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Mumbo Jumbo BK#1 - Ironic Figurative Painting with Pink and Blue Colors

Creator: Francks Deceus
Offered by: Arco Gallery

Description
Francks Deceus’ “Mumbo Jumbo BK#1” is a 20 x 16 inch acrylic paint, color pencil, and collage painting on canvas. The main colors are pink, blue and red. The image is very playful, showing a man dressed as a superhero standing next to an entangled fire hose. The title “Mumbo Jumbo, is inspired by Ishmael Reed’s book under the same titled, where he attempted to capsulate the complexities of the African American experience. For Deceus is about capturing the complexity of his experience as an immigrant from Haiti back in the 1970s. A series of very colorful and playful works, focusing on the adventures of one figure named “Cappy”. The name is derived from Deceus family home town, Cap Haitien. Cappy is Deceus alter-ego; The images are intentionally drawn in the vein of comic strips with Cappy as the superhero. He goes out in the world and has to solve the kind of frightening experiences Deceus knew about as a Haitian immigrant, which in the paintings are ironically represented by the hose/snake snarling Cappy.
Stylistically Deceus work incorporates many of the aesthetic forms of artists like Norman Lewis and Howardena Pindell, as well as reverberating some of the artistic strain of his native Haiti. His modernist style combines figurative, abstract, and layered elements and relies heavily on a simplification of form, deliberately limiting the color palette range.

Francks F. Deceus was born in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, moving to NY when he was nine years old, where he has been living and creating ever since. Throughout his career, Francks has developed a unique modernist style where figures distilled to their pure features are layered in an abstract world that is evocative of our modern society.
His work relates to artists like Norman Lewis and Howarddena Pindell in the use of unconventional texture and rich color and how it focuses on African American urban life and his community's struggles. His most recent series, Mumbo Jumbo, focuses on men wrestling with an adverse urban environment. It has been inspired by the same-titled Ishmael Reed's book focused on the complexities of the African American experience.

Group exhibitions include the Brooklyn Museum, NY; Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts (MOCADA), Brooklyn, NY; The National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, TN; Gallery M, New York, NY; and Hampton University, Hampton, VA.

His work is in private and public collections, including Xavier University, New Orleans, LA; Schomburg Center, New York Public Library, NY; Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site House museum, Yonkers; New York, and International African American Museum, Charleston, SC;

His work has been featured in publications such as The International Revue of African-American Art and The Village Voice, as well as being included in " 100 New York Painters ", by Cynthia Maris Dantzic.

More Information

Documentation:	Signed
Period:	New
Materials:	Mixed Media,Canvas,Acrylic
Condition:	New.
Styles / Movements:	Contemporary
Incollect Reference #:	751799

Dimensions

W.	16 in;	H.	20 in;	D.	1 in;
W.	40.64 cm;	H.	50.8 cm;	D.	2.54 cm;

Message from Seller:

Arco Gallery, founded in 2013 by Valentina Puccioni, offers a truly personalized art experience in the heart of SoHo, NYC. Located in a historic loft and open by appointment only, the gallery provides exclusive, intimate viewings, away from the mainstream gallery scene. P: 212.226.1207 E: valentina@arcogallery.com