- 2 days ago
The Beauty of Black Art brings together renowned art collectors, artists, and cultural tastemakers to discuss the art, investment, and passion behind art collecting. From the process of selling and appraising art, to pricing your work, these authorities in the field will provide their expertise to the ESSENCE Festival audience.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00really special to me it's about the beauty of black art and these four
00:04panelists are perfect for that conversation it's my pleasure to
00:08introduce visual artists art by Jay, artist Compton, and Soul Engineer Ponte
00:14the founders of Art Melanated. Y'all welcome to the stage. Thank you, thank you,
00:18thank you. Thank you, thank you. How y'all doing today? Good, good. Amazing. And we're
00:24here at Essence Festival. Y'all good? We in Orleans, baby. So my first question is actually for all
00:32of you. When we talk about investing in black art what does that really mean
00:37beyond just money? I think it really means an investment in the legacy of us as a
00:45people in our culture. You know, 200 years from now when society looks back on who
00:53and what we were during this time. They're gonna look at the art and so I
00:57think the investment now is like what stories do we want to be told about us
01:02in the future, you know? What you got, Jania? For me investing in black art is
01:09really it's it's so deeply rooted in representation and seeing ourselves and
01:15there is such a need and a call to see ourselves uplifted to see ourselves in a
01:22light that makes us feel connected, grounded, rooted and and that investment
01:31especially when you see what happens to children when they're when they're able
01:35to see art that looks like them what happens to the brain that's been measured
01:41is is so magical and powerful and besides that yes it's an amazing investment
01:50financially too. When I think of investing in black art the first thing that comes to mind
02:00for me is pride being proud of who we are where we come from and being able to see
02:08that present for all the people around.
02:13When I think about investing in black art it's super important not only are you
02:20investing in the artist but you're investing in a legacy. It's you're investing in
02:26that that artist's time the the idea that was put in to making the piece even
02:33creating the piece the sacrifice the hours and and it's it's like getting a tattoo
02:42because that piece at peace you'll have it forever right and um and it brings
02:47awareness to like to piggyback off what they said you know you walk in the house you
02:51see the black order you might have seen like the Arnie Burns when you're growing
02:55up and things like that and seeing black faces on a wall it's very prominent so I
03:00think it's very important so what's amazing about these two gentlemen here is a
03:06lot of y'all know they're actually from born and raised New Orleans too so that's
03:09really really special being able to be on us essence stage with them um so I
03:13wanted to ask you first Compton how do you balance honoring your New Orleans roots
03:18with your art balancing balancing my roots with New Orleans is easy it's
03:25seamless like black art I'm black New Orleans I'm born and raised in New Orleans
03:30uh it's ingrained in me it's something I don't have to think about like I got
03:35reason all right now like I am New Orleans like it's easy Jay same question
03:43brother um like what Com said man it's easy to just to tell the story and a
03:48narrative growing up here we both um tie in New Orleans in some form of fashion
03:54and our art whether it's neighborhood he does the Mardi Gras Indians I do a lot of
03:59neighborhood nostalgia so like he says it's it's a it's an easy layup um telling
04:05our story huh so Jenny I know you're um very multifaceted and I wanted to ask this
04:11next question for you uh as a filmmaker and storyteller how do you decide which
04:15artists or stories feel right for art melanated to highlight wow that's a great
04:21question the way uh my husband and I we we share the same taste and in a lot of
04:29regards to art but our focus um we believe that every single story in the
04:37black diaspora is important however the stories that we tend to focus on um are
04:45ones that elevate us and make us feel good and um seen and you know so the the the
04:54focal part of you you're gonna leave one of our exhibitions probably feeling
04:59really good about yourself um we're we're in we're interested in that yeah and so
05:06kind of um expound on that a little bit because you worked in uh television
05:10before launching art melanated how do you think those experience help you create a
05:14space that really supports black artists I think every every experience that I've
05:20had working in television or music you know it was always in celebrating artists
05:26in some capacity whether they were musician or a storyteller using using cinema so
05:32for me I feel like I've always had like an eye for talent you know and and and and
05:37knowing kind of what's hot so this space you know just feels really easy you know I've
05:43been putting on events all of my adult life and so now to be in this space of of visual
05:49art it just feels so fun and so fresh and new you know there's there's this there's
05:54this uncle is this such a thick I don't know if you guys feel that I mean you probably feel
05:59that's why you're here but the the conversation around black art is so uh omnipresent right now
06:06you know it's it's everywhere and I feel like there's a there's a definitive renaissance happening
06:12right now so it feels good to be in the center of it creating space for other artists and other
06:18storytellers to to to really tell their stories I love that man I love that um Jay I'm coming to you
06:24my brother and I actually we talked in the back I actually have some of his work he's a really
