Artist Talk and Closing Reception: "Obscured" by Lionel Frazier White

The ArtReach GW Community Gallery at THEARC presents "Obscured" by Lionel Frazier White III

If you go for a ride with a long time D.C. resident, most would tell stories recalling how D.C has changed. As these stories unfold, intangible memories slowly materialize around you. This body of work by Lionel White shows how memories, while fleeting, bear witness to the reality that would otherwise be erased and obscured by gentrification.

“Gentrification erases the Physical space that resembles these memories. This Erasure obscures history by stripping the physical manifestation from plain sight. Black memories contextualize the truth of gentrification by reasserting the past and juxtaposing it against what is present. This reassertion and juxtaposition shows the imperialist, capitalist, racist reality of what gentrification really is.

Obscured is a mix media series of family photos and photos I took at home, and while commuting through my neighborhood. These pictures are memories of the D.C my family and I grew up in. These captured moments are tangible recollections that provide a social history and narrative for that which is now intangible. These images of everyday black lives are microcosmic of a larger history of DC. These pictures will hopefully serve as catalysts for further recollection. In bearing witness to what gentrification has done to the lives of longtime residents, this series invokes the resistant power of knowing what was.”

Lionel Frazier White III is a D.C. native. He attended The Duke Ellington School of the Arts High School. There he learned the basic fundamentals of being an artist. He is a recent graduate of The George Washington University Corcoran School of Art and Design. Lionel White is an arts educator. He has a passion for enriching people's understanding of how art theory and practice is important in everyday life. This belief pushes him to make work that is accessible to the people who are subjects of his work speak to.