Join The Jasper Project for Dogon Krigga’s Closing Reception and Artist Talk at Koger

The Jasper Project and the Koger Center for the Arts have teamed up to showcase the work of Dogon Krigga in The Nook, the rotating Jasper Gallery in the latter’s second floor lobby. The work will be up until the third week of March, but we will host a Closing Reception and Artist Talk for the exhibition on March 13 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Dogon will be present to give a talk about Afrosurrealism in art, what inspires them to create, and the intentions behind each piece. Additional prints and merchandise of Dogon’s will be available for purchase during this reception! We are excited to work with Jared Johnson, the onsite photographer and reporter, for the evening, who will be moderating the talk.

Dogon’s Artist Statement:

I use vinyl, paper, and other media on a variety of surfaces to create mixed media collages and murals printed on vinyl, paper, and other adhesive substrates. I draw inspiration from spiritual principles and esoteric concepts found across the African Diaspora to create surrealist artworks at serve as portals into other worlds, and viewsations of Queer, Black people, culture, and identity in an alternate dimension. I use these materials and approaches to encourage the viewer to experience and seek the subtle and unseen worlds, while reflecting on their place in it. I use my work to challenge the status quo and disrupt the conventions of what we know to be cisgendered, heteronormative, and patriarchal ideologies, while offering something beautiful and uplifting in its place. Through this creative process, I seek to make a real way of being in, thinking of, and viewing the universe that celebrates, preserves, and restores historically excluded communities.

Jasper Welcomes Dogon Krigga to the Koger Center’s Nook for February’s Third Thursday

The Jasper Project is proud to present Dogon Krigga as our featured February artist in the Koger Center’s Nook Gallery. The opening reception is February 15, from 5:30 – 7 p.m. in the Grand Tier lobby of the Koger Center. The event is free and open to the public, and features DJ Nori Noir providing live music.

Dogon is known for their mixed media collages and murals printed on vinyl, paper, and other adhesive substrates. They draw inspiration from spiritual principles and esoteric concepts found across the African Diaspora to create surrealist artworks. The viewer can then view their artwork as a kind of portal that allows them to peer into other realms, providing perspectives of Queer and Black people, identities, and cultures in a type of alternate dimension. Dogon’s work aims to challenge the status quo and disrupt the conventions of what we know to be cisgendered, heteronormative, and patriarchal ideologies, while offering something beautiful and uplifting in its place. The featured collection of work in the Nook is a body of work completed from 2021 through 2023. These pieces have also shown at the Columbia Museum of Art, Mike Brown Contemporary Gallery, Tapp’s Outpost, the 1013 Co-Op, The Bakery ATL (Atlanta, GA), and The Space (Charleston, SC).

Even if you can’t make it to the reception, Dogon’s art will be available for viewers to stop by and admire until mid-March. The Koger Center is open from 9 am – 5 pm Monday-Friday, and an hour prior to any Koger Center performance.

Artist Bio: Dogon Krigga (they/them) is a Columbia based multidisciplinary artist. Their interests in journalism and music production brought them into the community with musicians for whom Dogon began creating commissioned works of digital collage. They received early creative mentorship and influence from Tom Feelings and Walter Rutledge.

Krigga evolved their practice from digital art to include hand-cut paper collage and assemblage with printed and cut vinyl on acrylic and metal as well as installations. Krigga is a graphic designer with experience in commercial print, signage design, and signage project management that includes wide-format printing, metal fabrication, and acrylic fabrication. Krigga has created murals, exterior and interior signage displays for the main branch of Richland Library, SC State University, the 1801 Extension of SCSU, and Urban Wok restaurants.

Their works have been shown in several solo and group exhibitions including Tapp's Fine Art Center, The Sumter County Gallery of Art, Columbia Museum of Art, and The Goodall Gallery. Krigga's work can be found in numerous public and private collections, including the IP Stanback Museum. In 2023, they were Artist-in-Residence for Richland Library in Columbia, SC, producing and hosting community-based art programming and an exhibition Time & Time Again: Exploring the Antique Blacks--A Rootworker's Tarot. Dogon's artistic ventures also include the Collaborative Cohort Residency with the Highlander Center in New Market, TN (2020). Krigga is a recipient of grants from the SC Arts Commission.

