WE'VE ALWAYS BEEN HERE • Monica Ikegwu • 14 September - 12 October, 2019

Band of Vices is pleased to present We’ve Always Been Here, the first solo portraiture exhibition by 21-year old Monica Ikegwu. The exhibition will feature over 14 large-scale oil on canvas portraits. She is an award-winning painter and has been hailed as one of the most exciting emerging artists of her generation. Ikegwu is originally from Baltimore, MD and is currently a student at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).

At the basis of Ikegwu’s oeuvre is a profound appreciation of color, composition, draftsmanship & subject matter. By painting her young African American demographic, she exhibits a seasoned level of sophistication of the rendering of her portraiture, which belies her youth of twenty-one years.

It is not surprising to learn that she was the inaugural winner of the XL Catlin Art Prize in 2018, which is a “new juried art contest and traveling exhibition of 40 two-dimensional figurative works” and represents thenation’s most prestigious student art competition with over 700 applicants. With the honor, she received a $10,000 award. The winning painting was entitled “Jaden” and is part of a portrait series of young African American males with a red light reflected on their faces which symbolizes mainstream marginalization and a continually fraught relationship with police and law enforcement.

Issues of identity, power, societal ideas, narrative and the history of art are some of the themes that surface in her work along with a youthful sense of joie de vivre, confidence and self-assuredness are hallmark themes which emerge in her portraiture. She uses art as a tool to elevate the visibility of her African American subjects. As an emerging artist, her sensibility is being created and developing before our very eyes. There is evidence of a thoughtful and brilliant mind at work, from the title of her show alone, one that is incredibly prescient and knowing, We’ve Always Been Here!

There is an immediacy of language, of posture, of character inherent in her oeuvre that is undeniable. As you approach any of these portraits you want to know more about these young people as they reveal a palpable humanness, a psychological intensity that becomes intoxicating. Some renderings are bold, some tender but all are exquisitely fashioned in the latest urban styles and attire. She shows that these Baltimoreans revel in the centrality of their Blackness, they wear it as a badge of honor that they are young, gifted and black and that their rightful place should be holding court in a portrait as the central protagonist.

Ikegwu understands that she beckons from a long rich line of African American portrait painters including such giants as Joshua Johnson (ca.1763-ca.1830, America’s first African American portrait painter who was a former slave and also hails from Baltimore), Henry Ossawa Tanner, Barkley L. Hendricks, Kehinde Wiley & her mentor & professor at MICA Amy Sherald, among others.

We’ve Always Been Here will be on view from September 14th to October 12th, 2019 with an Opening & Artist Reception on Saturday, September 14th, from 6pm to 9pm. The Artist will be in attendance!!!

THE ONLY LIFE WE KNOW • Ali LeRoi • 8 June - 6 July, 2019

Band of Vices is pleased to announce the solo contemporary photography exhibition of Ali LeRoi – The Only Life We Know – Photography from East Africa & South Los Angeles.

This photographic body of work is rooted in shining a light on & uplifting the Black community as it is based on showing the complexity of their lives through the lens of its youth. These photographs are powerful expressions displaying Black life in unforgiving settings. His imagery reveals much depth and breadth associated with these communities that is oftentimes overlooked.

LeRoi centers his photographic lens on breaking the mold of showing black life as a monolithic struggle or a singular pain as his photographs show great strength of character & resolve to overcome the struggle of living always in a state of lack. His photographs are imbued with great hope & expectations for a better future in these young eyes.

Born & raised in Chicago, Illinois during the volatile 1960s, LeRoi has established himself as an Emmy Award-winning film writer/producer, director & photographer. This is his debut exhibition with Band of Vices.

The Only Life We Know will be on view from Saturday, June 8th ‘til July 6th, 2019 with an Opening & Artist Reception on Saturday, June 8th from 6 to 9pm. The artist will be In-Conversation with actress & art-collector Tichina Arnold on Saturday, June 22nd from 4-6pm.

REMNANTS OF THINGS LEFT BEHIND • a group exhibition • 30 March - 4 May, 2019

Band of Vices announces Remnants of Things Left Behind, its first major group exhibition.

