ADAMA Arts Salon #45
ADAMA Arts Salon is a series of conversations featuring contemporary artists, curators, scholars, and more from across the African Diaspora.
Join us for ADAMA's upcoming in-person Arts Salon featuring Join us for ADAMA's upcoming virtual Arts Salon. Fabian Williams to moderate a conversation with artists Courtney Brooks and Maurice Evans.
About Moderator: Fabian Williams is a future-minded visual and performance artist whose work explores themes of Black liberation, innovation, and joy. Atlanta-based and Fayetteville, NC-born, Williams employs a broad scope of source material -- commercial illustration, classic portraiture, hip hop, and civil rights iconography -- to directly confront issues of race and society’s consumption and appropriation of every facet of Black culture. In much of his work, Williams often idealizes the normalization of Blackness and Black life, inspired by the realism of Caravaggio and Norman Rockwell’s depictions of Americana with a lens informed by racial, political, and socially relevant contemporary themes.
Courtney Brooks: An Atlanta based visual artist, art instructor and independent curator. Brooks rekindled her passion for painting by encouraging creativity and connecting communities through the arts. Through personal experiences her love for art and building relationships have led to a journey of curating. She is the first woman of color Curator- in- Residence for Art the Atlanta BeltLine, where she will have the freedom to transform a public art space. Brooks collaborates with emerging to established visual artists of multiple disciplines, cultures and backgrounds. Along with assisting artists/ muralist as a curator, she focuses on understanding the creative process and undiscovered narratives that provides a sense of urgency. Her goal is to help maximize artists’ potential and expand the visibility in their careers.
Maurice Evans: His creative focus was first realized through the lens of music. Born in Smyrna, TN, his father was a military man but also a gifted drummer and singer in a gospel choir. He introduced Maurice to guitar lessons at the age of 4, and these lessons along with his exposure to soul music inspired his early, creative growth. As his family settled in Georgia, Maurice began to draw more upon his artistic instincts in high school. In 1986, he was accepted to the Art Institute of Atlanta where he studied Fashion Illustration to intentionally advance his painting and drawing skills. In 1994, Evans had his first successful exhibition at the juried Black Arts Festival in Atlanta. As his independent career launched, his work was exhibited in numerous galleries and venues where he received national and international acclaim. Today, Maurice Evan’s artistic creativity is expressed through a diverse mixture of art and photography. Maurice Evans resides in Atlanta, GA, never far from a sketch pad, and lives by the premise, “Create art for art’s sake,” inspiring viewers and artists alike to pursue their artistic and creative passion.