Barber Shop Phrenology #2 (Fresh Kuts)

'Barber Shop Phrenology (Fresh Kuts)' is a color study exercise and a visual commentary on Black male identity in the context of Politics, Art, History and contemporary American popular culture. Each work in the series is composed of nine (9) individual original mixed-media drawings on paper, framed and grouped together in a grid.

The works in this series engage the cultural significance of the Black barber shop in African American life as the source material for my creative process and the language of my conceptual thesis. The grid format of the finished art piece is based on the iconic hair style posters found on the walls of these establishments that simultaneously evoke athletic team rosters, a Black business board of directors, a rap concert line-up, and a police database.

Each profile in the grid features a single abstracted image of a Black male figure seated in a barber’s chair, dressed with a Sanek neck strip, and draped in a protective cape. In the barber’s chair, every man is king, every man is icon. Every man is the G.O.A.T. and the Playoffs VIP.

This flexible template is designed to unify each profile into a shared framework that emphasizes the potency of shared community, with much respect for the eloquence of the Self.