Bio:
Blake Lenoir also known by his signature and artist alias B.Len, a self-taught, multidisciplinary artist, born and raised in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood on July 6th, 1991. Only having just started the medium of painting from his home medium in charcoal and graphite in the past two and a half years Blake has most recently shown during Art Basel Miami Week in a sponsored showcase by Pigment International, a Viridian Artists Top 30 under 30 Selectee in an international selection amongst 3000 in New York, 2019, Most notably Is collected by platinum recording artist Travis Scott, and most recently has been featured in an article published by Rolling Out Magazine 2019 as an artist to watch.
Residency Statement/Area of curiosity:
What I intend to explore in this residency are the surrealist components of which a good percentage of we as African Americans would like to see, “A retaliatory response to our treatment in America, and how that can be illustrated in a satirically charged body of work. I will be diving into the word cubism and how it translates to the different sides of how America is perceived to treat African Americans vs the reality of the matter, while still playing on cultural nuances that make us the resilient people that we are. In this illustration, I will utilize as inspiration Rudy Ray Moore’s albums for the soundtrack/tone of the obscenities portrayed as a counterculture and re-appropriation in the context of swapping persons in the narrative and content of retaliatory acts illustrated while using Gil Scott-Hearon as the soundtrack for the portrayal of the revolution and demise of white supremacy and the surrealist uprising I intend to create. Lastly drawing inspiration from my chosen reading “48 laws of power” & “From Savage to Negro”. This piece and series aims to be a colorful expression and reinforced inception of the thought and notion that we’ve had enough.
