MAD PROPS

BET MURAL: SINCE DAY

BET MURAL: SINCE DAY

It’s been hella hard to sit on announcing this.

We have a new mural in collaboration with @bet . It’s called ‘Since Day…’

This piece is an exploration of rhythm and movement. It is an ode and mirror of trends, styles, and expressions of culture that we’ve shared and continue to share with the world. It’s a bold celebration of us. ‘Since Day’ visual depicts the grit, flow, and beautiful connections that swirl throughout Philadelphia. We are inspired by the stories, community, music, and soul of this city. We hope to reflect that back in this piece.

Located at 5729 Germantown Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19144.

Big shout out out to the @overallmurals team for making it happen and having me out here on this big wall with the Lil brushes.

#mural #mzicar #blackcanvas #betblackcanvas #germantown #philadelphia #paint #big #walls #streetart #muralist

BET MURAL LOCATION


FLUIDITY MURAL

FLUIDITY MURAL

SUMMER OF 2021: This piece is called FLUIDITY
and it’s hella big.

Have you ever listened to the ‘slave’ narratives recorded in conjunction with the WPA project? If not, stop scrolling and listen now. The sounds of the ancestors voices recalling there experiences of basically being responsible for the physical embodiment of wealth in this nation is chilling. The most memorable part of it is that folks were in there own bodies. Meaning, I could hear who these people are, which is way more than the exploits. They/We are beautifully expansive.

It’s no coincide that I, along with my amazing collective are out here in mid 90deg weather getting eating by mosquitoes and loved up by the sun on Juneteenth. We are humbled and honored to be here.

I often think about the folks who decided to migrate to Texas to skirt emancipating Black folks. How blown outta their minds they must have been to be that outta touch. I think about the blended lineage and often ponder the ancestral stories that comes with continuing to share space with such oppressive folks. Some folks gotta learn to share and some folks gotta take up more space.

We take freedom hella seriously. Part of being free is understanding that we are all intricately connected and that comes with responsibility. It requires accountability and humility. Marginalized folks tend to do the heavy lifting in this particular understanding and that needs to change…like right now…like yesterday.

The blood that pumps through my veins is the blood of folks who originate from this land, Africa, the Caribbean, the south and even includes some colonizer juice. It has traveled continents, built nations and most incredibly it simply exists.

Today I give thanks/honor the ancestors in the best way I know… by painting us huge and glorious and black as ever. Hanging with my peeps, eating fresh food, randomly twerking, getting in some good laughs and avoiding all situations that require kissing my teeth or rolling my eyes. What ya’ll gonna do with yerselves on this glorious day?

#representationmatters

Happy independence day aka Juneteenth.

Big up to the @seismigue team for sharing space.

SEISMIQUE ART MUSEUM


OF EXPANSION

OF EXPANSION

We made a movie…a short one…but still a movie! And it won Best Experimental film in the Imagine This Women’s Film Festival!

‘Of Expansion’ is a short film inspired by quarantine musings and art-making. Here’s the website for the film

This is a trippy studio visit follows 2 puppets through a time and space distorted art exhibition. The visit features a collection of collages, photography, banners, textile studies, and mixed media pieces exploring ‘what is the ideal scenario and how do we get there?’

Over the last year and a half the Mz.Icar collective has spent time working on studies, manifestations, and visual messages that are prayers for what we’d like to see and feel in the future. Given the intersectional history of oppression, inequity, and violence that makes up the legacy of America, It can be challenging to truly envision our society in an ideal way. This collection of work embodies a vision board that does just that. This group of work focuses on an alternative centricity, It’s a celebration of our voice, a lesson in play, and a focus in joy. It draws from the traditions of church banners, propaganda and flags as symbols of things we believe in and have cultural relevance.

Thematically this group of work is an experiment in world-building. It is set out to be a foundational vision board for what could be.

Featuring Rielle Love and digital effects by The Kinardist


ROADMAP TO JOY EXHIBITION

ROADMAP TO JOY

(Philadelphia, PA – June 2021) – “Roadmap to Joy” is a public-art exhibition curated by Atiba T. Edwards and Mz. Icar Collective in partnership with The Culture Rooms, FOKUS and Arts and Crafts Holdings.   This exhibition features a collection of artists answering the question of what is joy, how do we get there and what does it look like?

