This month, the library is pleased to display the artwork of local artist Tori Weston in the Gallery @ SPL with her exhibition: Melanin Grrrls: Mind, Body, and Soul. Please join us for a reception celebrating the exhibit.
About the Exhibit:
Melanin Grrrls: Mind, Body, and Soul explores the complex and at times controversial expressive beauty of black women through images and text.
Influenced by the riot grrrl movement of the 1990’s this exhibition expands the concept of grrrls creating their own work and meanings and adding black women to the narrative. Using lithography and mixed media to showcase the journey of redefining black beauty to be seen not as tropes (angry black woman), but as emotionally versatile people. From depicting the hair journey many black women encounter to the raw dialogue of how the black female body is presented when its celebrated as well as criticized.
Melanin Grrrls shows this beauty openly and unapologetically while also exploring the insecurities that come with existing in a brown/black encased body. By juxtaposing various melanin tones against a rich color palette, this exhibition expands the dialogue around the conflicting definitions of what it means to be a contemporary black woman.
About the Artist:
Tori Weston is a writer/artist living in Somerville, Massachusetts. She received her MFA in creative writing from Emerson College. Her work has been published in the Providence Journal-Bulletin, Sleet Magazine , Memoir Magazine, Under the Gum Tree and Creative Non-Fiction’s Sunday Shorts. She has also been featured on the podcast Risk and featured in the book about the podcast titled: Risk: True Stories People Never Thought They’d Dare to Share. Her artwork has been displayed at the Somerville Museum, Diesel Café, Simon’s Café in Somerville, MA, and Gallery 263 in Cambridge, MA. Most recently, she was featured in the documentary We Are Here Too, a documentary highlights four female artists of color navigating a global pandemic and social justice uprisings of 2020. Learn more at ToriWestonWriterArtist.com.
Questions? Contact splgallery@minlib.net
