Interventions: Alivia Blade, J. Cletus Wilcox, and Ren Velez

Institute of Art + Design

Interventions

Checklist of Works

Alivia Blade

The Veil is Thin, 2024

Collage on glass with vintage picture frame, found images, acrylic paint, ballast, fabric & tissue paper

We See Thee In Ourselves & Ourselves In Thee: A Harriet Tubman Prayer Technology, 2024

Vintage mirror, chipboard, rice paper, ink, acrylic paint.

Installation items: Vintage glasses, candlestick, rice, sugar spoon, twigs, paper, hooks, chain, fabric

Ren Velez

Dolor de cabeza, 2024

Graphite and color pencil on paper

12” x 16”

Mirándome, 2024

Graphite and color pencil on paper

12” x 16”

Osito de peluche, 2024

Graphite and color pencil on paper

12 x 16

Repentance: A Cleansing Ritual I sinned against myself when I listened to the lies of whiteness, 2024

Collage on glass with vintage picture frame, found images, synthetic hair, hair accessories, plastic, vintage matchbook, fabric, gesso, texture paste

Farewell, 2024

Collage on glass with vintage picture frame, found images, gesso, fabric, vintage matchbooks, drinking glass, napkin & ashtray

Pescado, 2024

Graphite and color pencil on paper

6” x 8”

Muñecas, 2024

Graphite and color pencil on paper

6” x 8”

Tocando flores , 2024

Graphite and color pencil on paper

6” x 8”

J. Cletus Wilcox

Songs of the Midnight Hour I, 2024

Image Transfers, Gold Leaf, Acrylic, Oil and Pencil on Canvas

Songs of the Midnight Hour II

2024

Image Transfers, Glass Microspheres and Oxidized Copper on Canvas

We often reflect on the past to contextualize our current state of being. We consider time a loop. Historic recurrence, the idea that “history repeats itself” is a common remark at times of societal stress.

In Interventions, the participating artists use the past— shared and personal-- as a guide for the crafting of their work. Not too repeat it, but to recontextualize it.

Alivia Blade’s collages mix historical Kentucky landmarks with vintage Ebony Magazines, to reshape our understanding of the historical narratives of Blackness and Gender and to liberate stories from the past and explore new possibilities for the future.

J. Cletus Wilcox’s paintings reflect his own personal history—transferring to canvas his personal explorations of his identity, experiences and queerness.

Ren Velez’s graphite drawings combine recognizable figures and objects with surreal patterns and a touch of childhood wonder, to collage a present and past together.

For each artist, in the recontextualization of their shared and personal histories, an intervention takes place. Sometimes it is personal and invisible—a new understanding of identity and acceptance of the self. Other times it is meant to broadly change our understanding of the past—a reworking of historical narratives to give autonomy and freedom to those it was denied.