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WHERE DID YOUR CHRIST COME FROM, is the second solo exhibition of Pittsburgh-based artist, muralist, and activist, Kamara Townes, known professionally as Wavy Wednesday. Presented as part of the fulfillment of Townes’ Master of Fine Arts degree, at West Virginia University, the exhibition provides visitors with a lens to witness a Black woman navigating higher education, at West Virginia University.

Featuring paintings, sculptures, and installations that incorporate collage elements, her subject matter references popular culture to broaden comments on race, womanism, and identity. Painted in an Afrofuturist style, Townes’ autobiographical works serve as a rigorous commentary of Black identity, depicting representations that range from being adequately rebellious to thoroughly politically engaged and enraged.

Approaching each work through an intuitive art making practice, Townes’ process of layering vibrant colors, glitter, and resin, is meant to mirror the complex nature of Black women's oneness in challenging spaces while investigating the experience of intersectional feminism. By painting directly onto raw wood surfaces, she references the aesthetics and graphic style of street art culture, conveying the sense of its power by figuratively and literally taking up space. By exposing the beauty in raw, and sometimes distressed materials, she calls attention to the act of physical construction and the social construction of unapologetic Black women represented in these works.

Artist biography:

Kamara Townes, known professionally as Wavy Wednesday, is an artist, muralist and activist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her work highlights the more playful aspects of her experiences as a Black feminist artist and incorporates elements of pop culture, street art, and Afrofuturism to confront and comment on social, racial, and gender justice. Her multidisciplinary practice, which encompasses painting, sculpture, murals, and installations have been celebrated and featured in several public art projects in the city of Pittsburgh, published in Brian Burley’s “YNGBLKPGH,” and shared widely on popular social media sites including Afropunk and Supermarket Magazine. Townes received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from California University of Pennsylvania and is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree with a focus in painting at West Virginia University.

Wavy Wednesday: WHERE DID YOUR CHRIST COME FROM? is presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.

Wavy Wednesday, Good Luck, 2022, Oil, latex, glitter, resin, house paint, and wood on wood panel, 48 x 48 inches. Courtesy the artist.