Vitus Shell: Power of Sight is the first solo presentation of Shell’s work in Georgia. This exhibition of the Louisiana-born-and-based artist’s work focuses on the weight of contemporary Black portraiture and the idea of sightedness. Documenting the likeness of these sitters in his paintings exhibits a certain agency in being—something that Black communities have been denied. Furthermore, his artwork questions and critiques the history of the Black subject in canonical portraiture.
Shell’s body of work, called the Gold Everything Series, will be the focus of this exhibition. In this series, the subjects of his paintings are shrouded in and surrounded by classic golden motifs and filigree found in historic European portraiture.
In addition to his exhibition on-site at the Albany Museum of Art, the artist will produce a mural in downtown Albany. In this way, Shell’s work and the narrative that he represents will continue beyond Power of Sight as a permanent artwork in the Albany community.
This exhibition aims to question how the perception of a subject in portraiture not only has historical resonance, but it demands Blackness, Black culture, and the Black experience be placed at the forefront, now hyper-visible.
