RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK -- Pittsburgh’s Shikeith

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

By Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton 

Installation detail of Shikeith's "Feeling the Spirit in the Dark," at the Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh. Photo by Tom Little. Courtesy of the Mattress Factory

"I know my expiration date," she said. And we also know where Mom Britton's growing pancreatic cancer is leading, yet we mask it with our desire to keep her here. We are blindfolded, and that's why last week's review in Frieze.com of Shikeith's "Feeling the Spirit in the Dark" stood-out. While his Black gay identity is central to his photography and film, so is the defining question for all Christians: "Do I believe?" Today's Black Jesus work, inspired by John 20:27, is now at Pittsburgh's Mattress Factory, and that makes Shikeith, our collectors tip of the week.

Shikeith is a multidisciplinary visual artist and filmmaker from Philadelphia. Image courtesy of Black Enterprise

OTHER NEWS from across the USA, and around the world:

• Master Paintings & Sculpture Auction Part I January 28, 2021 (via @Sothebys)
• Contemporary Artists Captivated by Leonardo Da Vinci (via @Sothebys)
• How Sandro Botticelli Became One of History’s Most Influential Artists (via @ARTnews)
• Devan Shimoyama’s Mythological Black Queer Masculinity (via @Filthy_Dreams)
• With a Gift of Art, a Daughter Honors, if Not Absolves, Her Father (via @NYTimesarts)

Are you an artist? Are you a collector? If you like what you see each week, please invite a friend to subscribe to our periodic e-newsletter. You can also follow us weekly on Twitter, Facebook, or Soundcloud but only subscribers can vote for the Alpha Omega Prize. It is our annual recognition each November 1st of one artist's impact on religious dialogue in America.

“Autoeroticisim” , 2020, single-channel video projection, blue led light, water. Installation view of “Feeling the Spirit in the Dark,” at the Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh. Photo by Tom Little. Courtesy of the Mattress Factory.

Shikeith, Feeling the Spirit in the Dark, 2021, installation view. Courtesy: The artist and Mattress Factory Museum.

A Missed Prayer (2016)

“O' my body, make of me always a man who questions!” 2020, Shikeith. Archival Inkjet Print. Courtesy of the artist.