On View January 23, 2025 - April 4, 2025 

Mythmakers celebrates five artists who explore mythmaking as a tool of creation, disruption, and survival. In our political moment, where the capacity to distinguish between fact and fiction–the real and the imagined–has never felt more important, the exhibition asks viewers to question what they see and arrive at their own sense of truth. Featuring works by Jahmane West, Sophie Harpo, Chris Jones, Vijor McCray, and Miguel Ángel Mendoza Melchor, Mythmakers considers the role of art in bravely critiquing an unjust society and mythologizing the world we want to live in. 

Sophie Harpo is a Black comics artist who defies categorization, prompting us to reconsider the boundaries of fine art, commercial visual culture, and everyday life. Harpo draws inspiration from pop art, history, cartoons, drag, and vaudeville to depict the adventures of Left Handed Sophie, “a young albino Black woman coming of age in the Gotham-esque setting of O’Shea City.” Included in the exhibition are eight small drawings that depict Left Handed Sophie–alongside other members of The Young Americans–using a divination framework borrowed from tarot cards. Their intricate drawings, with original characters, expertly explore, “the intersections of race, gender, magick, and mythology,” while seducing viewers into a fictional, illustrated universe that, at times, mirrors dark corners of reality.

Chris Jones depicts Black and brown figures among vivid nature scenes and mythologized dreamscapes to, “honor Blackness, queerness, fantasy, and transformation.” Celebrating nocturnal magic, ritual, and healing, Jones’ works on view–which include a painting, wall sculpture, and two collages–use light and dark to balance fantasies with memories. As an art therapist, Jones is interested in Reflective Distance, the practice of creating safe space for creative, nonverbal communication and the title of one of their pieces. As a maker, Jones remains open to evolving through the artmaking process itself, allowing that transformation to serve as a guide in the creation of new works. 

Vijor McCray is an abstract realist painter who aims to position the viewer within a moment, whether it be one of, “nostalgia, love, loneliness, vulnerability, triumph, or connection.” Grappling with the tensions between the myths surrounding Black identity and her own lived experience, McCray aims to depict both the full breadth and depth of our stories and her own, “plain black life.” On view are two new paintings, one that depicts an abstract self-portrait, and the other that borrows imagery from 1970s sex advertisements and subverts their message to comment on myths enshrouding women’s-rights-in-practice today. 

Through his oil paintings, predominantly portraits, Miguel Ángel Mendoza Melchor captures the essence of magical realism, reflecting the rich traditions and warmth of his Mexican heritage. He, “invites viewers to explore the rich tapestry of human existence, fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation for the shared threads that connect us all, regardless of our cultural backgrounds or geographical locations.” In Dualidad, Melchor asked a young Venezuelan woman to think about her mother, capturing her face both before and after she allowed her mind to wander down memory lane. Across his extensive body of work, he celebrates the inherent beauty, resilience, and perseverance of Hispanic people navigating the myth of the American dream.

Jahmane West works across painting, collage, graffiti, fashion design, and more to experiment with, “art's ability to affect the individual viewer and society as a whole.” Inspired by vintage posters, zines, African-American quilting traditions, interior design, architecture, and science fiction movies, he aims to communicate across social barriers, “deconstructing popular norms and challenging cultural stereotypes.” On view are five collages depicting mythological creatures, each of whom appears to possess a unique superpower as conjured by the objects and symbols used to create their distinct, bodily forms. Here, West deploys an abstract language all his own to bridge historic and contemporary references, and comment on the patchwork construction of social and cultural identities.

Across all five artists’ works are rich explorations of duality–light and dark, self and other, and fantasy and fiction to name a few. In addition to loaded symbols and familiar iconography, many artists also use text as a raw material to further complicate their visual narratives. Presented in the wake of Inauguration Day, Mythmakers aims to create a safe, dialogic space for our community to reflect on what it means to live in a society where duality and the celebration of difference is contested.

-  nico w. okoro, Founder + Principal, The Building Fund | Founding Partner + Curator-at-Large, Orchid Gallery