Remnants features 7 emerging contemporary artists from around the globe including Somalia, Poland, Japan & the Dominican Republic. The artists include Victoria Cassinova , Noah Humes , Ryosuke Kumakura, Muna Malik , David Ntephe , Edyta Pachowicz & Raelis Vasquez .

Through paintings, mixed media & photography, these artists create a corpus of artwork that engenders questions and commentary about faith, religion, spirituality, agency, societal constructs, politics, freedom, the western world and its relationships to the developing economies it deals with.

These artists engage with marginalization, displacement, nomads, migration, immigration, among other urgent topics that shape our contemporary global landscape in subtle, yet profound ways. Remnants of Things Left Behind will be on view from this Saturday, March 30 to May 4, 2019.

Band of Vices will host its Opening & Artists Reception Saturday, March 30 from 5pm to 8pm.

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS • Ariel Vargassal & Dominic Chambers • 5 January - 2 February, 2019

Band of Vices is thrilled to announce its first exhibition of 2019, Between Two Worlds, featuring the artwork of contemporary artists Ariel Vargassal and Dominic Chambers .

This exciting pairing brings together the 2018 8th Annual Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series second-place winner Ariel Vargassal and 2019 Yale MFA candidate Dominic Chambers as their magical surrealist paintings continue to garner critical attention and praise in the contemporary art world.

Ariel Vargassal is a Los Angeles-based artist from Mexico whose artwork is focused on revealing the complex anthropomorphic qualities and relationships between humans and wild life. Vargassal’s work can be described as Surrealist in that he creates these fantastical and imaginary associations such as humans and African Wild dogs and he pushes against his conservative Catholic roots and upbringing in order to envision new avenues of dialogue regarding subjects such as sex, gender, and the naked body.

Dominic Chambers’ artwork is based on a personal journey to help him better understand where he fits in the world as a Black man of color in America. He negotiates dualities and tropes as diverse as imagination and reality, presence and absence, visibility and invisibility and America’s seeming commitment to the erasure of black masculinity, among other societal denouements. W.E.B. DuBois’s articulation of “the veil” and “double consciousness” has piqued his interest as well. Chambers explores notions of race, beauty, identity, body and space, and power dynamics in his oeuvre in order to investigate and challenge conventional and existing norms.

In Between Two Worlds , Vargassal and Chambers take the viewer on a journey in order to explore their own personal versions of the ideas associated with Surrealist imagery whether it be African Wild dogs with Campbell tomato soup cans or the metamorphosis of a human turning into a hybrid werewolf. These artists use their imaginations to bring us inventive and original associations that we have never seen or experienced before and their mastery of the large-scale painting format is breathtaking to behold.

And in the gallery annex , Band of Vices is pleased to introduce Grace Lynne . In her current body of work, Lynne explores Black femininity in relation to the color pink. She explains that pink is a soft, delicate, gentle color that is rarely associated with Black women as they are often portrayed and stereotyped as being loud, angry, and strident in their demeanor, thus, Lynne has taken on the challenge to establish more accurate representations.

COLLISION COURSE • February James • 10 November - 8 December, 2018

Band of Vices presents its fourth solo show of the year, February James: Collision Course. The show features a collection of the artist's oil pastel and watercolors on wood, board and paper.

February James is a master storyteller as she takes us on an emotive journey with her imaginary characters. She creates her vivid images using a bold, opulent and decadent color palette rich in shades of reds, blues and greens and have had her style of using color compared to the works of the 20th century Fauvist master Henri Matisse. As a former makeup artist whose job it was to hide imperfections, James does the opposite and finds beauty in those imperfections, as they are a better indication of finding the true subjects hiding behind their makeup. James employs smudges to blur and distort the surfaces of her images, all in an effort to show that striving for perfection is futile.

A DC native who calls Los Angeles home, her work has been exhibited in the US and abroad, as well as in television broadcasts and print publications. Earlier this year, celebrity DJ and recording artist Diplo featured her work prominently as the cover art for his single “California”. February James has amassed an impressive list of collectors throughout the world.

In the gallery annex , Band of Vices introduces AM DeBrincat whose work blends painting, digital photography, and printmaking into layered works on canvas that explore how we construct identity in an online world. Born in San Francisco, but now based in Brooklyn, AM has shown internationally, including in Mexico, Europe, Canada, Australia, and throughout the US. She has received grants from the Durst Foundation and the Deming Fund, and been artist-in-residence at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), Chashama, and the Wassaic Project.

