Saturday May 27 * 4:30 pm * Free

Please join us for a discussion with artist Dwayne Martin, curator Kanchan Balsé, and attendees.

I am a painter whose work focuses on the connection between feeling and color and the emotions they evoke, communicating without talking, through the gestures I produce on the canvas. As a self-taught artist who began a committed practice in 2016, my work is abstract and neo-expressionist. I was born and raised in Washington, DC. I live in Ward 7, and I am a resident artist at Red Dirt Studio in Mt. Rainier, MD. I work with a variety of paints, from oil to enamel, spray paint and acrylics, and I use different tools to apply the paint, including knives, playing cards, and hairbrushes. Painting is a form of therapy and a tool I use to feed the parts of my life where I am malnourished and depleted, giving me a place to put my anxiety and anger. Painting is also a time to contemplate and reflect. The balance I seek is reflected in my paintings which contain messages of rage at my experiences as a Black man in America, to expressions of deep joy and love.