Stephen Towns & Ramsess

Art + Practice and The Baltimore Museum of Art present Stephen Towns: Rumination and a Reckoning and Ramsess: The Gathering. These two exhibitions feature quilts created by artists Stephen Towns and Ramsess, which examine American history, portraiture and storytelling. Stephen Towns: Rumination and a Reckoning and Ramsess: The Gathering are curated by BMA Associate Curator of Contemporary Art Cecilia Wichmann. Stephen Towns: Rumination and a Reckoning brings the Baltimore-based artist’s first museum exhibition to Art + Practice in an expanded presentation featuring two major new works. Trained as a painter and self-taught in quilting, Towns joins a long tradition of African American artists and makers who have invented creative methods for recording history and memory with fabric. The centerpiece of the exhibition is the artist’s monumental installation, Birth of a Nation (2014), which addresses the foundational role of black women’s labor in American history. Suspended above a mound of earth, the quilt will be surrounded by Towns’ Story Quilts (2016-2019), a cycle of works in luminous fabrics and glass beads that chronicle the life of Nat Turner and the 1831 rebellion he led against slavery. A pair of quilted oval portraits of Nat and Cherry Turner (2018) adds a significant dimension to this narrative, considering the role of a marriage in historic events. “Stephen Towns has created an extraordinary body of work that amplifies the voices of those who resist a legacy of injustice,” said Christopher Bedford, BMA Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director. “The BMA was proud both to display, and acquire, work by this talented artist working in our Baltimore community, and now to share his work with new audiences at Art + Practice.” “It has been an honor to work with Stephen Towns in realizing his first museum exhibition,” said exhibition curator Cecilia Wichmann. “His quilts propose an alternative mode for narrating the complexities of American history—one that is cosmic and infinitely more humane. This is a profound achievement that I’m thrilled we can now share with audiences in Los Angeles and bring into dialogue with another great artist considering portraiture through quilt-making, Ramsess.” Ramsess: The Gathering takes its name from the LA-based artist Ramsess’s mural-scale quilt, The Gathering (2012), which reimagines Leonard da Vinci’s The Last Supper (1495-98) as a memorial to Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old who was shot and killed on February 26, 2012. This sacred meal is attended by twelve historical figures, one still living: Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist who becomes a symbol for peace, justice, and possibility. With The Gathering at its center, this focused exhibition brings together a selection of Ramsess’ quilted portraits—monuments to individuals of crucial significance to American history whose stories have been suppressed or overlooked through politics of race, age and gender: Sojourner Truth, Cathay Williams, Ruby Bridges, Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton, H. Rap Brown, and George Stinney, Jr. “Art + Practice is honored to present Ramsess' works in conversation with artist Stephen Towns' quilts", said Art + Practice's Executive Director Allan DiCastro. "As a longtime resident and leading creative voice in the neighborhood of Leimert Park, Ramsess is an artist to celebrate and champion. We are grateful to both he and Stephen for generously agreeing to be part of A+P’s fall exhibitions and look forward to sharing their work with the residents of South Los Angeles and beyond,” further stated DiCastro. Stephen Towns (born 1980, Lincolnville, South Carolina) lives and works in Baltimore. He trained as a painter with a BFA in studio art from the University of South Carolina, and has also developed a rigorous, self-taught quilting practice. His work draws visual inspiration from medieval altarpieces, 19th-century photography, and Dutch wax print fabrics, as well as from African American story quilts. Towns has exhibited at Arlington Arts Center, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Galerie Myrtis, Gallery CA, Goucher College, and York College of Pennsylvania, among other venues. He won the inaugural travel prize of the Municipal Art Society of Baltimore City in 2016, traveling to Ghana and Senegal to visit historical sites that mark the transatlantic slave trade. He is also the recipient of a 2015 Ruby Artist Project Grant from the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance. Ramsess (born 1956, Los Angeles) is a self-taught artist and educator who works in multiple mediums, including textiles, painting, mosaic, illustration, and stained glass. He first exhibited his portraits in 1979 and began quilting in 2006. He worked in the Los Angeles Times press room for 20 years and contributed political cartoons to the publication in the 1990s. A longtime resident and leading creative voice in Leimert Park, Ramsess began renting his Degnan Boulevard studio from Dale and Alonzo Davis of Brockman Gallery in 1981, where he lived and worked until 2002. A Los Angeles native, Ramsess continues to live and work in Leimert Park. A life-long fan and lover of blues and jazz music, much of his art reflects that interest, honoring musicians and the music they create. He frequently travels the country to sell his jazz-focused works at music festivals. Ramsess is a member of the Afro-American Quilters of Los Angeles, a partner of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts.

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