Artist Spencer Stultz fostered a participatory experience for guests at her first solo exhibition. While her artwork lined the gallery walls of the Community Folk Art Center, two blank canvases were propped on wooden stands atop a white cloth, draped on the gallery floor. 

Each of the dozens of guests was encouraged to add their own touch to the painting before Stultz presented a gallery talking about her own artwork. 

“I felt like I couldn’t — all the way — do my work justice without giving people an opportunity to express themselves, too,” she said.  

On Friday, Stultz hosted the opening reception for her one-woman exhibition, “A Time for Joy and a Time for Sorrow,” at the Community Folk Art Center. The exhibit is on display through March 23 in honor of both Black History Month and Women’s History Month. 

Stultz is a master’s degree candidate in Pan African studies at Syracuse University. The gallery exhibit is part of her thesis project — a culmination of research about contemporary black visual art in regard to social activism.  

Associate professor Joan Bryant assisted Stultz with the project’s development. At the opening, Bryant said it has been an honor working as Stultz’s adviser throughout her creative process.  

“I think it’s sort of an act of courage to guide us through her thinking process, her emotional sensibilities, and sort of remind us all about the emotional intensity of doing research,” said Bryant, introducing Stultz before her gallery talk. 

Anna Henderson | Digital Design Editor

To research for her master’s thesis, Stultz conducted oral history interviews and attended exhibitions, museums and gallery talks in Atlanta. Stultz spent two-and-a-half months in the city to immerse herself in the art world as much as she could, she said, and discovered common themes among various artists regarding social and political issues. 

 “What I found is that a lot of artists are combating these narratives,” she said. “So, it kind of came to me that that’s what I do in my art. And it also came to me that this is something that has to be done.” 

“A Time for Joy and a Time for Sorrow” features 17 pieces, including canvas portraits created with oil, acrylic and mixed media. The exhibit’s name was inspired by the third chapter of Ecclesiastes in the Bible, Stultz wrote in her artist’s statement. The portraits of the various women reflect on personal life experiences that Stultz said she hopes can engage viewers who have experienced similar things. 

“They’re all kind of me because they embody an experience I’ve had, a thought I’ve had, a feeling I’ve had,” she said. 

While some guests participated in the live painting, others expressed their thoughts about the exhibit by writing quotes they resonated with on a chalk wall just outside the main gallery room.   

In offering a more interactive gallery experience, Stultz said her goal was to break down the “rigid” standards that galleries typically have, where visitors aren’t allowed to touch the art itself.  

These institutional boundaries, she said, have excluded artists of various identities throughout history. In her research, Stultz said she explored how black artists have collaborated with other black artists to create their own artistic spaces after not being allowed in typical museum settings.  

Stultz’s exhibition will honor both Black History Month and Women’s History Month, with its emphasis on contemporary black visual art and social activism. Her painting, “Joy and Freedom,” is an acrylic on canvas piece included in the collection. Haley Robertson | Feature Editor

“I wanted to have a space where it’s literally intended for you to touch, to kind of break down those practices that are really rigid and keep most people feeling uncomfortable,” she said.  

Accompanying the visual art are several poems from one of Stultz’s favorite poets, Nayyirah Waheed, pasted on the walls throughout the gallery.   

For Stultz, Waheed’s words help explain the paintings in ways that she couldn’t herself. She said she thought her own words couldn’t do the artwork justice and realized that her favorite poems connected to many of her pieces.  

While giving her gallery talk Friday, Stultz welcomed questions from visitors and strived for the talk to be more of a conversation than a tour around the gallery. Several guests offered their own interpretations of the pieces, asking questions along the way about Stultz’s artistic process. 

The reception and exhibition were co-sponsored by the department of African American studies in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Community Folk Art Center. This is the center’s first exhibition under Director Tanisha Jackson’s stewardship, she said.   

Said Jackson: “The work that you see is just wonderful and it comes from a place of critical thought and creativity.” 

Published on February 24, 2019 at 10:18 pm

Contact Haley: hrober03@syr.edu