• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • NEWS+OPINIONS
    • NEWS TO US
    • COLUMNS
      • APPARENT HORIZON
      • DEAR READER
      • Close
    • LONGFORM FEATURES
    • OPINIONS
    • EDITORIAL
    • Close
  • ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
    • FILM
    • MUSIC
    • COMEDY
    • PERFORMING ARTS
    • VISUAL ARTS
    • Close
  • DINING+DRINKING
    • EATS
    • SIPS
    • BOSTON BETTER BEER BUREAU
    • Close
  • LIFESTYLE
    • CANNABIS
      • TALKING JOINTS MEMO
      • Close
    • WELLNESS
    • GTFO
    • Close
  • STUFF TO DO
  • TICKETS
  • ABOUT US
    • ABOUT
    • MASTHEAD
    • ADVERTISE
    • Close

Dig Bos

The Dig - Greater Boston's Alternative News Source

REVIEW: THE LIGHT OF MIDNIGHT FUNK

Written by WALDELL GOODE Posted November 2, 2018 Filed Under: A+E, Visual Arts

Left to Right: Sagie Vangelina, Mattaya Fitts, Curtis Williams, Rixy Fz

 

A focus on liberating art in Dot group show

 

Curtis Williams is Black, independent, and illustrating with a fiercely uninhibited nonconformist mentality.

 

I was eager to join him at the Dorchester Art Project this month for a community show featuring him and other local African-American artists. Born in 1992, Williams said, “I’ve always been a creator,” and has been excited to focus on work that is liberating for a change.

 

“I did a show at Converse [headquarters] for their diversity network a few months back,” Williams told DigBoston. “It was cool, but I really feel like it was a springboard into other ideas. Now I don’t do too many murals, and that’s just really about adding more space to adjust yourself.”

 

Moving around the space, the artist tagged his trademark “Curtistic” signature in the corners of the showcase walls. Williams moved swiftly and evenly, appearing in the places where complexity required him to be.

 

Creative moments aside, there was a tangible reality in play as well. Altering the straps of his bespeckled overalls, Williams smirked and said, “My uncle’s coming tomorrow.” The product of a law enforcement family in Florida, I wondered how his relatives viewed his professional pursuits, unconventional as they are.

 

“You know how it is,” said Williams. “My family was never real negative, but they wanted me to keep realistic expectations about my future. It took some convincing, but now they have some sense of what I do, and the main thing for both of us is that I am able to take care of myself as a man. They understand how seriously I take opportunities like this, and do what they can to support it.”

 

For this opening of Midnight Funk, a “contemporary and street art group show” packing “a collection that fuses dynamic visuals of a dope group of emerging artists,” the venue in Fields Corner attracted a millennial crowd filled with people of color—other than the bartender, Williams’ aunt and uncle were the only other faces I spotted that were noticeably white—with many who were already familiar with each other from some art scene or another. Shades of beauty filled various nooks, interlocking hues connecting and disproving monolithic misconceptions of the African-American experience in Boston.

 

One of the standout Williams abstractions, beside an entryway, caused some congestion, as clumps of people gathered to discuss its intent. Haiku, a 22-year-old poet, said, “It feels like freedom. I like how unrefined this all is. It gives you the nerve to feel something, but I don’t feel like I’m being spoon-fed a proselytize narrative.”

 

A couple hours into the show, Williams stood in front of said verbally lauded piece as people walked past, taking photos of the craftsman and the work. Through it all, Williams kept the installation running, at one point walking into a back room, emerging with a ladder, and modifying the surrounding lights.

 

From on high, the artist looked more like a handyman. He shrugged, sighed, and said, “This is my life,” before descending to check out the lighting himself.

 

Williams’ talent was on full display all night.

 

Properly illuminated, it was that much easier to recognize.

WALDELL GOODE
+ posts
    This author does not have any more posts.

Filed Under: A+E, Visual Arts Tagged With: Art, bosarts, Boston Art, Curtis Williams, Dorchester, Dorchester Art Project

WHAT’S NEW

Massachusetts Bill, Victim Advocates Call For Coordinated Date-Rape Drug Response

Massachusetts Bill, Victim Advocates Call For Coordinated Date-Rape Drug Response

Report: Fewer Youth Transition Out Of Massachusetts Foster Care System

Report: Fewer Youth Transition Out Of Massachusetts Foster Care System

State Wire: Activists Urge Congress To Raise Debt Ceiling, Resist Spending Cuts

State Wire: Activists Urge Congress To Raise Debt Ceiling, Resist Spending Cuts

Dancing On Banana Peels: Life On Lifetime Parole In Massachusetts

Dancing On Banana Peels: Life On Lifetime Parole In Massachusetts

Justice Department Completes Vetting Of Rachael Rollins

Justice Department Completes Vetting Of Rachael Rollins

AG Investigating BPD To Determine If “Gang Unit” Engages In “Unconstitutional Policing”

AG Investigating BPD To Determine If “Gang Unit” Engages In “Unconstitutional Policing”

Primary Sidebar

LOCAL EVENTS

AAN Wire


Most Popular

  • AG Investigating BPD To Determine If “Gang Unit” Engages In “Unconstitutional Policing”
  • Over Yondr: Are Cell Phone Pouches At Shows Liberating, Dangerous, Or Annoying?
  • Deep Cuts Brings Sandwiches, Craft Beer, And Live Music To Medford
  • Family Of Woman Killed By Commuter Rail Sues MBTA For Crash Records
  • Daring Greatly: TikTok Star Alden McWayne (aka Gucci Pineapple) On Scheming And Dreaming

Footer

Social Buttons

DigBoston facebook DigBoston Twitter DigBoston Instagram

Masthead

About

Advertise

Customer Service

About Us

DigBoston is a one-stop nexus for everything worth doing or knowing in the Boston area. It's an alt-weekly, it's a website, it's an email blast, it's a twitter account, it's that cool party that you were at last night ... hey, you're reading it, so it's gotta be good. For advertising inquiries: sales@digboston.com To reach editorial (and for inquiries about internship opportunities): editorial@digboston.com