SOLACE AND SISTERHOOD at MOCA - Arlington, VA

Featured artists: Lavett Ballard, Amber Robles-Gordon, and Evita Tezeno

Curated by Dr. Lauren Davidson

Is solace anywhere more comforting than in the arms of a sister? ― Alice
Walker

Sisterhood connects through blood relations and friendship, develops through
love and struggle and supports women in challenging times as well as
celebration. However, for Black women, it goes beyond this. Sisterhood
through the lens of the Black female experience is a deep and multifaceted
relationship that challenges stereotypes and seeks to right wrongs. With the
constant scrutiny of their choices and physical selves, and social opposition to
their abilities and accomplishments, sisterhood for Black women becomes a
necessity, a social enterprise, and a framework for survival.

Solace and Sisterhood brings together the work of three artists of African
descent who are friends and “sisters”: Lavett Ballard, Amber Robles-Gordon,
and Evita Tezeno. Through their artwork, viewers are given an intimate look
into their experiences and their sisterhood, which has developed over several
years. By digging deeply into historical and contemporary perspectives on
African American life, exploring traditions in the African diasporic community,
or remixing commonly known objects, these artists span media and
aesthetics. They tackle topics of self-identity, Black female beauty, and
spiritual discovery. They resist single affiliations and simple answers to difficult
questions. All the while, they maintain deep bonds that now transcend
friendship. They are now sisters.

RELATED EVENTS
Solace and Sisterhood Opening Reception and Artist Talk
Thursday / February 22 / 5pm-8pm
Artist talk, moderated by Dr. Lauren Davidson: 6pm

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

LAVETT BALLARD
b. 1970, East Orange, NJ
Lives and works in Willingboro, NJ

Lavett Ballard’s work is in public and private collections, including the US
Embassy in Kambala, Uganda, the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at
Auburn University, Stockton University Art Collection and the collections of
ABC Studios, CBS Studios, and NBC/Universal Studios. Ballard created two
commissioned covers for Time Magazine: one in March 2020 for the 100th
anniversary of Women’s Suffrage and a second in February 2023 to
accompany Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson’s essay about her
book CASTE: Origins of our Discontent.

Lavett Ballard holds a BA in Studio Art and Art History from Rutgers University
and an MFA from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia and is an adjunct
professor at Rowan College of South Jersey. Ballard is represented by
Galerie Myrtis in Baltimore.

AMBER ROBLES-GORDON
b. 1977, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Lives and works in Washington, DC

Amber Robles-Gordon is an Afro-Latina interdisciplinary visual artist whose
creations are visual representations of her hybridism: a fusion of her gender,
ethnicity, cultural, and social experiences. Her assemblages, large sculptures,
installations, and public artwork, emphasize the essentialness of spirituality
and temporality within life.

Robles-Gordon’s work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at the American
University Museum (Washington, DC), Morton Fine Art (Washington, DC),
Derek Eller Gallery (New York, NY), and the August Wilson African American
Cultural Center (Pittsburgh, PA), among other venues, and in group
exhibitions across the United States and internationally. She was a resident at
the American Academy in Rome in 2019 and a semi-finalist for the Janet &

Walter Sondheim Prize in 2022. She holds an MFA from Howard University
and a BS from Trinity College.

EVITA TEZENO
b. 1960, Port Arthur, TX
Lives and works in Dallas, TX

Evita Tezeno’s collage paintings employ richly patterned hand-painted papers
and found objects. They depict a cast of characters in harmonious scenes
inspired by her family and friends, childhood memories in South Texas,
personal dreams, and moments from her adult life and influenced by the great
20th century modernists Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, and William H.
Johnson.

Tezeno’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Pérez Art
Museum (Miami, FL), the Dallas Museum of Art, African American Museum of
Dallas, Figge Art Museum (Davenport, IA) Embassy of the Republic of
Madagascar; and Pizzuti Collection (Columbus, OH) among many others. She
is the recipient of a 2023 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship from the John
Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and, in 2012, the Elizabeth Catlett
Award for the New Power Generation. She is represented by Luis de Jesus
Los Angeles.

ABOUT THE CURATOR
Dr. Lauren Davidson is an independent art curator and founder of Museum
Nectar Art Consultancy. Museum Nectar is a curatorial and art advisory
service working primarily in the field of contemporary African American art
with a focus on emerging and mid-career artists. Davidson uses this platform
to investigate issues and initiate conversations about the Diasporic Black
experience.

Past exhibitions include the critically reviewed The Ties That Bind and Zero
Dollar Bill: The Prints of Imar Lyman at International Art and Artists (IA&A) at
Hillyer in Washington, D.C and Bria Edwards: More Time in A Day at Eaton
D.C