At UTA Artist Space, Los Angeles (through 15 May 2021)
Reviewed by Eve Wood
The history of portrait painting is long and star-studded from the stunningly humanist portraits of Alice Neel to the politically charged monolithic works of Kehinde Wiley; artists have, for centuries, endeavored to capture the essence of their times and the people who mattered through the lens of figuration. Ferrari Sheppard, like so many artists before him, has created a visual mapping of his life that includes not only friends and family but also artists like Tupac Shakur, Jimi Hendrix and other artists in the Black community whose works have affected him. These paintings suggest less a topography of place and time and more a personal lexicon of strength, love and friendship in the face of injustice. [Read more…]