This Tender, Fragile Thing
February 15th – April 30th, 2022
Jack Shainman Gallery
The School, Kinderhook, NY
Featuring works by
Akinsanya Kambon
This Tender, Fragile Thing shines a contemporary lens on the gallery’s 2005 exhibition The Whole World is Rotten, which juxtaposed Black Panther materials from the gallery collection alongside works by contemporary artists. This creative exchange highlighted the culture of the 1960s and the development, goals, and achievements of the Black Power movement – the call for people to define themselves and the world on their own terms. By expanding this concept across the 30,000 square feet of The School, the exhibition offers an opportunity to broaden the dialogue and display these pieces in an environment that encourages contemplation and learning.
Though the path to improvement is impossible to define, the multitude of voices collapse the past, present, and future in search of answers. We are left, through many of the works, with a call to advance – to recall, and more urgently, to reconsider. The exhibition’s title quietly acknowledges that progress is a tender, fragile thing. Its interpretation can be broadly and openly considered, though there is value, weight, and inspiration in every part of the complex and nuanced path of progress.
In honor of the work and commitment the Black Panther Party showed to bettering its local communities, Jack Shainman Gallery will be donating a portion of the proceeds to Hearts of Gold, M.A.D.E. Transitions, Save The Hampton House and Soul Fire Farm. To support and learn more about these black led organizations, please visit the gallery’s website.
Born as Mark Teemer in Sacramento, California, Akinsanya Kambon is a former Marine, Black Panther, and art professor. Kambon’s clay sculptures, representing African deities and spirits, are fired using the Western-style raku technique — a challenging, dangerous, and unpredictable process that creates prismatic and iridescent glaze finishes. Drawing heavily on narrative tradition and personal experiences, including extensive travels throughout Africa, Kambon’s work celebrates perseverance through hardship, cultural pride, and his gift as a storyteller.
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