Publication features of their work include "The African American Dream" by De Volkskrant (Amsterdam, March 2018), Volume 25.1: Yemassee Journal (USC, 2018), and "Dogon Krigga and Afrofuturism" by Jasper Magazine (2017). Krigga has been commissioned to design artwork for the covers of "Black Quantum Futurism" by Rasheedah Philips, and "BloodFresh" by Ebony Stewart. Dogon served as the lead designer for Ingrid LaFleur's 2017 mayoral campaign for Detroit, MI. Krigga has designed album artwork for King Britt, Kyle Bent, Hieroglyphic Being, Monty Luke, and Vibes Records. Dogon currently serves as the Art Director for the Atlanta-based music festival, Camp N Trip.

DOGON KRIGGA presents OMPHALOS - The Converging of Antique Futures with Jeremy Brooks at Sumter County Gallery of Art

“So much of Black history is the chronicling of suffering. I'm trying to get back to a place where Blackness isn't under attack but is thriving.”

— Dogon Krigga

The Sumter County Gallery of Art is excited to present two challenging, contemporary artists with unique practices, Dogon Krigga and Jeremy Brooks, September 1st – October 28th. Opening reception September 1st, 5:30-7:30. Both artists will be in attendance.

According to the Sumter County Gallery of Art,

“Dogon Krigga expresses magick with the use of pixel and paper, incorporating divine mysteries, transcribed over time throughout their ancestors’ experiences to connect Black people to the future and the past. Krigga immortalizes modern and ancient traditions, wisdom, and theory into majestic and whimsical digital and mixed media collages that venerate those that came before, those that will come, and those that exist outside of time. Dogon Krigga uses their experiences, techniques, knowledge and training from over a decade as a graphic designer and practitioner of Afrofuturism, along with other African diasporic traditional religions to illuminate the spiritual paths and possibilities for all who receive their creations. Krigga is also a serious practitioner of root (herbal) medicine.

Dogon Krigga currently resides where they grew up, in Columbia, SC. They are primarily a self-taught artist whose visionary aspect is an amalgamation of culture and esoteric references through Afrofuturism. Their creative lineage is connected to legends like Romare Bearden and Tom Feelings. Their background in creative writing, journalism, and music production also lends to their creative perspective. Krigga has exhibited extensively in Columbia, SC including the Columbia Museum of Art, Tapp’s Art venue, Richland County Public Library and the Sumter County Gallery of Art. They have participated as a panelist in several important conversations on Black creativity at the Columbia Museum of Art and Trustus Theatre.

Dogon Krigga artist statement:
The Omphalos is a demarcation of center. In the ancient world, the Omphalos was a stone that represented the navel of the planet. Here, the Omphalos represents the convergence of two points of time, and of perspective. It is here that I share two collections of works that offer my perspectives of the past and the future. My intention is to close the gap between those points and celebrate the timeless beauty of Black thought and Black form in this ever-present now. We see so many images of Black people under duress, especially in art. So much of Black history is the chronicling of suffering. I'm trying to get back to a place where Blackness isn't under attack but is thriving. Our gifts and abilities and how we interact with each other are acts of rebellion and revolution. We are masters of this domain but living in a reality where that can be forgotten, so we address this with Afrofuturism to remind us. I'm attempting to liberate people mentally by reminding them who they are outside of what society tells them they are. Life can be serious but we have to step back, laugh and marvel at how intricate yet how simple the universe can be.

Detroit native, Jeremy Brooks’ Looking Back / Being Forward, a retrospective exhibition, brings together a variety of artworks produced over the past 15 years. The work is largely conceptual and craft based. Brooks investigates a wide range of subjects including ceramic decals, traditional, slightly modified figurines, vessels and pottery forms such as knot pots “knitted” with elasticized porcelain - in a multi-faceted way. His work is often characterized by the use and alteration of found materials, many of which become augmented with details of the odd, queer, and/or eccentric. Brooks examines aspects of language, materiality, and sexual identity in his creative practice by questioning: What forms and concepts are particular to the field of ceramics? What nuances are lost and gained in the translation across boundaries of materiality? What makes something queer?

from Rockwellian Homophobia

Jeremy R. Brooks (b. 1979) received a BFA in art and design from Grand Valley State University in 2001, and a MFA in ceramic art from Alfred University in 2007. He has balanced his career between working as an artist and teaching at the university level. Brooks has exhibited work in over 100 exhibitions and is currently an Assistant Professor of Ceramics at Coastal Carolina University. Some of his honors include a residency at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, PA, receiving the emerging artist award by the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), and being selected as a guest of honor at the XXI International Biennial of Vallauris, France. Jeremy currently resides in Conway, South Carolina where he surrounds himself with copious amounts of ceramic figurines punctuated between piles upon stacks of ceramic decals. He identifies as an amiable ceramophile who is afflicted with occasional bouts of decalcomania (the process of transferring designs from paper on to glass or porcelain). He is also gay.