You IS Pretty! Surrealism & the Black Imaginary • Chelle Barbour • 15 September - 13 October, 2018

Band of Vices is thrilled to announce You Is Pretty! , the first solo exhibition of Chelle Barbour . Oscar-nominated actress Angela Bassett is pleased to serve as guest curator for Ms. Barbour's premiere solo exhibition. You Is Pretty! will feature nearly two dozen photographic collages of black women, sourced from magazines and books, and re-assembled as almost mythical beings that transcend the devalued representations historically broadcast in our culture and media. “Chelle Barbour has the rare artistic gift of being able to elevate a people, in this case the black woman, to heights of majesty and complexity that are so often overlooked in our everyday lives," says Bassett.

You Is Pretty! will be on view from September 15 to October 13, 2018 with an Opening Reception on September 15 from 6pm to 10pm. Barbour will hold an Artist Talk at the gallery on October 6, 2018 at 4pm.

“I have created a corpus of artwork that engenders questions about agency and beauty through layering visual metaphors across an iconography of black women that evoke Afro-surrealism,” says Barbour in her artist statement. “Though at times, the design elements may seem illogical and incongruent as they reimagine and celebrate hybrids of black female identity as mighty warriors, protagonists, sages, and interlocutors, the images portray females who are alluring, confident and regal, whose mystique envelops and draws you in while simultaneously disrupting the notion of black women as unattractive, threatening, and lacking economic value. These fictional beings are compelling, yet feminine and non-binary as well as vulnerable, and resistant to trauma.”

With recurring visual motifs of flower petals and leaves, butterflies, and household and industrial items, the images of black women are reclaimed and reconfigured as empowered archetypes of feminine strength and potential, work that is almost visceral for the artist. “During my creative process, I am endlessly questioning the representation and subjectivity of every image, element, and layer, which calls for an ongoing reinterpretation of inserted allegories while moving deeper into expanding the magical realism in the black female imaginary,” explains Barbour.

This is the first solo show of her career.

PROCESS & MATERIALS • Sharon Louise Barnes • 6 July - 4 August, 2018

Band of Vices is thrilled to announce Process & Materials, the new solo exhibition by artist Sharon Louise Barnes. Featuring over a dozen new abstract sculptures and multimedia works on canvas, the salvaged objects that comprise this new body of work become Barnes’ vehicle to explore the subjects of marginalization, social class and willpower, while the process of creating them connects her to her heritage as an African American. Process & Materials will be on view from July 6 to August 4, 2018, with an Opening Reception on July 6 from 6pm to 9pm. Barnes will hold an Artist Talk at the gallery on July 28, 2018 at 4pm.

Process and materials are essential elements of any artists’ practice, whether that be painting on canvas or creating sculpture. Over the course of her creative career, which has included everything from music to visual art, Barnes has turned the creation of her sculptures into an alchemical practice that allows her to find hope and transformation in the struggle to work with rough and salvaged materials.

“By using industrial materials that might normally be held in a laborer's hands, as well as an array of discarded materials that can be found on city streets, my abstract works are both conceptual and aesthetic,” explains Barnes. “They look outward into society, opening dialogs about marginalization, about how we determine value, and the potency of change. They also speak to my African American heritage where people built something from very little or nothing, and demonstrated the power to transform one’s condition through the exercise of will.”

The recurring motif of cloud and tree-like formations made of interwoven strips of roofing paper appears in suspended sculpture pieces like “She Wove Constellations Through Her Dreadlocks” and “Humming in the Night.” “Viewpoints: A Verité” juxtapose found photo transfers with abstract acrylic and mixed media backgrounds. The visceral works are a coalescence of passions she’s been exploring as an artist for almost two decades.

“On this creative path, nothing has been more remarkable in my memory than when my fifth grade teacher gave me the tools of perspective drawing to create the illusion of reality, or when my African American Art History professor, renowned artist Dr. Samella Lewis, exposed me to the visual artists of the Black Arts Movement,” says Barnes. “These instances truly changed my life because they brought me to understand both the sheer magic of art and its unrestrained power to communicate.”

