Picture courtesy of DL Warfield
It was 2016 when DL Warfield introduced his one-man present My boyfriend is black. The gathering encompasses a sequence of photographs of iconoclasts Jimi Hendrix and Jackie Kennedy, his palms resting comfortably on his arms, posing for a portrait. The present additionally included a diptych of Serena Williams together with her husband from the traditional American Gothic Portray, with a complementary part exhibiting American Gothic Spouse with Bruce Lee. The works are a definitive assertion on the normality of interracial relations in America, a topic Warfield knew effectively.
Whereas discussing the genesis of the sequence, Warfield shares his private journey together with his spouse and enterprise accomplice, Lisa, who’s White. The interracial couple met at St. Louis Excessive Faculty. “Rising up there, it was extraordinarily remoted,” he says. “We needed to decide to being collectively. My thought has all the time been, you do not actually select the individual you like, you simply love that individual.
Warfield’s sturdy satirical tackle the topic has advanced over time, that includes different pairings corresponding to Tupac Shakur with Audrey Hepburn and Rihanna with John F. Kennedy. However after eight years the artist determined to name the gathering full. He didn’t need his work to develop into cliche or industrial.
“After I made them, they undoubtedly made an inventive and a cultural impression,” he says. “However in the event you hold doing it, it won’t imply as a lot, as a result of individuals develop into tone-deaf or desensitized. It nearly turns into a verb, a verb, like ‘Oh, do it like Warhol.’ I did not need that to occur.”
Courtesy of DL Warfield
When she’s not specializing in tasks for her artistic companies firm, Goldfinger CS, from her house workplace in Alpharetta, she’s engaged on her collections in her close by artwork studio. Whereas engaged on the Jimmy/Jackie sequence, Warfield concurrently started two new tasks. In 2012, he began workshopping American FlagrimixA mixed-media interpretation of the American flag, and dopeReimagining Robert Indiana’s Pop Sculpture love As a nod to his true ardour—hip-hop. His newest effort CipherHe grew up with a mixed-media homage to B-boy tradition. The round work consists of 4 parts of hip-hop created within the custom of Arabic mehndi and Moorish damascene patterns.
Warfield’s works could be present in personal and public collections throughout the nation. Dave Chappelle, Usher, TI, Mike “Coach Ok” Krzyzewski and former Atlanta Falcon Matt Ryan are only a few of his many celeb followers and collectors. A number of companies have additionally acquired his artwork, together with Mercedes-Benz Stadium, The Entice Museum and Antico Pizza. Just lately, the Vans Sportswear Firm picked up a American Flagrimix Items for headquarters in Costa Mesa, California. In Atlanta, his work could be seen or bought at Artwork & Firm (Buckhead, Serenbe) and Maune Up to date Artwork Gallery. Warfield additionally affords limited-edition artwork, incl dope Clothes, house items and different merchandise on his firm’s retail web site, goldfingershop.com.
The road by way of all of Warfield’s work is from an unapologetically black lens to an astute stance on American ideology.
“After I go locations, I all the time mentally deliver one thing again that may discover itself in some piece of what I do,” he says. “However then it is all the time interpreted as a younger black child rising up in St. Louis who had a sketchbook filled with goals.”
This text appeared in our September 2024 situation.
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