“Roadmap to Joy” is a multi-location public art exhibition. “Roadmap to Joy” runs through the summer of 2021 and is on display at 1004 Spring Garden St., and 1124 Spring Garden St. in the Spring Garden area of Philadelphia, PA. Featured artists include Paul Ayihawu; Sa’Diyya Dunkley; Gina GilesJoelle St. Julien and Andre Walls

 

“Joy is the journey we take – knowing, like with any road traveled there will be speedbumps, potholes and smooth roads – as well as the place we find ourselves during and at the end of each day. Joy is a combination of making peace with where and who you are and having a sense of where and who you want to be in your life. The four artists featured truly capture this and help to suggest paths to joy for all!” – Atiba 

About Atiba T. Edwards

Atiba is the co-founder of FOKUS and the COO of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. Born in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, he grew up in Brownsville and studied engineering and liberal arts at the University of Michigan.

 

About Mz. Icar 

Mz. Icar is an anonymous interdisciplinary art collective. Their colorful mixed-media, visual narratives celebrate Women, Global Blackness, and Play.

FEATURED ARTISTS:

Andrea Walls

See Andrea’s work in person at 915 Spring Garden St (and Green St)

Gina Giles

See Gina’s work in person at 1124 Spring Garden (Ridge Street Side)

Joelle St. Julien

See Joelle’s work in person at 1124 Spring Garden (Ridge Street Side)

Paul Ayihawu

See Paul’s work in person at 1004 Spring Garden

Sa’Diyya Dunkley

See Sa’Diyya‘s work in person at 1124 Spring Garden (Ridge Street Side)


The Culture Rooms

The Culture Rooms is a multi-room experience under one roof that taps into the multiplicity and value of Black Culture today and our hopes for tomorrow. Through multi-sensory installations, performances, and workshops, we present you with a new way to connect Blackness, creativity, culture, and community.

FOKUS

FOKUS uses the arts to educate, empower and unite communities. This is accomplished through community-based events, arts education curriculum and programming, publishing INSIGHT magazine. By increasing the public's access to the arts, the importance and need of the arts is further realized and supported.

Arts + Crafts Holdings

Arts + Crafts Holdings is an active investor and the leading developer on the northern edge of Center City Philadelphia. Affiliates of Arts + Crafts Holdings currently own in excess of 2,000,000 SF of commercial, industrial & mixeduse real estate.


UNRAVELED

UNRAVELED

Super excited to announce the opening of “UNRAVELED: Confronting The Fabric of Fiber Art” Group Show @untitledspaceny this friday. This show will include a few pieces as well as an installation from our ‘Of Expansion’ Series. The following is all the info

OPENING APRIL 17TH “UNRAVELED: Confronting The Fabric of Fiber Art” Group Show @untitledspaceny ✨
RSVP Required

The Untitled Space is pleased to present “UNRAVELED: Confronting The Fabric of Fiber Art” a group show opening on April 17th and on view through May 28th, 2021. Curated by Indira Cesarine, the exhibition will feature textile and fiber-based artworks by 40 contemporary artists. “UNRAVELED: Confronting The Fabric of Fiber Art” explores in depth the themes and techniques of the medium through the works of female-identifying artists working with natural and synthetic fiber, fabric, and yarn. The exhibition presents figurative and abstract works that address our lived experience and history through the lens of women weaving, knotting, twining, plaiting, coiling, pleating, lashing, and interlacing. Narratives of self-identification, race, religion, gender, sexuality, our shared experience, as well as protest and the patriarchy are literally “unraveled” through embroidery, felt, woven and hooked rugs, braided and sewn hair, sewn fabrics, discarded clothing, cross-stitching, repurposed materials and more.

