From the barbershop down the block, to African hair braiders setting up shop on the street corner, artist Wardell Milan presents a personal view of Harlem in a series of sketches.
“I live here in Harlem,” said Milan. “I’ve really come to love not only the neighborhood but just the different people and the different activities and events that happen in Harlem.”
It’s a love that has culminated into the newest exhibit on display at the Studio Museum in Harlem. The museum has served as an outlet and advocate for African-American artists since 1968.
“We’re always incredibly focused on Harlem,” said the Studio Museum’s assistant curator Naomi Beckwith. “Whether that be very physically and very literally, as in this show which shows works done in Harlem and about Harlem. But also we like to think of Harlem as a sort of metaphor for black culture globally altogether.”
An alumni of the studio museum’s artist-in-residence program, Milan was invited back to develop this exhibit. The sketches are from photos he would take on walks through this neighborhood.
“You know I would walk around Harlem at 8:00 in the morning to photograph,” said Milan. “And then I would walk around at 10:00 at night and it was always just kinetic energy that kind of was just flowing through the neighborhood.”
“I would say Harlem first of all is really the capital of Black America and some would say maybe the black world,” said Beckwith. “Everyone understands Harlem as a place that is almost mythical.”
Harlem’s long-standing reputation of being the forefront of black culture means there’s always something happening and changing.
“What Wardell’s show really connects to is that sort of legacy of people documenting this ever changing community that both represents a kind of mythology in a black world, but also has a long long visual history throughout the whole life of this nation and city.”