EXHIBITION: with, all, & in-between
with, all, & in-between
CURATED BY ENJOLI MOON, SANDY WILLIAMS, AND NIGEL RICHARDSON
SEPTEMBER 3 - OCTOBER 23, 2021
Nydia Blas, In the Blue Light, Archival Pigment Print, 20 x 30 inches
Opening: Friday, September 3rd, from 5pm - 8pm
Candela Gallery is thrilled to open this fall with a collaborative project in partnership with this year’s Afrikana Film Festival. Hosted by Candela and curated by Enjoli Moon, Sandy Williams, and Nigel Richardson, with, all, & in-between opens September 3rd, 2021, and runs through October 23rd, 2021.
with, all, & in-between is an exploration of connection featuring a range of photographs, sculptures, and video works by Anthony Bunmi Akinbola, Dr. Chaz Barracks, Nydia Blas, Dāa Guy-Vasson, Benny “Brothr” Harps, Artemus Jenkins, WORK / PLAY Kevin & Danielle McCoy, Nadiya Nacorda, Leila Weefur, and Stephanie J. Woods + Johannes Barfield.
Dāa Guy - Vasson, Delectability, Sculpture, 2 x 2 x 4 feet
From the most intimate displays with family, lovers, and friends to the broader thru lines that keep us tethered and in communication, culturally. 2020 created an opportunity for us to recognize the value of with-ness and forced us to reexamine the ways that we protect, preserve, and grow relationships when traditional systems and ways of being are disrupted.
This exhibition is in tandem with Afrikana’s 6th annual 3-day film festival, September 16-19, 2021 based in Richmond, Virginia. To learn more about their programming visit, www.afrikanafilmfestival.org.
ABOUT THE CURATORS
Enjoli Moon is the Assistant Curator of Film and Special Programs with the Institute of Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University and Creative Director of the Afrikana Independent Film Festival, which holds the distinct honor of being the first and only Black film festival in Richmond – hosting a variety of pivotal cultural figures such as Angela Davis and Nikki Giovanni. Although a grassroots effort, Afrikana has been hailed as the premier space for Black arts and culture in the city – while quickly becoming the regional hub for Black indie cinema. She is also the founding chair of BLK RVA, a Richmond Region Tourism initiative designed to connect Richmond residents and visitors with Black-owned businesses in the area.
She and her work have been featured in local and national publications, such as Style Weekly, Huffington Post, BET, Essence, Black Enterprise, Travel Noire, The Root, and Virginia Currents on PBS. She was recently recognized as one of the 2021 "People to Meet" for Virginia Business Magazine and received the 2020 VCIC Humanitarian Award, as well as the 2020 Richmond Times-Dispatch Strong Voices Award. She is also the recipient of Style Weekly's Women In the Arts Award and Top 40 Under 40. However, her greatest accomplishment is being a mother to her son, Jonah – an artist and aspiring filmmaker.
In 2018, Afrikana joined forces with Angry Black Female to create a travel series called A Blackass Field Trip, which are intimately curated excursions designed to educate Black people on the Black experience by exploring Black spaces across the Black diaspora that have influenced Black history – with direct ties to Richmond, VA. Past trips included the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and Legacy Museum in Montgomery, AL, and the Whitney Plantation in New Orleans, LA – and a planned trip to Barbados was recently rescheduled due to COVID-19.
In 2020, she co-created The JXN Project, which is part of the state’s investment in historic justice initiatives and aims to leverage reparative historic preservation to drive restorative truth-telling and redemptive storytelling by honestly and accurately capturing the pivotal role of Richmond, Virginia, in particular Jackson Ward, in the evolution of the Black American experience. JXN has been featured on PBS NewsHour and highlighted in TIME’s “Beyond Tulsa: The Historic Legacies and Overlooked Stories of America’s Black Wall Streets.”
Sandy Williams IV is an artist and educator currently based in Richmond, VA. Their work is about the persistence of memory, the body, and resistance. Williams likes to task audiences with agency, in order to generate public and private opportunities for collaborative engagement. Williams primarily works in sculpture, film, text, and public performance. Currently an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Richmond. Recipient of the New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowship and the VMFA Artist Fellowship. Resident at Atlantic Center for the Arts (FL), SOMA (CDMX), ACRE (Chicago), amongst other residencies. Exhibitions and performances at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, The Harnett Museum of Art at the University of Richmond, the Institute of Contemporary Art at VCU, New Release (NYC), NADA House (NYC), De Boer Gallery (LA), Springsteen Gallery (Baltimore). Solo shows at Reynolds Gallery (Richmond) and Second Street Gallery (Charlottesville).
Nigel S. Richardson is a writer, filmmaker, and educator based in Richmond, VA. Nigel graduated from the University of Miami in 2017 with a B.S. in Communication, Motion Pictures. He then went on to join the Peace Corps, serving in Rwanda for two years teaching English as a Foreign Language and further pursuing his passion for education and working with youth and young adults. He currently works as Special Assistant to the Creative Director for the Afrikana Independent Film Festival, a festival dedicated to showcasing the cinematic works of people of color from around the world and places a special focus on the global Black narrative. He also works as an administrative support specialist for various cultural arts organizations in the Richmond area. Through his work with Afrikana and other arts institutions in his hometown, Nigel uses his love for storytelling to help elevate, celebrate, and further validate marginalized and underrepresented stories.
