Staff Writer | Cynthia Arroyo

APU senior art major Evan Black is showcasing his exhibition, “Shadows,” and speaking oceans of truth while doing it.

Each year APU hosts art exhibitions in all six of the galleries on campus. These shows are organized by guest artists, student artists and faculty. Although the galleries are open to a wide variety of artistry and artistically inclined individuals, curating a show is considered a capstone for APU’s senior art majors.  

As a double major in art and English, Black found a way to tie both of his majors into his final act at APU. He said, “I’ve noticed a pattern in the western canon of literature– many male authors in a patriarchal society have written so many one-dimensional tragic female characters.”

Black identified 22 female characters in literature who “have lived ‘in the shadows’ of their male hero.” With the modeling help of 22 friends and with the use of black charcoal on white paper, Black separated these characters “from their tragic narrative” and gave them the opportunity to “speak apart from men.”

In addition to the charcoal drawings, Black is showcasing his own poems through an art form known as “relief printmaking,” which essentially works like a stamp but with a concentrated attention to detail. Each poem has key plot points from the characters in his show. 
Black said, “I want to redeem tragic storylines created by men in the past and allow women a space of their own to find strength and beauty.”

The Shadows description is in the light; stickers of Shadows model Rachel Lewis rest on the shelf along with Black’s exhibition book.

Nine framed charcoal images on a wall in the exhibition

Six charcoal drawings of different sizes are seen next to the poems

Four of the largest pieces are hung adjacent to the entrance.

Three charcoal pieces and the wood cuttings used for the poems hang on the far wall of the gallery.

Shadows will be in the Duke Art Gallery until March 31. Other exhibitions can be enjoyed until then as well.