Artists explore their ‘interiority’ at Tacoma Art Museum show. No stereotyping allowed

What if Black artists explored their muses and inspirations rather than adhering to stereotypes and what’s expected of them from inside and outside the African American community?

That’s what a new exhibition featuring the work of four local artists focuses on at Tacoma Art Museum. “what if” allows artists to follow their own course, rather than society’s expectations. The show does not capitalize its title.

“Often, Black artists are kind of put into this box and these expectations of what they are to be creating, which are usually like racial limitations and stereotypes,” said TAM curator Victoria Miles.

There is an expectation that Black artists need to make statements with their work, Miles said. Instead, she has provided a space where artists can display the results of their curiosity and influences — their “interiority,” as she puts it.

Miles’ own inspiration for “what if” came from poet Elizabeth Alexander’s “The Black Interior,” in which the author calls for a re-envisioning of Black art.

Kristina Batiste

At first glance, Kristina Batiste’s pale-glazed porcelain work in “what if” looks like it might be on display at a high end home-decor store. A closer look and her own explanations reveal that even minimalist art can have deep meanings.

“I‘m really interested in using pottery and ceramics and these works of art to express something that is bigger than what it is,” the Tacoma-based artist said.

Four plates on a walnut base titled “sour, hot, bitter and sweet” is designed for a Yoruba wedding ritual in which the bridal couple taste four flavors — lemon, cayenne, vinegar and honey, for example — as a symbolic prelude to the various phases of a relationship.

“You might be feeling bitter, you might be feeling sour, you might have a really sweet period of your marriage,” Batiste explained. “But the blend of all of those is what makes a life and what makes a marriage.”

In “five moons,” Batiste again looks at time as portrayed through seasonal moons in porcelain of varying colors. But in this wholly created ritual, she says, the plates can be brought out whenever the user thinks one is appropriate.

“The new moon is the one that you do whenever you need to start over again,” she said. “So when something goes wrong in your life, or when you’ve tried to do something and it didn’t work out the way you thought it would work out, you have to pick yourself up and do it again.”

All rituals must have their beginnings at some point, she said.

“Someone must have to come up with something and say, ‘hey, let’s celebrate this,’” Batiste said.

Cristina Martinez

Tacoma native Cristina Martinez gets her inspiration from literature and flowers. Both are reflected in her linocut block prints in “what if.”

“I tell a lot of stories through flowers,” she said. “I’m just kind of representing some of the ways that I explore myself and find inspiration in my artwork.”

Martinez regularly reads gardening books.

“I feel like I was reading life stories about these flowers,” she said.

In one print, a woman has flower-like cheeks. In another, a girl reads Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.”

“What I love about reading is seeing the world through a writer’s perspective,” Martinez said. “Being able to be touched so deeply by a writer’s work is something that I’ve always been just super inspired by. It’s something that seems so far away from how I make art.”

The show has a lounge area with a small library. It also features fiber art by Le’Ecia Farmer and sound design by Chris Lee Hill .

If you go

What: “what if”

Where: Tacoma Art Museum, 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma.

When: Through Oct. 13. TAM is closed on Mondays.

Admission: Adults: $18; seniors (65+): $15; military (active duty or retired with ID): $15; Youth (6-18): $10; Free every Thursday 5 p.m.–8 p.m.

Information: tacomaartmuseum.org , 253-272-4258