john alleyne
JOHN ALLEYNE
New Orleans, LA
Printmaker John Alleyne is interested in contrasts; working to explore the idea of freedom and experimentation by connecting his lived experience with an intuitive process of screenprint, monotype, and collage.
Sanctuary is important to Alleyne. He searches out common ground in the Black experience of the barbershop and hair salon which has historically been one of the few safe spaces for the Black community. Providing a haven for people otherwise starved for belonging and safety, Alleyne sees these environments as an essential feature of the human experience. “Just as a religious leader would bless a home, or individual in need, I see barbers and hairstylists having a similar transformative power. Barbers and hairstylists have an essential power to transform and build community.” This concept is experimental in both theory and in practice, and along with the artist’s desire for freedom, is the background for his investigation of topics including the Caribbean, the African Diaspora, Christianity, Hip-Hop, gang violence, police brutality, migration, power, institutional racism, lived experience, and social change.
While printmaking is an exacting process, Alleyne values the imperfect. His emphasis is not on the perfect replication of an image, but creating an atmosphere of movement as an allusion to migration and deconstruction of stereotypes. His use of unhinged silkscreens, which allow the screen to shift and make unexpected marks create a sense of stroke and movement within the work. Within these gestures, he challenges notions of healing, beauty, manhood, and masculinity within the aesthetic of hairstyle-guide posters.
And We Went remembers the historic attempted swim-in and celebrates the legacy of resistance, defiance, and love in the Black community. Alleyne’s images reflect the complexity of Black existence; celebrating our aesthetics and self-constructed safe spaces while showing the paradoxes that exist around notions of Black male strength and the challenges of impossible standards.
Works on view
