The quilts present four scenes from the artist’s Barricades series: The Mathematics of Racism: Living in the Calculus, Who is Barred Today, People Before Highways, and How Many More? Each urges viewers to consider space through the lens of social conflict and resolution across varied times and places. “The journey here is localized geographically in its particular presence,” says Frazier (right), “yet global in universal location of human activity.” The Scene/Seen opens to the public next Monday, Jan. 31 at SPOKE Gallery, 840 Summer St., S. Boston MA 02127. The artist will discuss the work with exhibition curator Kathleen Bitetti as part of a virtual opening Wednesday, Feb 9th, at 6:30 pm. Register for this event online here. The exhibition runs through Friday, march 18m 2022. “L’Merchie Frazier’s career is a testament to the power of art to expand our vision of humanity and its potential,” says Greg Liakos, SPOKE Executive Director. “The Scene/Seen is a resonant, timely, and thought-provoking exhibition.”
L’Merchie Frazier is a Boston-based multimedia artist, educator, and consultant, known for her evocative fiber and metal sculptures, innovative installations, and stunning hand-crafted jewelry. A recipient of the Boston Foundation’s 2021 Brother Thomas Fellowship, she is also a Boston artist-in-residence with the Office of Recovery Services/Office of Women’s Advancement, and Director of Education and Interpretation for the Museum of African American History, creating programs that expand the American historical narrative. She is represented in numerous private collections and the permanent collection of the University of Vermont, the American Museum of Art and Design, New York, and the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC. Exhibition sites include the Museum of Afro-American History Boston; the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, Boston; New England Quilt Museum; and the permanent collection of the White House. She is also a member of Women of Color Quilters Network(WCQN) a national African American Quilters Guild. She was also an advisor to Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories, at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Across the work is the thread of the power of individual and collective memory to know and to heal. As Forbes stated in a review of her work last year, “Whether L’Merchie Frazier is creating poetry, performance, holographs or quilts, she is doing it to save herself — and all of us — from our amnesia.” The artist has worked with SPOKE (formerly Medicine Wheel) over several years, most recently on a documentary film “Witness,” and has exhibited her work in the SPOKE Gallery. Last spring SPOKE honored her with its Annual Artist/Activist Award. SPOKE Gallery is open by appointment. (Starting Jan. 15, to address rising COVID-19 cases and encourage vaccination, individuals will be required by the City of Boston to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 to enter. People working in those locations will also be required to have received their vaccines.) The Gallery is open by appointment: email [email protected] to schedule a visit. Following Scene/Seen, the SPOKE Gallery will present an exhibition of new work from Destiny Palmer, and shows commemorating LGBTQ Pride, and Hispanic Heritage Month, among other shows.