ArtBae Ke

Visual Art – Memphis

Keeosha Armstrong is a Multidisciplinary artist whose new body of paintings and installations acknowledges the enriched experiences of Black culture. Armstrong is known for her profound, mixed media paintings of domestic interiors and African American figures, the artist describes writing and capturing reality as a significant role in her practice. Initially, she began taking photos of her family during her time as a BFA student at University of Memphis and continues to document her peers, as she expands her practice. Pulling from varies sources , including the portraits of Mickalene Thomas and the 1930s Harlem Renaissance movement, Armstrong broadens the representation of black people within the canon of history. Appearing in fictionalized interiors often gazing at the viewer or immersed in their environment, her muses demonstrates a sense of self awareness, which is emphasized for the viewer. In the Young, Wild & disruptive series - a collective of large-scale paintings depicted of black culture & societal issues, the artist highlights the partnership within her creative process, through which the raw essence of the subjects is created. Through her career, Armstrong has mixed abstraction and figurative and pushed the notion of paintings, installations and collage. Often including materials such as acrylic, oil, fabric and broken glass. In her recent series of collaged paintings, painted on a stretched canvas using mixed media materials, each material is placed on specific areas producing a textural surface. To point out, Armstrong has included textural surfaces through her manipulated fabrics. As a result, the artists creates three-dimensional works that pulls focus to representation, black culture, and the evolution of history in today's society.