Events
From the selected works of local artists Roosevelt Lewis and Marita Dingus, Reflections, honors the rich history enslaved Africans infused into America. Each piece speaks to touchstones in the journey from the Middle Passage through the Civil Rights Era, and the re-awakening of the value of women as the foundation of human society. This exhibit remains fully representative of the imagery and culture that people of African descent continue to carry forward throughout the Diaspora. Reflections is presented by Hidden Treasures a Black art advocacy group working in collaboration with a variety of community organizations including City Light Black Employees and City of Seattle Black Caucus.
As a young man in the U.S. Army, Mr. Lewis traveled to France where one day he wandered into an art gallery filled with narrative African art. Never forgetting his roots, he was inspired to tell stories through his art about the Black Cajun and Creole people of Central Louisiana who remain the back drop for his pieces. Whether painting or sculpting, his work defines their pain, joys and their struggles.
Marita Dingus is a pioneer of incorporating discarded materials into art and passionately identifies this as her way of honoring Black and ethnic minorities who are typically undervalued and discarded in Western dominated society. From her world travels and studies across North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe, Ms. Dingus liberally draws from the entire human experience and the commonalities all peoples share, to create her Afro centric art works.
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Roosevelt Lewis was born and raised in Central Louisiana. As a child, Roosevelt had no idea why art was so important to his life but began creating art from materials retrieved from a garbage dump. With no access to public libraries in his small segregated town, young Roosevelt accompanied his godmother during her work as a domestic for a prominent white family, where he was introduced to the works of Monet, Rembrandt, and Picasso in her employer’s expensive library collection.
Marita Dingus was born and raised in Auburn Washington, encouraged to develop her artistic talents at a very early age. From the nurturing nest of parochial school education, she earned her Bachelors of Fine Arts at Temple University’s Tyler School of Fine Arts, then her Masters of Fine Arts at San Jose State.