"This Quiet Dust, Ladies and Gentlemen"

“This Quiet Dust, Ladies and Gentlemen” is an installation of the newest works by Arnold J. Kemp. This will be Kemp’s first solo show in Portland since his inclusion in PICA’s TBA festival in 2007. It will feature several paintings made with black glitter, black paint and doll’s eyes on modestly sized linen supports as well as several photographic prints keyed to the tones of graphic drawings. The elusive quality of Kemp’s works are balanced against their insistence on being at once unforgettably black, dusty and glittering. The work carries something of the darker sides of nature while also harkening to Kemp’s personal biography as a black man. The title of the exhibition (an adaptation from Emily Dickinson) embodies Kemp’s commitment to present at once poetic and at times darkly humorous work that references quietude, passings away and new beginnings. The exhibition will also feature photographs of trees in Harlem, which are a result of a commission by the Studio Museum Harlem.