Blanc is very excited to present ALL CHILDREN DRAW – an expression of the artistic dialogues between brothers Kahari, Kari and Katon Blackburn and their mother Dorian Sylvain, a stalwart of arts education and participatory mural making on the South Side. All Children Draw explores the continuum of Sylvain’s decades-long practice nurtured by leaders of the Black Arts Movement, and how that informed her sons’ childhood expressions and the foundation of their artistic practices today.
Across their respective mediums, Dorian, Kahari, Kari and Katon demonstrate the breadth of their engagement with the arts, not just as a means of artistic expression, but also as a way to engage with and think through the importance of community. Their art makes shape out of the dialogues that have come before them while simultaneously engaging directly with their contemporary environment.
All Children Draw asks us to reflect on what is necessary to stimulate and sustain a life rooted in art and village-making. Dorian’s commitment to her practice has led to a life of creative expression for her three sons. This determination to make art, regardless of her role as a mother, meant that her sons grew up in an environment surrounded by inspiration and imagination.
This verve and excitement of creative expression permeates the exhibition and binds together the work of four stylistically different artists. Where Katon has focused his creative energy on the sustenance of a community Skateboarding school, NattyBwoy Chicago, Kahari has developed a bright and playful collage language that traverses the figures, ideas, sounds and movements of Chicago. At the same time, Kari opens up his head to us and allows us to witness the development of a character, PedalHead, that he started to dream into existence at 7 years old. Using photos, collage and illustration these three young men describe what is possible when you are given the tools and space to think, dream and draw!
It is no surprise then that Dorian’s work pushes and pulses with color, passion and form. In many ways everything that her sons have gone on to do can be seen in the vibrant and thoughtful way in which she approaches her artwork. In All Children Draw, Dorian turns from the often sought after mural work she is known for and opens herself up to a series of paintings that are for her. This is her moment to explore without having to consider her sons or a wider, and important, South Side community. Instead, she gives herself the time to reconnect with what she so effortlessly gave her sons on their journey to adulthood – the time and the space to explore.