E.C. LINÁ gallery is pleased to announce, When It’s Black Outside, our first exhibition with Atlanta-based artist Michi Meko. For this exhibition the gallery will present works on paper, embellished cast-iron skillets, and the installation of SHE (Curated by Kimberly Light). Meko utilizes metaphors for the historical process through which African-American heritage can be rediscovered through lines of descent. This heritage is preserved by honoring the ancestral lineage through which it came – in this case, using cast-iron skillets as metaphor for the extra heavy weight of Blackness. This ongoing assemblage series also considers generational wealth and the oral narrative of recipe and food traditions of the Black South. SHE is a large scale, site specific sculptural sound work that plays Alice Coletrane's ER RA alongside a water feature that vocalizes its presence within a sculpted fountain. Meko seeks freedom from the complicated narratives that are often attached to the black body, and utilizes mapping as a point of navigation, a directional that is meant to guide one through the ever-present conflicts of the contemporary American landscape. The psychological imagery of navigation acts as a metaphor for selfhood, resilience and the sanity required to survive the turbulent oceans of contemporary society. After nearly drowning in 2015, Meko introduced water themes within his works to address the African American experience of navigating public spaces while remaining buoyant within them. These themes mark a transformative space where the old can be washed away, a signifier for a hopeful future. As Meko states “I am interested in African Americans and ideas about buoyancy, navigation, and being resilient. This resiliency for me is heroic.” Using cartography and nautical themes as portraiture, abstractions of maps become contradictions in Meko's work. This topographical landscape could be seen as a space of wilderness — a wilderness where environmental conditions can change without notice. The navigator may attempt to prepare for arrival, but in Meko’s environments predicting safe travel is never a guarantee. ****** Tasya van Ree is an American artist and photographer. She is noted for her work in photography and for her multifaceted interests in mixed media and visual presentation, particularly in fashion and its relation to identity. Van Ree is known for her black-and-white photographs of celebrities, including Michelle Rodriguez, Katherine Moennig and Matt Dallas. She has said that black and white photography "contains a certain presence; it takes the subject matter and ignites a certain lyrical quality within it that one cannot express in words." In addition to photography, van Ree makes short films and works in other visual media, including painting and pencil drawings. In her drawings, she finds inspiration in her dreams, and has undertaken drawing as an attempt to give the images of her dreams tangibility. This dream-drawing, according to Van Ree, also creates a sense of familiarity with her waking life. van Ree has been exhibited both as a solo photographer and with other notable artists, including Gus Van Sant, Amy Arbus, David Lynch, and Jessica Lange. Her work is also featured in private collections.