Light Paint

So photography is all about how you see light and what you can make from it- the image. Once you can see light it becomes a thing of magic and astounding gravity. Besides being a photographer, I am a self taught painter. I started painting because I wanted art in my home, and I wanted my home to feel like a healthy place to come to to decompress my mind and art in many ways helps with this process. And then I became a photographer also. Now I wanted to find a way in which I could bring the two together, painting and photography and so I started out on a mission to create colorful abstract scapes with light that would make you think of a painting, that when you looked at these images you would wonder where is the separation? Is this a painting or is this a photograph. To me they are one and the same. Its art. I have found other ways to merge this process but for now I will share some brief examples of what I am talking about.

Kwesi Abbensetts

Review of my Art from A group show (WagMag Magazine)

Live to Change Something Through Art


2010-02-01

Ensconced on the third floor of Bedford-Stuyvesants’ Restoration Plaza, the aptly named Skylight Gallery dazzles. This sun-drenched space currently hosts, “Live to Change Something Through Art”, (through feb 28th) an exhibition of the Art Collective Coup d’etat Brooklyn. Titled after the Collectives mission statement, this show endeavors, in the adapted words of curator Nakeisha Gumbs, to ‘explore urban art and showcase work that alludes to social conditions and culture.” Boasting contributions by over 25 artists, “Live to Change …” accomplishes this objective with style.

The high notes of the show are 4 jewel-toned photographs from Kwesi Abbensetts. The double exposure muses in these photos are confrontational and dream-like, leaving an impactful resonance long after their initial viewing. Jamaican born Taganyahu Swaby offers traditional and technically proficient woodcuts. The rousing “We Nuh Know How We and Dem a Go Work It Out” by Swaby features a cacophonous street scene, with deep gouges in wood signifying the vacuous, unmistakable shapes of riot police headgear and batons. Also exceptional, a deftly executed letter-form abstraction by DC native ONE9, an amusing yet polished ‘Big Daddy Kane Snowboard’ by Deka (Kane is nimbus-framed with gold and cash in check) and the uplifting ‘Freedom Fighters’ Poster by designer Sam Wilson, with imagery alluding to the twin weapons of inspiration and example employed by heroes of old.

This polyphonic show offers much in the way of perspective and insight, a reminder that themes as broad as urbanity and community can seldom be voiced in the singular. Rather, the strains of comprehension come to us in chords, sometimes clanging, often soothing and occasionally sublime.

—Enrico Gomez
http://www.wagmag.org/reviews.php

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