Kumasi J. Barnett

About the Artist

Kumasi J. Barnett received his MFA from The Ohio State University, and now lives and works in Baltimore, MD. Influenced by the aesthetics and narratives of comic books, his work subverts and imbues the often timeless genre with a present day social consciousness. Barnett frequently paints directly over old copies of comic books, changing their narratives into critiques of police brutality, racial profiling, and more broadly, systemic racism. Barnett’s works have been exhibited widely both in the United States and abroad, including exhibitions at Lowell Ryan Projects, Los Angeles, CA; the SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York, NY; City Lore, New York, NY; Con-Artist Collective, New York, NY; The Arsenal Gallery, New York, NY; Sulphur Bath Studio, Brooklyn, NY; and The Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, NY. Museum exhibitions include the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, South Africa; The Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL; and most recently the Verge Center for the Arts, Sacramento, CA. Barnett’s work has been featured in Artforum, Ammo, Vibe, Hyperallergic, Huffington Post, Autre,and The Guardian, among others. Kumasi J. Barnett will be presenting a solo booth with Lowell Ryan Projects at The Armory Show 2020, in the Focus section curated by Jamillah James.       

Artist's Statement

In my work I examine race, class, status, gender, sexuality, politics and other contemporary issues in the United States. I invite the viewer in with familiar iconography and a pop ethos. I then twist these images into commentary on contemporary culture. I blackwash accepted historic and contemporary culture with pop images. People say I appropriate culture but America is my culture. I am as much a part of this country as the racists, hypocrites, and the president. I attack narratives that have been accepted by those who gloss over history and truth. In this series of paintings I satirize “The American Way” by appropriating and transforming familiar comic book imagery. Beloved heroes like Spider-Man and The Hulk are transformed into meta-cultural icons like The Amazing Black-Man or The Thug. These champions form a brutal hyper-realistic version of an all too familiar America. Through these comic books I am constructing a subculture of heroes to take on a terrifying host of novel super villains. Stereotypes, prejudices, southern-pride, and killer police are all parts of the evil alliance, all attacking “The True American Heroes”. Acquired from years of gathering, the comic books used in this series are sourced from my own collection. Bolstered by recent purchases that allow me to revisit and re-engage with a youth spent among the dusty shelves of comic book stores in Baltimore Maryland. when met with the stories and culture of otherness. By defacing these familiar comic books I locate the pulse of America in a form that allows multiple meanings to coexist. We see a schizophrenic America, one that attempts to celebrate and hate our differences and our sameness at the same time. Each comic is repainted to obscure and obliterate the original American icon. This allows a new and often terrible story to be built around a fragile and familiar American experience. The result is small nostalgic paintings that walk a fragile tightrope over pain, mockery, humor, and truth. This work shakes this tightrope of culture that unites us all as Americans, both in its heroic iconography and stereotyped racism.