TAFA, why is voting important to you?: Your power for change is in your power to vote.
ABOUT THE ARTWORK: The Blue Wall of Silence, The Blue Wall of Violence: Top section of painting: The Blue Wall of Silence the color blue represents the deep blue waters of the Atlantic. This is where our ancestors died during the Slave trade. The outline of the dead man’s body The Blue Wall of Violence are names of men and women who were shot and murdered. The middle section are actual police helmets containing quotes. The bottom section are people marching/protesting BLM.
PAINTING DETAIL: Actual helmet with quote by Frederick Douglas, “The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion.”
NOTE: Click to hear TAFA talk about this work and others in our Artist Talks series
curated by: Robin King
ABOUT THE ARTIST: ”My paintings are my drum song, my dance of the soul.” “I am like the divine drummer,” says TAFA, “trying to materialize the transient, the spiritual, to search the soul of our hopes, fears and visions.” This search sometimes births art that confronts and challenges or art that elevates and inspires. “Creating art is a cosmological journey, it is mirrored in the experience of the collective consciousness of all who search for the truth. Delving into my being is not paramount, what is pivotal is reaching into the internal spaces that have created eternity of memory, our primordial memories.”
TAFA is an award-winning artist whose paintings have been exhibited and collected in Europe, Japan, Canada, South America, Africa and the US. His abstract oil paintings are depicted by strong Social, Political, Religious statements in audacious brilliant colors. His abstract Sports and Music paintings portray both activities with the energy one would only expect from an actual performance.
Numerous galleries, educational and cultural institutions in the US, Japan, Europe and Africa have collected and exhibited TAFA’s paintings. His works are in many permanent public and private collections including the Superior Court, Washington, D.C, Barclays Bank, Sparrow Hospital, Michigan, Shell Co, Ghana’s National Museum, Carver Federal Savings Bank and former New York City Mayor, David N. Dinkins, Bryant Gumbel and the late Johnny Cochran.
TAFA obtained a BFA degree from the College of Art, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana. He lives in Harlem, NY.
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/tafa2tafa/
FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/tafa.b.tafa
WEBSITE: http://www.tafagallery.com/