Current Exhibitions at the IF Center

Energy: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Featured Artists include: Carley Parrish, Carolina Loyola, tENTaVELY a cONVIEiNCE, Donald F. Ortileb, Grace Lyndsay, Sibel Deren Guler, Richard Schnap, Brett Boye, Sheila Ali; the Earthen Vessels Outreach Middle School Campers & Counselors: Mister Zach Evans, Miss Sasha Hicks, Miss Shannon FInely, Mister Ross Kilgore, Destiny Artis, Destiny Callwood, Hope Cooks, Janay Gilmore, Tenisha Heard, Lily Russell, Kayla Jefferson, Beth Ann Usher, Rose Freeman, Jeremiah Russell, Jake Christian, Jymier Johnson, Alfonso Spells, Malcolm Drain, Cartell Moses, Charlie Chambers, Jamar Brown, Taric MIller, Zach Majors, Khalil Jarret, Maurice Staton, and Mister NIck and Mister Phonte.

Artist Statement for Energy: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

This group exhibition includes the work of local artists as well as the products of a pilot class for green models: "Energy - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly". Although this exhibit is a forum for sentiments about the global situation and crisis now endangering our precious ecosystem, we also include ideas about the uses, the resources, the consequences, the hope, the reality, the politics, the activism, the privilege, the negligence, the problems, the successes, the alternatives, and the emotion tied up in making, using and creating energy. In this exhibition come discover the depths of “energy”. Participate in sparking electricity to spin cog wheels for electric cars, fans, water wheels, and lighting up solar green models with a touch of the hand! Discover socioeconomic refections in the shadow of the greatest national disaster in the history of civilization. Come look for meaning in a zen garden, photographs, sculpture, prints, painting, video, mixed media, installations, experiments, performance art, and visual reflections. We invite the viewer to engage in the interactive art, so as to reflect and contribute to the energy in making something work, while also being encouraged to contemplate and explore!

Artist Statement for “Bridges and Fences”

As in all our exhibitions, Irma’s paintings have been thematically selected. Here, we have found many paintings with the “bridges and fences”. Despite the fact that these two structures are traditional symbols of progress, and limitation, it is important to note that Irma’s fences are not closed, but open. They line the landscape through rivers, houses, woods and paths. Her bridges are fewer, but quite simply passages from one place to the other. Within our chosen theme, we inevitably find a connection to the future, the past, as well as boundaries, and prosperity. We would also like to recognize that this is the first exhibition at the Irma Freeman Center for Imagination where we have shown an Irma Freeman painting more than once. There are three paintings and a screen in this exhibition that have been shown here previously. We have decided to show these works again because, in particular, they are beautiful examples of the theme, and also they are so exquisitely rendered. Irma’s work typically lead us into scenic views of preservation and quiet contentment. These small characteristics of “bridges and fences” bind together the work of paintings that are sometimes vastly different in every other way. These paintings show a change which the viewer is often presented with in Irma’s work, though we do not show this in chronological order. Some of the paintings seem almost like a sketch, giving them an unfinished appearance, while others are clearly from another era: one with a saturation of color, careful attention to detail, and a somewhat realistic viewpoint. Many who knew Irma recognized that her gift of painting became more and more lucid and less concerned with accuracy. This playfulness with scale, and perspective is something that, although may have been due to her deteriorating eye sight, was more likely driven by her overall impatience with conventionality, nearer to the end of her life. Although, these paintings show a wide range of style, they are held together by a constant reminder of repetition, and the use of symbols; namely: Bridges and Fences.

The Evenings Music:

Matthew Tembo and the Afrobeat Collective. Musical guests is Egwu Oma (pronounced ig wo ma meaning "good music"), featuring the music of Lorens Chuno of Nigeria and Matthew Tembo of Zambia, Bob Lampenfield and Ben Shannon, starting at 8 PM.

Lorens Chuno presents a unique touch to modern world music. Fusing Highlife, Jazz, Afrobeat and Soul, Chuno's sound comes with very full rhythm. While hardly compensating on creative chord progressions and voicings, Chuno's sound still echoes "pop" with deep and catchy lyrics.

Lorens Chuno grew up mostly in Nigeria and the U.S.A. He attended Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, Pa) for his undergraduate education and is currently grad student at the University of Pittsburgh.

You can reach LORENS CHUNO via email at lorenschuno@tufmusic.com

About Mathew Tembo

ANTHEM album is OUT NOW!

In Zambia: Sounds, Game, Mondo, and more

In UK and worldwide: www.urbansedated.com

Mathew Tembo is a multitalented musician, singer, songwriter, instrument maker, and teacher based in Lusaka, Zambia. His style of music, which he calls Vikonda Moyo, combines the traditional with the contemporary fusing Zambian indigenous sounds with reggae baselines to create a truly unique form. His current instrument of choice, the silimba, is a local version of the marimba. When mixed with guitars and bass, as well as other indigenous instruments, such as the friction drum, the combination creates an exceptionally pleasing sound. His lyrics, whether in English or in local dialects, can be straightforward yet profound, and often controversial, sometimes poetic.

Tembo started out as a reggae musician in 1994, playing with the Zambian band, Afro Vision. In 1995 he went on to study Music and Education at Evelyn Hone College in Lusaka. During college, he performed solo as well as playing keyboards for several popular Zambian bands including Waves Musical Youths, Bantu Roots, and Genesis.

Although Mathew Tembo is still recognized as one of the best reggae musicians in Zambia, he is choosing to focus more on traditional music. He is the founder of the Sing Our Own Song music festival aimed at promoting use of indigenous Zambian instruments. He knows how to make and maintain the silimba that he plays. When he’s not performing or recording, Mathew teaches music to children between ages 7 and 16, including how to play different instruments. Recently, a band of students he has been teaching won first place in a music competition organized by the Drug Enforcement Commission in Livingstone, Zambia.