The Balm: Art for Black Women’s Wellness

The Southside Community Art Center is proud to host a group exhibition that exclusively highlights Black women artists, and there’s never been a more pertinent time to do so.

The Balm: Art for Black Women’s Wellness emerged as a collective artists’ action. Eight women who engage the time-honored tradition of using their artistic practice to give vision and form to our healing have contributed work across a variety of media and points of view. Themes emerged organically, with works that stand in both testimony and conversation. 

Together, they frame inquiry into the experiences of psychological fragmentation, the sustaining value of breathwork, cultural healing practices of the African Diaspora and healthcare disparities affecting maternal fetal outcomes. Themes of kinship and the restorative powers of the familiar, coalesce around memory of home, especially the south, which weaves its way through many of the works presented and finds its way to us here in Chicago. The alchemy of this project—bringing together artists and communities around a subject that concerns us all—demonstrates the power of Black women’s creative ingenuity. 

Organized by visual artist and culture worker Kyrin Hobson, the exhibition will showcase artists based in and outside of Chicago, which include Hobson, Alexandria Valentine, Venise Keys, Jasmine Best, Brie Ortega, Janelle Dunlap, and Ashley January.

The exhibition opens for public viewing October 8th, with a reception on October 22nd 6-8pm, and runs through December 23rd. Please RSVP here.