Exhibiting Artists: Amber Doe, Carol Scavotto, Caroline Wayne, Christy O’Connor, Daniela Puliti, Delaney Conner, Dominique Vitali, Elise Drake, Elizabeth Miller, Hera Haesoo Kim, Indira Cesarine, Jamia Weir, Jody MacDonald, Julia Brandão, Kathy Sirico, Katie Cercone, Katie Commodore, Katrina Majkut, Katy Itter, Kelly Boehmer, Linda Friedman Schmidt, Lisa Federici, Marianne Fairbanks, Mary Tooley Parker, Melanie Fischer, Melissa Zexter, Mychaelyn Michalec, Mz Icar, Orly Cogan, Robin Kang, Rosemary Meza-DesPlas, Ruta Naujalyte, Sally Hewett, Sarah Blanchette, Sooo-z Mastopietro, Sophie Boggis-Rolfe, Stacy Isenbarger, Stephanie Eche, Victoria Selbach, and Winnie van der Rijn.

More info:
https://untitled-space.com/unraveled-confronting-the-fabric-of-fiber-art-group-show/


STUDIO VISIT: THAT NEW NEW

THAT NEW NEW

This period of isolation has been wonderful for us in the studio. There are so many concepts, ideas, and collaborations that we have started and have been unable to finish due to commissioned work. This break from traditional gathering and socializing has allowed us to dive into these more and focus our efforts on that work.

That being said we do feel a lot of guilt around finding pleasure in this and our hearts go out to everybody who has been affected by this virus. The death toll is insane and very hard for us to wrap our heads around, as well as the economic and emotional effects that this has had on the world. We also have our emotions around the treatment of Black Folks, senseless murders and attacks on joy.  We do believe at any given moment multiple realities and perspectives are going on all the time. There is the reality and experience that we are having and there is the reality and experience that every other being is having as well. We acknowledge and hold space for all of those.

Let’s chat about our lastest processes, experience and manifestations. In this studio visit, we share our process, our thoughts, our themes of exploration as well as our collaborative projects. We are gearing up for a show called ‘The Church of expansion’. It will include a series of collages prints canvases banners and other mixed-media works. It also includes the collaboration print series with Erin Patrice O’Brien. We also chat about the origins of our character Matilda and an animation project that has Tanya Farmer teaching her (and you) yoga.

Enjoy our latest studio visit and share it with a friend.

There are a lot of things you shouldn’t really be sharing these days but this vid isn’t one of them 🙂


TYPE PLAY

TYPE PLAY

We spend a lot of time playing and working on studies. Many of our projects require experimentation as they are quite tactile. We love the digital world…but real life in where it’s at, touch something fuzzy, taste something sweet, hug a tree small some plants and gaze upon something shiny in real-life, that kind of thing. These are some recent manifestations of that play. They do not have a purpose, application or home per se but one of our members has been musing about a clothing line. it’ all TBD, but in the meantime here’s some manifestations of that play.


WE STILL LOVING: TYPE EDITION

WE LOVE: TYPE EDITION

We have been pretty enamored by the powerful work of Tré Seals over at Vocal Type Co. Often in design, the biases of the author are ever-present in the final outcome. This is a very blind sided design flaw that can result in (intentional and unintentional exclusion) underrepresentation. The industry of design and specifically typography is maaaad white manish. This is resulting in a momo perspective in letter organization and presentation. Vocal type is filling the Gap and giving is life This foundry has released retail typefaces and created custom type inspired by historical icons of color.

We love all of this and it resonates with some of the latest projects we have been working on. We just wrapped up some custom lettering for Machel Montano’s Machel Monday. Which happens to be today and also happens to be a celebration of his nuptials. yo! It is seriously a love fest over here. Our work is used in the flyers promotional video as well as the tickets. We loved having the opportunity to work on this. Ya’ll over at Hasely stadium, buss a wine for us.


