‘BEAUTY SHOP OPERA’ IS A LARGE-SCALE MIXED-MEDIA WORK DEPICTING THE INTIMATE INTERACTION BETWEEN HAIRSTYLIST AND CLIENT WITHIN THE INTERIOR OF A BLACK HAIRCARE SALON, PRESENTING A GLIMPSE INTO THE CULTURAL IDENTITY AND VITALITY THESE SPACES REPRESENT WITHIN THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY.
“Beauty Shop Opera” weaves together African-American visual motifs, the political and economic dynamics of Black hair, the culture of the Black beauty shop and its pivotal role as a safe space for Black identity and self-expression, in order to examine the evidence of loss and triumph, to collect the residue of memory, and to explore historical correctives in the present.
“Beauty Shop Opera” is a visual dialogue in mixed-media that hints at the tragic, the transcendent, the beautiful and the possible, with a life-affirming vitality as uplifting as a fresh hairdo.
- Subject Matter: Portrait, Beauty Shop, Afro-American culture
- Created: February 27, 2020
- Collections: Philbrook Museum of Art Tulsa