Acclaimed painter, muralist, educator, and cultural organizer Dorian Sylvain presents her first solo exhibition in two decades: Raised In It!
This deeply personal exhibition pays tribute to the radical artists, educators, and cultural workers who shaped Sylvain’s creative lineage—not as distant historical figures, but as mentors, neighbors, and family whose lives gave voice to a cultural inheritance rooted in resilience, artistry, and transformation.
Rather than a historical survey, the exhibition honors the everyday brilliance of those whose lives were shaped by the transformative energies of the Great Migration, the Civil Rights era, and the Black Arts Movement. Their influence on Sylvain was direct and foundational, forming the blueprint for a multidisciplinary practice that bridges murals, scenic design, mixed media, and education.
As part of the project, Sylvain has also finished a newly commissioned mural at the Hyde Park Art Center, welcoming the public into the spirit of the exhibition beyond the gallery walls. This large-scale work acts as both a visual entry point and a standalone invocation of legacy in motion.
Even more, Raised In It! marks the beginning of a broader initiative: a future HBCU Public Arts Tour, a dream project through which Sylvain envisions collaborating with students across Historically Black Colleges and Universities to create campus-based murals that center cultural memory, activism, and imagination. In doing so, she seeks to expand the lineage she inherited— furthering the legacy of movement-building through creative action and intergenerational storytelling.
As an exercise in the dynamics of storytelling through artistic practice, Raised In It! explores the tension between historical erasure and creative resistance, revealing art’s power as a tool for both remembrance and transformation. Each work operates as a portal connecting past and present, mentor and mentee, ancestor and descendant. Together, they seek to hold open a space that thrums with the potential of the many dreams that Black imagination and worldbuilding have brought into existence.
The exhibition will be accompanied by artist talks, community gatherings, and a limited-edition catalog featuring essays and archival reflections.
To keep up to date with everything that is happening, please keep your eye on our Instagram account @blancgallerychicago and/or send us an email via the Contact Us page, and we can add you to the mailing list.