06:28really amazing artist man um and a lot of your work is celebrates growing up in New Orleans
06:32even through tough moments like Hurricane Katrina um how do those moments of uh trauma still shape
06:38how you create art today um so I uh in in the midst of like um like tragedy and my pieces I try to bring
06:48out a lighter situation um in the midst of it so I had a piece I did called fun in the flood
06:55and um like when I was growing up if it flooded as a kid that was like a big ass swimming pool so we
07:03would go play in that dirty water you'll run around in the water splash whatever um but for us as a kid
07:11we didn't know how serious it was that oh it's flooding um you know water could get in the house water
07:19damage um you know so far like Katrina the the damage it did so in my pieces I like to pull the
07:28ounce of joy out of a devastation but still bringing um awareness to what's going on like gentrification
07:36and and blotted properties and stuff like that so um I'm more of a joyful painter but there's still
07:43a message um within what's going on basically. Compton um how important is community when it
07:52comes to creating art for you? Say that one more time. How important is community when it comes to
07:57creating black art? Um I would say community is kind of like my driving force almost everything I
08:05create comes from real people all the stories I'm telling is based on like my real experiences in
08:11New Orleans um when I have events my goal is for my community to come out and see it one of my
08:19previous pieces was a 16 foot spy bar and it toured around the city one of the locations was on top of
08:27so seafood for super sunday and st joseph night it was important for me to make sure I had that on top of
08:34the roof for that moment because it's for the city so it is all the way up there for me
08:41I love that brother um so Sol and Jenny these uh this question is for you um I wanted to ask
08:47what advice would you give to someone who is just starting to collect black art and where should they
08:52begin? Who? Well I'm sure anybody that's starting to collect art if you've asked anyone the first thing
09:02which was the first advice we got was when we started our journey was collect what you love
09:08collect the things that you really really love and the next piece of advice I would give and and that
09:15comes from me doing endless research on people that have amassed collections that are worth a lot of
09:24money and tour and go to museums um curate your collection um and it doesn't really matter what it
09:32is just make sure that you buy works that speak to you in particular because I was just looking at a
09:39collection that is virtually priceless and they're most of the artists in this woman's collection you
09:48have never even heard of but they're going to museums because the focal point is a particular style of
09:56portraiture or um where you know the the stories that are being told so if you if you found if you're
10:05starting to collect collect what you love and curate the collection so that it it tells a story and it
10:14doesn't have to be collective I mean expensive art obviously um but if done correctly with the the right
10:23appraisals or advisors it can be worth a lot of money I would say you know for somebody just starting
10:31out when we first started collecting art we were buying prints all right we weren't really ready to
10:36make um we felt like we weren't educated enough to invest um you know the thousands of dollars or more
10:44for an original so we started with prints that would cost you know five hundred dollars thousand
10:48dollars or whatever and so we started decorating our place with you know with art that was supporting
10:55the artists and it allowed us time to kind of learn what we liked and learn how certain things felt so
11:02i would suggest um everything that you said in a two but in addition um depending upon what your pocket
11:10is like you know maybe you want to start off with some prints start somewhere so that you can start to
11:15feel how it feels to live with the art because you might like a piece of art you know because you
11:19heard the artist's story or whatever and then you hang it in your home and you're like this is too
11:23much energy to at the breakfast table you know what i'm saying i want something else here um so
11:29i would say you know go to galleries go to black owned galleries stella jones gallery has been around
11:34for 29 years here in new orleans i think it's 29 years um i would just say to visit artist studios
11:41and connect with uh with artists and and find a way to support the artist through your collection
11:49um so being a uh a lover of black art this question i run into a lot from the collecting as
11:55well as the artist side because i want to ask y'all all this question i'm gonna start with you jay
12:00what should artists know about protecting their work and making sure they get paid for what they're worth
12:05um as far as uh i mean me personally i like to meet my collectors like you can't just go online and
12:16purchase it like it's a pair of shoes we we uh i want to know who's collecting um you know know something
12:24about them um you know of course send over we send over the right paperwork because that can also
12:31um mess you up as well we send contracts invoices uh so that there's a paper trail behind it and um
12:40mainly like i said it's important for me to know who's collecting my work and i would like to know
12:45you know what other work they collect even if it's the you know i may be their first um investment
12:51piece i'm fine with that but it's definitely important to know who's collecting where it's going
12:57who the collector is to me i'm on the same page with with jay uh i do know almost every last one
13:05of my collectors i got a list of them by name uh then outside of that as far as protection i have an