WE LOVE

WE LOVE

The other day our homie Kendra from ‘I wanna hear pod’ put us on to Curbed’s, Nice Try Utopia podcast. Of course, we were all over it. World-building and reimagining the past and future is so our thing. The first episode is about Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America. The podcast goes on to debunk the romantic version of this story told in our history books as well as a contextual of the ‘why’s and how’s’. The one thing that really stood out to me was the part in which these colonizers just lose the fuck out of their humanity. They are starving they start slaughtering indigenous folks and eventually start burning down their own fort for firewood and digging up corpses and eating them. Right when they are about to leave, the company that commissioned the mission demands they stay, sends a whole bunch more Englishmen, kidnapped some folks from Angola, forced slavery and thus America. Honestly, you have to listen to this podcast, this is just a lil summary. They go in. Anyhoot, that stayed with me because origin stories have weight and in this case, if the folks who ‘settled’ America were so far gone to begin with, one could only imagine what 400 years later would look like. I mean these dudes were bat shit crazy. They needed to be getting hugs a warm meal and some trauma therapy so they could stop terrorizing the indigenous folks and get they minds rights. Nope, that didn’t happen, they just ate folks and started a nation instead.

Soooooo that got is thinking about the impact of simply loving up on each other. Like for real love, not ownership, or possessiveness. The type of love that sees oneself in another. That’s open to listening and understands how to support and be an advocate. I know, I know it sounds mad mushy, well it is, the point is to feel good. Full belly full heart etc. So we decided that we are gonna share with you things/situations we love. Cuz it’s February and those lil naked violent flying babies want us to spread love, it’s the Brooklyn way and we’re like Oprah, we love a lot and we have stellar taste. After all, our thots matter.

A couple of our members had the honor of creating an engagement video for J Mandela and Shea. We took a lil road trip, upstate, encountered some racism, loved up on some plants and highlighted the love between these two. We love the way it came out and are super duper happy about this wedding.

We love Millennium Skate rink in Camden NY, I almost don’t want to share my love of this place because I’m afraid y’all might blow it up and all its charms will be lost. So, this is what we love about it. It’s black-owned meaning that the music and vibe are centric to the black community…you won’t hear any pop music even on kids skate sessions. It’s black on black on black. It’s reasonably priced and we get our souls on the rink.

We got portraits taken. We are so fly. We love us. Here’s the back story on this masked bandit crew shot. Folks keep asking us about biopics and we tell ’em we are anonymous…and they are like ‘oh ok, can I get a bio pic?’ Le sigh, basically we really value IRL connections and feel that it is an honor and privilege to connect in the real world. As far as internet presence goes, we appreciate the interest, but we don’t know you bruh, just ‘like’ the work, vibe with us or keep it moving. Our likeness representation is not intended for content. We take our art real seriously and will not be tokenized of sexualized while doing it unless we initiate that.

Before Image After Image

We are full of love so we’ll continue to sprinkle some love posts throughout the thots.


DEAR MAMA

Studio thots:

We have been sitting on this one for a minute! I am so excited to announce our recent work with Essence magazine. One of our Mz’, had the opportunity to paint a three-story mural for the background set celebrating Tonya Louis Lee and Satchel Lee for the may issue. This is currently on the shelves right now it is so fun when you’re commercial and you’re fine art have a chance to mix and match and make babies together.

Roll call, cuz it takes a village to create this type of magic…and the Essence fam has been killing it when it comes to bringing together dope ass black talented women.

Fashion Director @mariellebobo 👗 interview by @missjulee 📝 Shoutout to the creative team: Photographer @ericagenece 📸 Art Director @mochamommy_nyc 🎬 Photo Editor @traceysees 🎞 CCCO @moanaluu 🔌 Set Designer @mz.icar🔮 Makeup Artist @jessicasmalls 💄 Hairstylist @monaeartistry 👸🏽 Manicurist @ginaedwards_ 💅🏾 Video Producer @seanandnotheard

This was painted on a continuous 3 story long 12ft canvas. This was done so that we could rotate the canvas on set resulting in various background settings and layered volume….it is very heavy!

Since we are in a sharing (aka bragging mood) and This essence issue has given us our whole lives and then some in the form of super fun work, great teams and visual candy, let me cleanse your timeline palette with dots. For this one our Mz’ made a series of custom dot backgrounds and a gazillion large dots. A period could never really be enough, a dot is much better suited.

Roll call
Photographer: @itayshaphoto
Wardrobe: @mariellebobo
MUA: @jaleesajaikaran
Haír: @naeemahlafond
Manicurist: @pipbuzzz
Set Design : @mz.icar
Model : @alyseeeuh