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Fullness, Jamaal Barber

Art and Design Theses

Fullness is an exhibition of paintings that manifests self-affirming Blackness separate from a world that is unwilling to engage with it. Blackness refers to the Black racial identity that embodies the collective consciousness of all melanated people. Removed from the confines of enslavement and systemic oppression, Black people become free to edify themselves visually and spiritually. In this body of work, I reimagine and rebuild Black identity with unexpected forms through mixed media paintings. The works employ layers of color and abstracted shapes to represent the Black body not only as an ethnic identity but as a psychological state of …