MADE IN SPACE • April Bey • 12 May - 30 June, 2018

On Saturday, May 12th, Terrell Tilford will be opening the flagship Band of Vices Art Gallery, located at 5376 W. Adams Blvd. in the burgeoning West Adams (Arts) District. Band of Vices will be the newest addition to recent developments and new restaurants coming into the area. Tilford is honored to continue the artistic commitment originally set forth by the previous tenants, Gallery 38. After undergoing an extensive renovation, Band of Vices Art Gallery will open its doors with a solo exhibition by contemporary artist April Bey entitled Made in Space.

Made in Space is the brand or label we see on clothing and space helmets used by gender fluid universe travelers focused on anti-colonizing adventures. 

Made in Space includes works from the AfroFuturist Womanism series, which explores female afrofuturistic millennial entrepreneurialism via social media and the Internet. Blerdy in nature, juxtapositions of Star Trek and hip-hop culture also manifest in this series. Looking to the future acts as a therapeutic excretory practice in dealing with current day issues around race and discrimination globally.

This work is a focus but is part of a generalized exploration of the actual resilience of women as they navigate through high-impact experiences of the body, psyche and demands of womanhood. There’s an ironic hypocrisy in the expectations of women and specifically black women to be sovereign and robust while at the same time inept and emotionally weak/unpredictable when leadership roles are sought.

Made in Space occupies the space often taken and exploited offering up fictitious worlds where labels are non-existent and we are allowed to float within our self-defined identities—smoking cigarettes in 0 gravity.

Bey’s most recent solo exhibition Comply occurred at Coagula Curatorial in 2017. She is in the permanent collection of The California African American Museum, The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas and Baha Mar in Nassau, Bahamas. Bey has exhibited internationally in both biennials NE7 and NE8 in The Bahamas, Italy, Spain and Accra, Ghana.

April grew up in the Caribbean (Nassau, Bahamas) and now resides and works in Los Angeles, CA as a contemporary visual artist and art educator. Bey’s interdisciplinary art work is an introspective and social critique of American and Bahamian popular culture, immigration, contemporary pop culture feminism, generational theory, social media, AfroFuturism and race.  

The Opening & Artist Reception for April Bey’s solo exhibition will take place Saturday, the 12th of May 2018, from 6pm – midnite. The artist will also present a walk-thru and talk on Saturday, the 2nd of June 2018, from 4pm - 6pm. Curated by Terrell Tilford, Made in Space marks April’s first exhibition with Band of Vices Art Gallery.

PERSPECTIVE - An Online Survey of Figurative Works • 20 November, 2017 – 12 December, 2018

Perspective: An Online Survey of Figurative Works spans the continental United States and includes a wide range of emerging, mid-career, established and historical Artists. The artworks in this survey invite the viewer to explore such everyday concepts and themes as the human condition, beauty, identity, religion, portraiture, history & culture and nudes, among others.

This exhibition encompasses an incredibly talented group of artists including such leading African American figures as Harlem Renaissance sculptor Richmond Barthé (1909-1989), master printmaker Margaret Burroughs (1915-2010) and Charles White (1918-1979), one of the most recognized & revered Social Realism artists. This broad exhibition includes two stunning bronze sculptures, and other outstanding examples of paintings, works on paper, & important historic prints.

Contemporary master muralist & painter Richard Wyatt, Jr. (b. 1955) known for his figurative realistic works that honor everyday people & historical figures, is another highlight of the exhibition. Jose Ramírez has two beautifully rendered works on canvas representing the significant contributions that Chicanos have infused into our rich fabric of American life. Francks François Deceus brings forth his Haitian heritage to his oeuvre, making us consider these rich and engaging Caribbean-infused elements. And Toni Scott has added her voice with a frenetic, compelling oil on canvas rendering.

These artists want us to recognize that art has its own generative power. This is their perspective.

DARE I DO • a visual elixir • 4 November - 5 November, 2016

Band of Vices presents Dare I Do, a pop-up Art Show by visionary curator Terrell Tilford, a writer, actor, director, producer who has a deep passion and commitment to Artists and their works. Band of Vices will be debut new works from Edyta Pachowicz, Bryan Lee Tilford and introducing Robert Hodge.  The show is two days only, Friday, November 4th from 4pm-8pm and Saturday, November 5th from 2pm-6pm at Gallery 38 (5376 W. Adams Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90016) in the West Adams Arts District.  Band of Vices launched in 2015 by Terrell Tilford as a movement to celebrate all things good.

