Uno: The Black & Whites

The Black & Whites is a new show of Graphic Work by Uno, who hails from Cleveland but has lived in Jersey City for six years. Hosted by the Fish with Braids Gallery, the show has a subtitle, “Featuring The Woman Freedom Fighters & Artists,” and consists of images of famous women digitally reproduced in stark, densely black lines with geometric backgrounds. Little to no gray is apparent; like the title of the show indicates, the images are rendered in simple contrasts, black and white. They reminded me of ink sketches but with broad lines that mimic photography (from which these images are inspired).

Some artists can talk about nothing but their work and never stop chattering. Other artists are more guarded and tight-lipped. Uno was the latter. He was soft-spoken and shy. I tried several questions and although polite, he was pretty much non-responsive to most of my various queries. I took a pause and asked, was there a problem.

“I have trouble trusting people,” he said.

“It’s just a blog, dude,” I tried to reassure him.

A tall man, bearded, with a long, thick mien of dreadlocks, wrapped like a turban atop his head. Quiet and dignified, wearing a top coat and wool scarf. The evening his show opened, the Friday after Thanksgiving, was the first that could be officially called wintry. The gallery is a small space whose inadequate heating was made even more inadequate by the fact the door kept opening and closing as more and more folks crowded into its cramped quarters.

Opening-night attendees were mostly the familiar faces of the local art crowd. They kept their jackets on as they drank wine from plastic glasses, enduring the intermittent blasts of gelid air that accompanied each new visitor.

Uno tells me this particular show is about “Iconography... iconic images of women, freedom fighters and artists.” I had to admit that the inclusion of Amy Winehouse baffled me. How can you put her in the same elevated pantheon as Billie Holiday, one of the greatest artists in the history of the world. I guess that’s my problem.

“These are icons in my mind,” he says. “They’re personal icons.”

“What’s the difference between Icons and Celebrity?”

He winces at the word celebrity. “Celebrity is transitory. These are women who have made lasting contributions. They will leave a legacy.”

Well I guess one might say that Queen Latifah is a celebrity, but she’s been around a while and has done a lot of work people respect and admire, so I can accept that she is a contemporary icon.”

“I saw her in Cleveland, in the late 80s, before the movies or the TV show, when she had just come out as a rapper. I’ll never forget that performance.”

In addition to Lady Day, there was Nina Simone and Sara Vaughan, Dorothy Dandrige and a naked Pam Grier, which Uno said was based on an old publicity photo. This image was about 20 years before Jackie Brown, the Tarintino Film. We see a sexual revolution free-love Grier at the height of her sex symbol status as the soul goddess of Blaxploitation Cinema. The depiction invoked the eroticism of both the actress and the era. A few names among the 13 women required a google, resulting in some fascinating entries, such as Kara Walker, a Macarthur Grant winner, who is an artist working in black & white silhouettes.

Then there was Angela Davis, famous black militant who in 1980 ran as the Vice Presidential candidate of the American Communist Party (Gus Hall was the Communist Candidate for President, naturally) against Ronald Reagan. Davis was not just a well known 60s radical by then—she was granted political asylum by Cuba at one point in the early 70s—but she took a hard-left stance during the height of the post-Vietnam phase of the Cold War as the majority of the U.S. population shifted rightward. This quixotic stunt got a lot of attention at the time, but it also was partially a personal vendetta. While Governor of California in the late 60s, Reagan ordered Davis removed from a professorship at a state school, which led to a court case that Davis eventually won.

"I remember her, from the civil rights era, with her big afro,” says Uno. “Her brother also was a Defensive Back for the Cleveland Browns at the time. I liked that about her too.”

Each image had a sort of logo of a growling panther. Uno said that “Pantha,” which I reckon is the idiomatic pronunciation of panther, is his brand. On one wall was a description of what Pantha means, a message of the universality of all people, a symbol of our common humanity.

Well, Uno, a nice guy, wasn’t that talkative, at least with me. The art talked for itself. I liked the directness of the images. They were iconish enough to be iconography. The prints, in poster sizes as well as smaller, card-sizes, are now being sold at the Fish with Braids Gallery (201-451-4295) at 521 Jersey Avenue. Owner of the Gallery, Uta is the creative force behind Creative Grove (and the creator of the Jersey City Beer Stein), the Friday Art Market which is expected to run through the winter months. Uta will be featuring other shows by local artists on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. At least I was able to get a picture with the dream, five syllable caption: Uta & Uno!

For more Fish With Braids Gallery info click here