Sydney G. James
Watch Me Work
December 21, 2020 - January 23, 2021
Instagram Live with Scheherazade Washington Parrish
January 14, 6 PM EST
Through utter shock, through grief, through disgust, through fear, through ANGER, through heartbreak -- through it all, we work. Through this chaos, we work. For our families, our communities, our sanctuaries, we work. Through exhaustion, we work. Through a pandemic, we are working.
We work to fill voids. In our minds, we work to fill the "Void," but we often don’t recognize the "voids" that that very work creates. The chaos surrounds us, yet we push through the heavy weight of all the woes of the hamster wheel of days.
"Watch Me Work" is a celebration of Black Women who get it done! From the Event Planning Zoom Mommy to the USPS mail lady, we work. The world watches and we work. The world turns away, we work.
Even those of us who sit around all day and manage to make it to the next day safely, it took work. Through the daily attacks on the pigmented people of the world, we work. We work. We work. I work.
– Sydney G. James, 2020
See the Detroit Free Press’ coverage of group exhibition Revelations featuring work by Rashaun Rucker, Senghor Reid, Joshua Rainer, Sabrina Nelson, Richard Lewis, Don Kilpatrick III, Sydney G. James, Cailyn Dawson, Cydney Camp and Alicia Brown. Photos by Ryan Garza for the Detroit Free Press.
Watch Sydney James and Lamar Landers discuss their exhibition PORTRAYAL with moderator Nicole M. Christian.
Essay by Nicole Christian about Revelations, a group exhibition featuring the work of Rashaun Rucker, Senghor Reid, Joshua Rainer, Sabrina Nelson, Richard Lewis, Don Kilpatrick III, Sydney G. James, Cailyn Dawson, Cydney Camp and Alicia Brown.
Sydney G. James and Lamar Landers will be giving an Artist Talk in the gallery on Wednesday, December 29, 2021 for their exhibition Portrayal.
About artist Lamar Landers, a contemporary Detroit-based photographer. Portrayal, a two-person exhibition of work with Sydney G. James opens November 19, 2021.
An essay about the collaboration between Lamar Landers and Sydney G. James by Nicole M. Christian
Through utter shock, through grief, through disgust, through fear, through ANGER, through heartbreak -- through it all, we work. Through this chaos, we work. For our families, our communities, our sanctuaries, we work. Through exhaustion, we work. Through a pandemic, we are working.
“The Girl with the D Earring” by Detroit artist Sydney G. James will adorn the western wall of the Chroma building, located at 2937 E. Grand Blvd. The art is a modern Detroit take on Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring,” deemed the most beautiful painting in the Netherlands.
From Detour Detroit
“We need an ever-present reminder that we do not accept this shit at all”
Sydney G. James’ art is a call to action: to see Blackness — especially Black women; to remember that Black people too are free; and to know that Black lives are complex, resplendent and worthy.
The Vanguard Artist Collective is a semi-formal nod to pioneering Chicago-based black art collectives like the Organization of Black American Culture and AfriCOBRA, which were founded during the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
“We push each other to be better artists and better people — even when it’s critical,” says Rucker.