As a writer, actor, director, producer and curator, Terrell has as a deep passion and commitment to Artists and their works.  He launched his first fine Arts company, the Tilford Art Group (TAG) in 1999 where he represented over 40 artists from around the world.  Through TAG’s artist management, Terrell pursued his passion of working with emerging artists to develop their talent and inspire their growth.  As a curator, Terrell has curated shows in museums, galleries, lofts, and open spaces in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco and New York.   

AS I AM: RECENT, REVISITED & RE-IMAGINED WORKS • J. Chris Neal • 18 July - 22 August, 2015

Band of Vices is pleased to welcome J. Chris Neal back to Los Angeles with his As I Am: Recent, Revisted & Re-imagined works. His first solo show occurred at the Pounder-Kone Artspace in 2006.

Detroit-born J. Chris Neal is a Brooklyn-based artist whose paintings on canvas and works on paper explore gender, race and sexual identity using collage and assemblage strategies that create provocative juxtapositions of the human body. Neal is fusing the genres of landscape and portraiture and placing the subject of modern life on a heroic scale, as well as embarking on a path of spiritual self-discovery and enlightenment.

Neal is mining and making sense of personal territory, societal constraints and a myriad of cultural influences, the amalgam of which makes his work incredibly fluid, dynamic and authentic. There is a constant search for answers, wondering how our society can make the world a fairer, more just place. The arc of his oeuvre is laden with learning from his experiences and advancing those lessons in an intelligent, recognizable manner that the viewer appreciates and understands. He acknowledges that there is strength in heralding change, in standing up for uniqueness and to not be afraid of potential or perceived ridicule. Neal’s paintings unpack and give context to our evolving contemporary society.

In her first gallery showing here in Los Angeles, Band of Vices introduces Edyta Pachowicz Ortiz. She is a recent transplant from Atlanta, via Poland. (Yes, long story). Having had an extensive knowledge of her previous works, Gallery Director Terrell Tilford has been consulting with Ortiz on developing a new series of works, often challenging the artist to delve into subjects, styles and medium she hadn’t previously considered. Her paintings in this show represent yet another dimension of her journey, that were commissioned by the gallery, specifically for this show.

EAST + WEST • Francks François Deceus & Greg Breda • 16 May - 20 June, 2015

East + West: Studies on Paper by Francks Deceus & New Works by Greg Breda, reunites the gallery with two of its most-notable Artists from Tilford Art Group, representing the east & west coasts, respectively.

Francks François Deceus has pulled from his archives works based on his early “Everyday People” series, documenting among many themes, his commentary on the gentrification which swept through Brooklyn in the early part of this 21st century.

Greg Breda has spent these past few years delving deeper into the root of identity with a continuation of his “SEED” series. Both artists works in this show represent their strength and tenacity, as well as a vulnerable, meditative dialogue.

This show, and more importantly, Band of Vices – this new gallery – has been in-process, under-construction, in deep meditative thought for several years. I knew after Tilford Art Group, I needed to take a break and separate myself from myself so that I could eventually see myself once again.

We all have our vices – cars, sex, money, art, shopping, alcohol, religion, travel, literature, music – and they are equally valid. What suits your lifestyle, your desires, your curiosity is the thought behind doing Band of Vices. Today we’re an art gallery. Tomorrow we’ll serve as a production house. Next week, we’ll engage in another dialogue. What you can expect from Us is Truth. That is all. And working toward lifting Humanity --- locally & globally, in-person, as well as through the interwebs.

BoV is honored to curate its art shows in collaboration with one of #DTLA’s finest bespoke houses, Eighth & Grand. They represent like-mindedness in terms of wanting to bring something of value to their patrons. Our partnership is still only at its inception.

Francks & Greg. Well, both of these artists have challenged us to think beyond what is on the page here. Or in this case, the canvas, the paper, even mylar. Sit with the works, inhale them and hopefully, as you exhale, you discover something new about You or the person You allow yourself to step out of, so that You may re-discover yourself that much more Enlightened.