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Email PageThe Tobacco Project
May 8, 2008- June 7, 2008
Reception: May 8, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Accra Shepp
Gallery 138
138 W 17th St Accra Shepp Leonardo (2007) |
Shepp’s work addresses the relationship between the natural world, science, and urban civilization. As a little boy, growing up in a concrete city, Shepp had no idea there was earth under his feet. It is not coincidence that the materials of his installation are leaves, dirt and ashes: to Shepp, they represent the cycle of life. Accra sees the leaf as a unit by which we measure nature. Tobacco is a cash crop made from this unit of measure.
“Tobacco is not ambiguous,” Accra says. “Guilty pleasure, deadly vice, no other substance has a similar array of known hazards, yet people smoke. Tobacco has a long and complicated history, from its cultivation through the labor of enslaved people during the founding of this country to its modern cultivation with the use of migrant labor.”
Despite this statement, Accra explores the world of tobacco without didactic malice or blame. Like a Buddhist monk, it is his intention that we see tobacco, and ourselves, more clearly.
Accra Shepp received his B.A. from Princeton University and his M.A. from New York University. His work has been recently exhibited at The African American Museum in Philadelphia, The Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., The Whitney Museum / Philip Morris, and the Jamaica Art Center. He has been the recipient of Fulbright and NYFA fellowships. His work is included in the collections of renowned museums such as The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney, The Art Institute of Chicago, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show
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