Veils by Unique Fair
Joy Gallery
498 W Main St.
Mar 6, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Veils is a body of artwork Fair uses to explore the relationship between abstraction, exaggeration, and the human condition. This body of work explores unseen, subtle natures, and presents them to the viewer. As an exhibition, Veils seeks to raise awareness within the viewer’s mind of biases and paradigms.

The exhibition will include a series of portrait and figure based oil paintings. As an Artist, Fair is inspired by the nature of his sitters. His art seeks to depict those sitters on their own terms, and not the terms projected onto them by societal standards and archetypes. As a Black Queer artist, Fair’s body of work creates space for the marginalized, and their stories, with the intent of sharing their truth within a canon that often undervalues them.

As a part of Veils, Fair will be exhibiting Consume U.S., an installation of a formally set dinner table with a colonial aesthetic. The installation is designed with a collection of plates, platters, glasses, and silverware to communicate feelings of comfort. The installation leans into ideas of the traditional colonial dinner table, to explore themes of consumerism within the American ideal. The dinner table centers his paintings conceptually because of its cultural context as a place of power.

Throughout the installation, there is a vein of violence. While the piece is ornate and precise, it holds small disruptions like broken glasses, napkins that are tied with nooses, spilled stains of tea and wine. The intent of the piece is to gradually unsettle the viewer as they engage with the work. Consume U.S. seeks to challenge the viewers perception of consumerism by bonding a commonly positive experience, gathering at the dinner table, with the challenging concepts of consumerism and exploitation. As a centerpiece, Consume U.S. personalizes the experience, by providing a literal space for consumption.

This exhibition continues through March 31.