Unusual Suspects: the city’s largest multi site exhibition

Gallery Aferro is proud to present Unusual Suspects, a multi-site public art installation by one of Newark's most recognizable artistic forces, artist, muralist and performance poet Jerry Gant. Utilizing expressive, arresting imagery, the project is a deeply considered response to local as well as national events, and includes one hundred newly commissioned aerosol portraits of African-American men, as well as a dramatic projection-based installation lighting up the nighttime street view.

Related public programming, including a photo shoot performance by one hundred African- American men, will unfold throughout the spring. Artist and cultural theorist Lisa Bradley, writes in an essay commissioned for the project: "...You know these men, and love them... But understand this: Gant's men require an investment...viewers are charged with confronting mainstream paradigmatic thought: systems of ideas and beliefs that posits the Black male body as an abomination to be feared and loathed as a matter of course, or objectified, at best. Instead, Gant's figures, from fresh youth to most distinguished elder, hold the participant accountable for the formation of ideas surrounding the representation of these bodies: our dreams, hopes, desires are all accessed."

With the project, we seek to humanize and return nuance to various interrelated dialogues about the city: about media coverage of violence, about perception, about the creative contributions of a multigenerational continuum of artists of all colors active for decades. Gallery Aferro Artistic Director Evonne M. Davis reflects: "I met Jerry within a month of first coming to Newark in 2003. We met because he was reciting his poetry and I heard it through the floorboards. When Gallery Aferro reopened downtown in 2006, he was invited to be our inaugural studio resident. Our trajectories have run parallel over the last decade: the gallery has grown and added many new programs, including Activate; Market Street, and Jerry has executed numerous public art commissions for the city. Now, we've joined forces to create this exciting new offering for the people of Newark."

OPENING Saturday, February 22nd from 7-10pm
On display from February 22, 2014 - May 24, 2014