Tschabalala Self, whose painting “Adam and Eve” is on view at the Parrish Art Museum as the current iteration of “Fresh Paint,” will be at the museum Saturday morning at 11:30 for a conversation with Camille Okhio, a writer, curator, and historian based in New York City. “Fresh Paint” is a rotating series of single-artwork exhibitions co-presented by the FLAG Art Foundation.
For over a decade, Self has built a singular style using painting, printmaking, and sculpture to explore ideas surrounding figuration. She constructs depictions, mostly of women, using a combination of sewn, printed, and painted materials, spanning different artistic and craft traditions.
In “Adam and Eve,” which will be on view through June 1, Self has set the central figures against a dense background of blooms and foliage, rendered through a process of relief printing. The assemblage elements of the work are gathered from textiles, occasionally collected from reworked paintings. Inspired by Genesis, with its themes of temptation, defiance, and the power of choice, the work’s diptych format emphasizes the dual possibilities represented by the forbidden fruit.
Born and raised in Harlem, Self earned a B.A. in studio art from Bard College and an M.F.A. in painting and printmaking from the Yale School of Art, where she developed her eclectic process, incorporating disparate materials and techniques into her work.
In connection with its exhibition “Regeneration: Long Island’s History of Ecological Art and Care,” the museum will host a panel discussion with Sara Siestreem, whose work is in the show, and members of the Shinnecock Kelp Farmers, on Sunday at 2 p.m.
Siestreem, a member of Oregon’s Hanis Coos tribe, is showing a newly commissioned work made in collaboration with the kelp farmers, a collective of Indigenous women who harvest seaweed, a traditional source of food, medicine, and natural fertilizer. Seaweed also absorbs excess nitrogen, helping clean the water of harmful contaminants.
Siestreem, who began working with the collective in 2024, is showing works from her “sugar kelp” series, created with acrylic, graphite, and Xerox on panel boards, and “skyline,” seven glazed slip-cast ceramic baskets inspired in part by her study of Hanis Coos basket-weaving.
Scout Hutchinson, the FLAG Art Foundation associate curator of contemporary art, will moderate the discussion.
Tickets for each program are $30, $25 for members’ guests, free for members, resident benefits passholders, students, and children.
