Kendyl Boyd

Artist Statement

My work deconstructs the generalization of the Black experience committed by all members of society, including Black people themselves. Through serigraphy, I lay out images and text to provoke audiences and engage them in examining their views and beliefs through a critical lens. I am inspired by the work of whom I call my fairy art-mothers: Carrie Mae Weems, Adrian Piper, and Lorna Simpson, as well as Jenny Holzer.

In every other aspect of my life, I am calculated and organized about how I execute things. With my art (though still done with intention) I have realized my most powerful revelations come from my release of expectation. My process is slow and cerebral, and in many ways, I feel it is subconscious. I allow myself time and space to let my work form naturally. My practice itself challenges the Fine Arts trajectory that calls for an artist to lose sleep in order to compete in the capitalistic arts market.

This body of work, cohesively named The Essential Question Bias Examination, has been printed large-scale onto unstretched painting canvas. The blank space left on the canvases represents both the weight of the questions and the time allotted for viewers to consider the questions presented, as well as the space for which viewers projections are able to take up in the work. The companion booklet of the same title takes the shape and format of an examination blue book, which emulates the feeling of unease felt by viewers when approaching examination. View more of Kendyl's work.