Artist Chris Friday Celebrates Black Life and Culture in Solo Exhibit “Good Times” Now Showing at Oolite Arts

Artist Chris Friday rethinks the depiction of Black bodies in her recent solo exhibition “Good Times” now showing at Oolite Arts.

In “Good Times,” a reference to the popular 1970s sitcom, Friday sources personal narratives, expressions of popular culture, and communal rituals to present broader and more nuanced understandings of blackness and Black life.

Large-scale drawings depict Black bodies at leisure – playing, dancing, resting. Simultaneously, the figures turn slightly away from the viewer, keeping part of themselves hidden, rejecting full disclosure in this age of assumed access.

Photo courtesy of World RedEye.com/Alejandro Chavarria

“You don’t know if the figures are dancing at a nightclub, or are catching the Holy Ghost at church,” Friday said. “I wanted to make a space for both contemplation and celebration, without needing to make that distinction obvious to the viewer.”

A resident at Oolite Arts, Friday is a South Florida-based, multidisciplinary artist. She has exhibited and curated extensively in Miami, as well as nationally and internationally. Most notably, her work was a part of The Cartography Project presented by the Kennedy Center (Washington, DC, 2022), Yard Sale x Lucy St., an exhibition and interactive shop presented by The Wolfsonian as a part of the Open House program (Miami Beach, FL, 2021), and “#WhoOwnsBlackArt?” presented by Zeal Press at Muce 305 (Miami, FL, 2019).