Ultra Vivid Dreaming

Artists Elliott Jerome Brown Jr. and Shikeith are ultra vivid dreamers in their construction of barely possible worlds. These worlds, neatly aestheticized but built on the fringes of agonizingly banal environments, at once affirm the private dreams of Blackness and the power in withholding the detail in those wants. The images they create offer glimpses of conversations in which the outside are not fully invited to participate. The subjects of these images coyly languish in domestic interiors and open-air yards composed to communicate nowhere. Their visages (or the concealment of) are a method of communicating false sedation. But, the key is the the way these Black bodies are held—their postures betray their true confidences. The brilliance of Shikeith’s light is at once gentle and bold. The vibrancy of Brown Jr.’s color is both candid and well orchestrated. Together, the portraits treat queerness and Blackness as a beautiful and unstoppable permeation of the conscious world.