"IMPORTED FROM AFRICA; MADE IN AMERICA"
EXHIBIT OF DAVID BYER-
Reception, Saturday, February 13, 5-
Byer-Tyre was born in New Bern and currently resides in South Farmingdale, NY. He received his M.F.A. at Long Island University's C. W. Post Campus in 2001, with a concentration in sculpture. David earned his B.F.A. in Sculpture from Georgia State University in 1998, and his B.A. in Drawing and Painting from St. Augustine College, Raleigh, NC, in 1996.
Working in a broad range of media, Byer-Tyre has created numerous commissioned pieces, including a mechanical lobster display for Red Lobster, visible in New York City's Times Square; a kinetic/tactile sculpture for the Atlanta Center for the Visually Impaired; a quilting installation project for the Women In Need (WIN, Inc.) and original tactile art for visually impaired children for the Long Island Children's Museum in Uniondale. While at C.W. Post, he
Working in a broad range of media, Byer-
He believes, "Art is more than a cultural expression; it is a social practice that exposes truths and expands realities." As Byer-Tyre states, "My career objective as an artist has been to develop innovative ways to integrate African-American art into a variety of public contexts by producing meaningful works that clearly articulate its purpose. It is with this principle in mind that I continue to expand the scope and functional perception of the art and installations I create. As an artist and a scholar, I believe it is important for my works to address not only the social realities of blacks in American society. At the same time I am committed to unearthing the rich artistic legacy that Africans and
retrospective of works by David Byer-Tyre will be on exhibit from Tuesday, January 19, through Friday, February 26. A professional artist, college professor and Director and Curator of the African-American Museum of Nassau County located in Hempstead, NY, Byer-Tyre's goal is "to educate people about African American culture using contemporary approaches and present day issues."
African-Americans have bequeathed to the larger American culture. In order to do this, I have begun an extensive scholarly project to map out covert and overt means by which slaves and free blacks expressed and retained a cultural connection to Africa. African Americans employed numerous ways of encoding African icons into everyday objects, thereby perpetuating their iconic status and imparting new meanings to old symbols.
I believe both artists and historians have overlooked the implications of this 'African and African-American art objects connection.' Through an interdisciplinary study of material culture, art history, American history, in conjunction with my knowledge of fine and applied art techniques, I can produce a fuller understanding of what may be the most least examined form of African-American cultural resistance. My work examines, within a historical context, the representation and the cognitive self-image of African-Americans, and the social conditions that influenced their unique methods of cultural preservation. In part, this is a visual culture exploration of American artist of African descent, their ideologies, use of materials and methods of dissemination. In addition, the intent of my exhibition is to reproduce these covert and overt modes of resistance in a way that will confront viewers with these historical symbols in a context that will resonate with today’s social realities.
I believe both artists and historians have overlooked the implications of this 'African and African-
This collection of works will address the shared experiences of blacks in American society by drawing on African diasporic traditions, appropriating racist stereotypes and incorporating aspects of African-American history. My goal is to desensitize and reclaim imagery, ideas and objects that, more often than not, generate racist assumptions about people of color. This exhibition of photography, paintings, installation art and sculpture will challenge the viewer to re-imagine the content and meaning of a range of African-American cultural experiences. These current artistic interpretations of the African-American sociopolitical culture will implore the viewer to 'see' rather than merely look. Many of these works of art will encourage the viewer to engage them both physically and mentally, blurring the line between the viewers’ observation of art and their participation in a performance art piece to onlookers."
designed and coordinated the building of "The Labyrinth," a 47-foot-diameter mosaic, encircled by benches, that serves as a communal site for student gatherings.