Kajahl: Royal Specter

Opening Information: Limited capacity, masks required, and no appointment necessary. Appointments encouraged after opening day, open through Dec 19.

Kajahl's oil paintings merge icons from parallel histories along with his own constructed mythology prodding the viewer to re-examine mainstream historical paradigms. Re-appropriating African garments, ancient Roman military attire, and science fiction iconography, Kajahl references traditional Western portraiture, contemporary technology, and questions both the legitimacy of past records and the direction of future cultures.

Emerging within the 17th-19th centuries, Europe’s most prestigious sculptors and painters were commissioned to create depictions in the form of decorative objects known as the Blackamoor. During a time of colonial expansion and exploration, these objects satisfied and appeased the illusions of the elite and their desire to learn about the ‘specter’ residing in unknown territories, –who were these people and what did they look like?

Image: Kajahl, Huntress In Oasis (Astride A Crocodile), 2020