier Kelley is a painter based in Seattle whose work featured on the cover of Elle Decor, exhibited widely in Seattle and New York, and is included in many private collections across the country.