Eric Lachance, SCGA curator notes, “In the discipline of ceramic art, Jeremy R. Brooks weaves clay into recognizable items which code-switch everyday, otherwise innocuous items like socks, fine china, and collectible figurines into playful objects loaded with metaphor and humor. Dogon Krigga utilizes the everyday as well, creating Afro-futuristic scenes which merge studio photography, digital collage, and vinyl applique to surround the viewer. Krigga’s work invites the viewer to participate and absorb the worlds they create. Please join us at the Sumter County Gallery of Art for these two immersive exhibitions."

Dogon Krigga will be in conversation with artist Thomas the Younger (who recently exhibited at the Sumter gallery) Thursday, September 15th, 5:30-7:30 pm.

Jeremy Brooks will be in conversation with SCGA curator Eric Lachance Thursday, October 20th, 5:30-7:30.

Karen Watson observes that these thought-provoking exhibitions would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors - Andrea Williams and Clay Goss, The Deane and Roger Ackerman Family Fund and Sumter County Government & Cultural Commission which receives support from the John and Susan /Bennett Memorial Arts Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation of SC, the SC Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. Flowers courtesy of Poinsett Garden Club & the Council of Garden Clubs of Sumter.

September 1 - October 28, 2022

GENERAL GALLERY INFORMATION
Location: 200 Hasel St., Sumter, SC 29150 (adjacent to Patriot Hall).
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm

Future Fortune Artist Talk: Dogon Krigga interviewed by Michael Murray at Tapp's Outpost October 3rd, 2021

Tapp's Outpost is excited to host an intimate discussion between Artist Dogon Krigga and Co-host of the Podcast Cultivated Ignorance, Michael Murray, on October 3rd at 4pm. Unpacking the vision and inspiration of the exhibition Future Fortune: A visual treatise on perspective, Dogon and Michael will hone in on the experiences, characters, and world views that shaped the artists visual story line. The talk will also be streamed on Facebook live for those community members who can't participate in person. The show is currently on view at Tapp's Outpost, 715 Saluda Avenue, Columbia, SC 29205, and is free and open to the public Tuesday through Saturday 10am to 6pm

Dogon Krigga expresses magick with the use of pixel and paper. Known as “the keeper of the crossroads between magick and mixed media”, Dogon incorporates divine mysteries, transcribed over time throughout their ancestors’ experiences to connect Black people to the future and the past.

Dogon immortalizes modern and ancient traditions, wisdom, and theory into majestic and whimsical digital and mixed media collages that venerate those that came before, those that will come, and those that exist outside of time. 

Dogon Krigga utilized over a decade of experiences, techniques, knowledge and training as a graphic designer and practitioner of Afrofuturism and other African diasporic traditional religions to illuminate the spiritual paths and possibilities for all whom receive their creations.

Dogon Krigga currently resides where they grew up, in Columbia, SC. Krigga is primarily a self-taught artist, with a creative lineage connected to legends like Romare Bearden and Tom feelings. Their background in creative writing, journalism, and music production also lends to their creative perspective.

Michael A. Murray is a local poet/author who has been writing stories and stanzas ever since his hand could hold a pen. He is also a photographer, filmmaker, podcast host, public speaker, mentor, and founder of the NU GRWTH Artist Collective: a premier conduit that gives black and brown artists of the south the resources, visibility, and appreciation needed to be as influential as their dreams aspire to be.

Since 2016 Michael has joined various creative circles and founded various artistic outlets with one objective constantly in mind: Do whatever it takes to help see both the world and all those who inhabit it reach their highest, truest potential. With this goal at the forefront, Michael founded Playlixt LLC, an event and multi-media based platform built to promote and celebrate artists of various backgrounds and disciplines looking for opportunities to showcase their talents to the masses.
 

The exhibition will be on view September 9th through October 30, 2021. The exhibition is free and open to the public Tuesday through Saturday 12pm to 6pm. Masks and social distancing will be required. For questions about the works on view or Tapp's Outpost, please email caitlin@outpostartspace.org.