A TIME TO BEAST: THE ART OF TRACI MIMS
Join Us For Opening Night
FEB 4 | 6-8pm
“As an artist I seek to provoke thought, educate, and create change. A TIME TO BEAST is about transcendence, pushing forward in the face of adversity, and lifting up aspects of Black identity and womanhood. It is also an acknowledgement that social ambiguities are rife in American culture and many of its systems. This body of work references manifold experiences including the Covid 19 pandemic, environmental issues, economic disparities, social injustice, anti-black legislation, and the fact that we still perform and have joy. And, still, we rise.” – Traci Mims
It is an honor to collaborate with Traci Mims, painter, printmaker, mixed media artist, educator, and activist on her solo exhibition at Yellow House. We have long admired her skillful renderings, her potent messages, and the prolific nature of her work resulting in an oeuvre that is timeless and responsive, specific to her lived experiences and universal, pensive and powerful, humble and courageous. Often centering her own image, Mims asks us to not only contemplate the challenges and brilliance of her existence, but also how she is a reflection of society. She asks us – demands of us – to look closely. Though Mims invites us to contemplate and feel alongside her and the other people she channels through ink, paint, and graphite, these are not artworks intended for neutral, passive engagement. A TIME TO BEAST is an urgent plea – a provocation – for us to be informed, to truly see, to persevere, and to take action.
About Traci Mims
Traci Mims is a native of St. Petersburg, has lived, created, and taught in Jacksonville for many years, and is currently residing in Atlanta. She earned her BA from Florida A and M University and an MFA from Temple University. “Art has always been a part of my life,” Mims states. “I have been drawing since the age of four.” In defining the heartbeat of her work over many years, Mims writes “Art for me is many things but mainly it is my passion and my voice when I have a statement to make. It has also been my protest when circumstances of injustice arise. My art addresses subjects related to Black identity thru the use of symbolic imagery, cultural allegory and social realism. I never grow weary creating, only resentful that there is not more time in a day to print, draw, or paint.”