Jamea Richmond - Edwards: Another World and Yet the Same

Another World and Yet the Same is Detroit-based artist Jamea Richmond-Edwards's first solo exhibition in Los Angeles. It features new works alongside a selection of vibrant multimedia paintings from the last seven years that illustrate her rich, interdisciplinary practice. Using materials such as acrylic, construction paper, fabric, glitter, and rhinestones, Richmond-Edwards outfits the subjects of her large-scale portraits, typically herself as well as family and friends, in elaborate, colorful attire, setting them against equally decorative backgrounds. Themes close to the artist's heart—notably her hometown and the fashion and music associated with it, including jazz, soul, Motown, techno, and hip hop—infuse the work with an evocative rhythm and energy. The artist's recent suite of collaged paintings, which gives the exhibition its title, reimagines the seventeenth-century novel Mundus Alter et Idem as a journey to freedom undertaken by a group of modern-day people traveling from Detroit to Antarctica. Together, these works shine a light on forms of cultural expression unique to Detroit, while more broadly centering narratives of transformation, migration, and liberation that have defined the African diaspora. Jamea Richmond-Edwards: Another World and Yet the Same is organized by the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College and curated by Alexander Jarman, Associate Curator of Exhibitions and Academic Outreach, Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College.