“Being an artist means you are a sponge to your environment,” mixed-media artist Larry “Poncho” Brown says in the 2021 short film “Artimore.”
“When I create pieces, it is my goal to create images that are positive representations of who we are,” Brown says.
Those positive representations exist in Small Originals, Brown’s solo exhibition, currently on display at Davenport Art and Imports in Hampden. His show celebrates Blackness with 25 small artworks created between 2014 and 2021.
Photo by Aisha Butler. Courtesy of Davenport Imports & Arts.
The exhibition is a visually stunning experience, full of bright colors and regal flourishes. The beautiful frames also add an element of grandeur. The show feels like a celebration, a toast, a reflection.
The exhibition is a visually stunning experience, full of bright colors and regal flourishes. The beautiful frames also add an element of grandeur. The show feels like a celebration, a toast, a reflection.
“The Fabric of Us (2021)” features women depicted in their full power. Three subjects have cornrows, full lips, and thick brows painted in blue and teal against a fuschia background. “Of Queens (2020)” features a woman with short hair and dark skin facing away from the viewer. The brightest thing in the image is a gilded crown and a band of colored fabric depicted on her shoulder and head. Her crown is overlaid in amber. Like the female subjects in “The Fabric of Us,” the woman in “Of Queens” holds court in this gallery.
“Balancing Acts (2020)” is a mixed-media artwork on a panel. The central figure is a Black woman whose body extends over the canvas as layers of texture are applied over her. Her expression is still and calm. She is serene, present, and enigmatic, inviting viewers to pause and gaze at her.
The figures in Brown’s pieces are depicted in acts of reverence and joy, rather than in moments of suffering or violence. Historically, even in the face of active erasure, Black folks have continued to create beautiful artwork across the diaspora and across time.
The figures in Brown’s pieces are depicted in acts of reverence and joy, rather than in moments of suffering or violence. Historically, even in the face of active erasure, Black folks have continued to create beautiful artwork across the diaspora and across time.
Visitors can find more examples of Brown’s work by picking up his book, “Poncho Retrospective: 40 Years of The Art of Poncho,” which is also on display. He calls it his most significant achievement, featuring more images of Black people portrayed in elegant and dynamic ways.
Brown is an artistic giant in Baltimore. The child of an artist, Brown got his own start by painting signs. He opened a sign painting business when he was only 17. He says he got his first big artistic break by creating an ad campaign for comedian and actor Dick Gregory. Eventually, his work would appear in popular television shows, including The Wire, Soul Food, and A Different World. His works have appeared in various publications like Ebony and Essence.
One of his first significant exhibitions was at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. His work has been exhibited widely in group and solo exhibitions. He is a Carver Vocational Technical High School Hall of Fame member and received an Artist of the Year Award from the African-American Visual Art Association.
Davenport Art and Imports was opened in 2015 as a Black-owned framing shop and art gallery. The owner and director, Jermaine Davenport, divides his time between framing, art handling, and curating. Visiting the gallery, which is located on the second floor of a traditional Baltimore rowhome, feels like visiting the home of a loved one: books surround you, along with various ephemera and a wall of half-cut frames for folks to browse.
Davenport said that he mostly uses his gallery to highlight emerging artists, but relished the opportunity to display the work of an established artist like Brown. Davenport has worked with Brown for years and considers the artist a good friend and mentor. “We became colleagues,” he told Baltimore Beat, “and when I had the ability to expand, I knew I wanted to curate a show with him.” They started developing ideas for this show in 2022.
Although Brown and Davenport created this exhibition with an older audience in mind — the exhibition text states that the show is “a heartfelt invitation to art enthusiasts between the ages of 40 and 60” — it also exists as a bridge between older audiences who might be very familiar with his work and new fans who will potentially become lifelong patrons.
Small Originals by Larry “Poncho” Brown is on view at Davenport Art and Imports through September 8. 714 West 36th St. For more information, go to: davenportframing.com or call 410-977-7082.