Thanks to George Kilpatrick for interviewing one of our MLK Art Gallery artists, London Ladd!
THE ARTISTS
Sharif Bey, PhD is a Syracuse-based artist and educator. Shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, Bey studied sculpture at The Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia. Later, he earned his BFA from Slippery Rock University, his MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and PhD (in art education) from Penn State University. His awards include: The United States Artist Fellowship, The Pollock-Krasner Fellowship, and The New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. Bey’s works are featured in numerous public collections including: The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, The Carnegie Museum of Art, The Columbus Museum, The Dallas Museum of Art, The Mint Museum, and The Nelson Atkins Museum among others.
London Ladd has featured artwork in critically acclaimed picture books, newspapers, magazines, and community-based murals. His artwork is a mixture of acrylic paint, cut paper, and tissue paper, to create rich, vibrant textures that bring his artwork to life. He resides in Syracuse, NY.
David R. MacDonald, professor emeritus at Syracuse University, is an acclaimed and celebrated ceramic artist, who has lived in Syracuse for many years. MacDonald joined the faculty of the School of Art and Design at Syracuse University in 1971. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, MacDonald’s work received most of its creative inspiration from his investigation of his African heritage. MacDonald draws much of his inspiration from the myriad examples of surface decoration that manifest in the many ethnic groups of sub-Saharan Africa. MacDonald’s work spans the complete spectrum of ceramic forms of a utilitarian nature.
Brandan Meyer is a local ceramicist from Syracuse, NY. Studying at SUNY Oswego, his primary focus is on evolving his craft as a ceramic artist and exploring his capabilities through the medium. This is expressed through his pottery, as well as his experimentation with clay instruments. Finding inspiration from his political ideologies, familial heritage and personal connections, he creates work that not only reflects his roots, but sparks conversation that revolves around culture, empathy and unity.
Rochele Royster PhD, ATR-BC, is a seasoned artist, community psychologist, and educator, finds inspiration from people and community. Her upbringing, immersed in the rhythms of the South—a fertile ground for creativity, where she learned the importance of the connection to land, rituals, and customs, and people. Proficient in quilting, printmaking, and various dye and resist techniques, Rochele breathes new life into discarded materials, crafting narratives that echo themes of blackness and the resilience of ordinary individuals navigating worlds where patterns become as integral as the people they adorn. Through a meticulous examination of life’s rhythms, Rochele Royster invites viewers to reflect on the resilience and beauty that persist amidst life’s clutter and chaos.
Melquea Smith is a Black, Queer, multi award-winning children’s book illustrator based in New York. Certified kid at heart she adores illustrating magical stories with animals, mythological creatures, and dragons. She specializes in illustrating little Black kids of all shapes, colors, and sizes. When not illustrating, you’ll find her watching the newest animated movies, learning about Japan, studying Spanish with her cat Kilala, and giving her other cat Bumblebee pit-pats on her super fluffy tummy.
Iris Williams is a visual artist born and raised in Syracuse, New York. She has a passion for bringing her creative ideas to life. She is heavily influenced by the Black community and finds it important to find innovative ways to include, empower, and represent it in her projects. She experiments with various art forms, refusing to limit herself to just one. However, her authentic and creative expression has led her to develop a particular interest in digital art.
Light Work—Selected Pieces from the Permanent Collection
Selected works on view from Light Work’s permanent collection, featuring pieces by Dawoud Bey, Cian Oba-Smith, and William Earle William, embody the affinity and legacy of Light Work residency participants who explore, interrogate, and document through photography. Many of these artists employ their lenses to make images of Syracuse, documenting its people and the changing landscape over the past five decades. The Collection is an essential record of the organization’s history of supporting artists and their creative processes. In 1979, photographs informally donated to Light Work by early participants in the Artist-in-Residence Program accumulated into a small collection, expanding over 50 years to include over 5,000 objects, archival images, objects, and ephemera. Light Work, founded as an artist-run, non-profit organization in 1973, remains steadfast in its commitment to directly supporting emerging and under-represented artists working in photography and digital imaging media through residencies, publications, exhibitions, a community-access digital lab facility, and other related projects.