About the Exhibit

Future Love Paradise explores the ways in which we love one another. This show illuminates that which is boldest in us; the need to be heard and loved for who we are. It also shines light against fears and addresses the shadows casted on the walls of aggression, oppression, and repression. Most important about Future Love Paradise is the call to utilize bonds created by love. Sisters and brothers have a familial grip on one another that sustains but also paralyzes; our social construct many times is limited to its roots; and individuals have difficulty accepting themselves when mirroring fictitious exactitude. Future Love Paradise identifies the strength and stress of siblinghood in works such and Sisters, Brothers and i Love You More. Paintings that mimic breaking news such as Hologram parallel Black/ African-American Men with the beauty of artists by asking the question, “How many possibilities of Black Men have we lost; What of the world if it were emptied of artists?” Future Love Paradise provides suggestions on how to love one another and seeks to embolden us with permission to love ourselves with pieces such as Can I Live?, No Such Thing..., and Wholesale Found Love. The pieces selected for this showing do not answer all questions relating to love nor is it a full inquiry. What Future Love Paradise does do is promote the probably of a greater Earth engine when fueled by love. What it does is dangle a social marriage in which each of has an equitable role. What Future Love Paradise does is visualize an Eden of purposeful equality expanded from sources illuminated by the musical artist SEAL to now surround the lot of humanity with the following revelation:

...But if only you could see them/ You would know from their faces/ They were kings and queens/ Followed by princes and princesses/ They were future power people/ Throwing love to the loveless/ Shining a light 'cause they wanted it seen/ Well there were cries of why/ Followed by cries of why not/ Can I Reach out for you if that feels good to me And the riders will not stop us/ 'Cause the only love they'll find is paradise No the riders will not stop us/ 'Cause the only love they'll find is paradise/ Paradise yeah

my artwork focuses on education, dreams, courage, PERSEVERANCE, and beauty. emphasizing the abilities to create our own stories, layering and juxtaposition are central to my treatment of photographed models, appropriated vintage photos, wallpaper designs, and texts creating what i call, visual linguistics. i am drawn to vintage photos because of their visual impact and captured stories of the people that parallel my own experiences and i use them to create “blended” narratives. the repetition of adinkra symbols, fragments of wallpaper, flowers and text create a density reflective of circumstances shaping personality not void of contextul molding but one not bound by its diction. these artworks on seemingly decorative background have spaces to be altered in addition, subtraction, leaving and retrieving necessary to define an “individual-self”. revealing the emotional process choreographed by contemporary society, these works of art echo opportunities and moments in life that urge us forwards, which encourage and inspire each of us to define our own beauty through love and living.

Source: http://www.claytonsingleton.com/