ARTfactory to Host Artist Talk Featuring Artist Dr. Yemonja Smalls

ARTfactory to Host Artist Talk Featuring Multidisciplinary Artist Dr. Yemonja Smalls

Exhibit dates: February 2 – March 16, 2024

Artist Talk: March 9, 2-4 pm

(9419 Battle St, Manassas, Free & open to the public)

Learn more about the artwork featured in Dr. Yemonja Smalls’ solo
exhibit “In Our Image” during our free Artist Talk. Visit
VirginiaARTfactory.org to RSVP.

“In Our Image: A Reflection of the Creator”

Each work serves as a portal into realms where the ethereal meets
the tangible, challenging viewers to contemplate the sublime nature of
creation and our spiritual essence. Inspired by a Bible scripture that
states that humans were created in God’s image, Smalls mindfully sought
to “create” some. You are invited on a visual odyssey moving across the
timeless theme of human essence mirrored in the divine. Through a
symphony of diverse materials and symbolic layers, and the blending of
traditional and contemporary elements, Smalls’ forms reflect the
multifaceted nature of our existence. While some are hidden from sight,
the artist has left exposed the “building blocks” so that one may
consider the intricate tapestry woven when spirituality converges with
the tangible world. In deconstructing and then in the process of
assembling forms, Smalls attempts to unveil the beauty between the
mortal and the supreme within the canvas of our shared human experience.

In the golden threads that symbolically bind each figure together,
the artist playfully conceives with and as the Creator. The work beckons
you to entertain dialogue about the ways in which art can serve as a
bridge between the mortal and the transcendent. The artist wants you to
see yourselves in the work and to think about the divine imprint within
us all. Lastly, Smalls simply offers a glimpse at the myriad of human
beings bearing this shared spark.

About the Artist
Dr. Yemonja Smalls is a
multidisciplinary artist who has spent over twenty years professionally
seeking to understand people, what motivates and challenges them and
assisting in building supports to help them live their best lives. Her
extensive work with people with developmental disabilities has informed
her fascination with the complexities of relationships, which is a
common theme reflected in many of her layered mixed media creations.

Yemonja’s creations in various mediums from paint, wood, glass and
anything else she can hold and mold have been exhibited in the Chicago
Museum of Science and Industry, the Frederick Douglass Issac-Meyers
Maritime Museum, Hill Center Galleries, Harold Washington Library, South
Side Community Art Center, Howard University, the Sojourner Family
Peace Center among others, and reside in various private collections
across the nation.