This new body of work explores the enduring relationship between Black people, the church and the idea of the extended family. Here, Palmer locates himself as part of a wider tradition, including the seminal writings of influential American thinkers such as W.E.B Du Bois and Carter G. Woodson, the foundational role of churches in the 1950s civil rights movement, the writing of James Baldwin and the art of Elizabeth Catlett and Keith Piper.
Baby Shower is a series of twelve sketches on paper, which, as the title suggests, are derived from a real-life gathering. Exuding an overwhelming sense of compassion and affirmation, the vitality of life and the extended family are evocatively captured. In Between Black and White, re-presents a close-up photograph of a woman as twelve near identical painted portraits. Here, replication functions as a form of visual alliteration; the paintings are similar, but rendered in a sequence of tonal variations. Pigmentation and composition are infused with ambiguity. The formal concerns of painting intersect those concerning the anthropological gaze and systems of racial classification.
Baby Shower is a series of twelve sketches on paper, which, as the title suggests, are derived from a real-life gathering. Exuding an overwhelming sense of compassion and affirmation, the vitality of life and the extended family are evocatively captured. In Between Black and White, re-presents a close-up photograph of a woman as twelve near identical painted portraits. Here, replication functions as a form of visual alliteration; the paintings are similar, but rendered in a sequence of tonal variations. Pigmentation and composition are infused with ambiguity. The formal concerns of painting intersect those concerning the anthropological gaze and systems of racial classification.