Overview:
Madjeen Isaac’s exhibit, Come as you might be, That is our battle too, blends Haitian and Brookyln influences to discover themes of neighborhood and therapeutic. Open by way of Nov. 17 at Smack Mellon, her vibrant work fosters reflection on identification, belonging, and shared resilience.
BROOKLYN – About this time in fall 2023, artist Madjeen Isaac was on the brink of begin an thrilling studio residency at Smack Mellon when she obtained an surprising well being analysis.
Gobsmacked, the 28-year-old painter and sculptor, turned to her artwork and her household for consolation and assist as she sought therapy and commenced the restoration course of. Isaac captures the yr in her exhibit — “Come as you might be, That is our battle too.”
“That’s what my brother advised me after they came upon,” stated Isaac, the first-born in a household of three siblings, explaining the inspiration for the present’s title.
“This time final yr, I used to be personally grieving,” Isaac stated throughout an interview on the exhibit. “However now, it appears like we’re collectively grieving, given the present occasions. We’re extra geared up than we understand, and it simply calls on leaning onto our communities for assist.”
A part of that assist comes within the type of artwork. For Isaac — whose work explores concepts of residence, neighborhood and belonging — the contribution comes by way of “hybridizing worlds,” as she calls it, to replicate shared diasporic experiences.
In her first solo exhibit, Isaac goals to carry her beliefs of neighborhood, communalism and lakou, a convention of communal dwelling with a robust prolonged household, historically joined by a courtyard. She tries to recreate that sense of coming collectively in a shared area, in hopes it’ll result in conversations that may carry therapeutic.
The works themselves mix components of Isaac’s Haitian and American experiences, data of the tradition, and the landscapes of each worlds onto canvas and sculptures. The juxtaposition of pink brick pre-war buildings from her childhood in Flatbush and plush tropical vegetation from her visits to Haiti in years previous as a neighborhood garden-style depiction in some way make sense.
That is no small feat.
Usually, some Haitian American artists’ makes an attempt at mixing scenes from each worlds may be so daring or cluttered, they will come off as unrecognizable and border on the garish, to be frank.
Maybe as a result of Isaac is skilled in superb artwork — she holds a BFA from The Style Institute of Expertise and an MA in Artwork training and neighborhood from New York College and is a current recipient of BRIClab’s Up to date Artwork Residence Program — her work facilities one or two key components in every bit in a approach that doesn’t overwhelm the attention.
Isaac’s selections of components and objects to painting are cautious, some would possibly say “genuine.” Her flags that cling overhead, for one, are constructed from quite a lot of garments or objects acquainted in a Haitian American family. Burlap sacks, faculty uniform plaid, plastic grocery luggage — they’re all so acquainted.
In a present of her works’ common resonance, Smack Mellon determined to current her items whereas she was finishing the residency program. Vera Steinberg, curator and director of exhibitions, stated Isaac hit her stride over the previous yr by concerning an issue that’s each private and has a communal really feel to it. The placement and gardens made individuals really feel like they have been at residence, Steinberg stated.
Throughout the present’s opening, Isaac’s mother, a nurse, introduced her colleagues to see her daughter’s work. The questions from the group about all of the completely different items, the trouble she put in and the assorted components highlighted the kind of conversations Isaac is hoping to domesticate by way of her artwork.
Two days after the election, customer John S. Berman wandered into the gallery to view the exhibit.
“It captures this concept of ’how do you construct neighborhood, how do you create it, what does it imply, what’s it about,” Berman, who writes about artwork, stated.
“It’s very affirming work, at a time when so many people are scuffling with the best way this nation is transferring with such overt xenophobia and racism that was usually hidden, however is now outwardly supported.”
“This work contradicts it, which is so transferring and what we want proper now,” Berman added.
The present is open by way of Sunday, November 17 at Smack Mellon in Dumbo.