13:12intellectual property lawyer so whenever it's something i'm unsure about when somebody wants me
13:18to license something uh i go talk to the lawyer i also feel like i'm fortunate that i have friends
13:25and art as well well when they get contracts i get to see the contract i get to learn the language so
13:32from the artist standpoint is educating yourself on you know everything there is to know about your
13:38business because you're running a business
13:39you know what i would say um i think both of those answers are amazing um and add to that if
13:51you're the kind of artist like myself who um who really likes when it comes to their art to focus on
13:59that you need to have someone you trust that can broker your deals because i'm i'm i don't want to
14:08negotiate i don't you know so i think it's really important for an artist um to have someone that
14:15they truly trust um and that is trustworthy um that can that you can work with if you are um you know
14:25it's great to be an artist and a businessman because i know i know a lot of those people
14:30um but if you're not please make sure you get somebody that you truly trust
14:35i agree with everything they said i would just add you know like from for a collector
14:41to protect themselves by getting insurance for the artwork you know add it to your to your insurance
14:47policy it's just so that in the event that you know there's damage or fire or water at least your
14:52your artwork is protected i think it's very important i just want to stay with you too so
14:57because we actually um briefly touched on this during our interview when we spoke uh there's a
15:01stereotype about what black art is and when people hear the word black art they think of a certain
15:07picture a certain portrait what's your definition of black art
15:14for me it's real simple it's like you know art that's created from you know by us you know like
15:21from the melanated diaspora you know we come in so many shades i think that uh melanated people are you
15:28you know just have a natural um ability to tap into frequencies that are of a higher vibration
15:38so to me i think uh black art is so many forms like we're not a monolith you know like we can do so
15:45much and achieve so much but i i think it it expands to culinary i think it expands to you know beyond
15:52visual art so for me black artists it's just really about the fabric of our culture and how
15:58we express our creativity for me and jania you're an artist as well too so i wanted to ask you from
16:04a mental aspect um how has art served as a sense of therapy for you wow um i think art is therapy for
16:19everyone in a sense but for me it's definitely been been therapy for me because i'm a i'm also a writer
16:28so the storytelling aspect of the work i create is super important the very first series that i put
16:37out was a group of black ballerinas because i started as a dancer and as a little girl in indiana
16:45there was no artwork i never saw artwork of a black ballerina thankfully there's there's a lot more
16:54now i mean we got a lot we got a lot of catching up to do but i created work that i really wanted to
17:02see so i was trying to satisfy a seven-year-old jania and then i went on to create another form of
17:11therapy which was a sister series a series of portraits around me and my sister growing up and it
17:18really it touches on what you were talking about about that that joy because i'm gary indiana gets
17:26a similar rap to like new orleans right um as it being like it was named the saddest city in america
17:35in a newspaper at one point and
17:37and my childhood was amazing like yes the flooded water was fun and you know like i have so many
17:49great memories of my life and the stories that get told if if the if the if the story is told from a
17:57white perspective it's always sad or it's or it sucked or you know like they were below the poverty line
18:05like and as a child you don't even know what the poverty line where's the line so it's it's wanting
18:15me to tell the story that encompasses all of us the way we're able to have joy amidst circumstances that
18:25don't look favorable that's really been therapy for me to go back and and be honest about my experiences
18:33which were great compton how's your art served as a sense of therapy for you brother um for me art is
18:43it's definitely self-expression i have this moment where i just get out all my thoughts um maybe art
18:51is selfish to me like but it definitely always starts from within for me so i'm i'm getting everything
18:57over my brain same question j um yeah it's definitely therapeutic um and i like the fact that it's
19:06like it's no rules um it's all in what you want to express what you want to represent how you feeling
19:13at the moment um just overall for me to be able to sit down and paint you know it just brings you in a
19:21just put you on another vibe man it's just like you creating it's almost like it's magical for real
19:28can't really explain it but it's a good feeling man this is a question for the entire panel i'm
19:34gonna start with you so uh where do you see black art gone in the future and how can we make sure it's
19:40preserved and passed down the right way i mean i'm i'm i'm if we were at the uh at the at one of the
19:48tables at the caesars man i'm my chips are all in on black art i think uh our goal is to excite more
19:55of us around the idea of engaging with art for the benefit of our kids and their children um
20:05in addition to engaging in it by owning it and collecting it as a as as a method to preserve our
20:12stories um so i see it as something that i've i've heard in in art circles that um and i found it
20:21quite offensive but i heard uh whispers from folks outside of our community that collect our our work
20:28that the sun is setting on black figurative work and i said well how how does anybody outside of our
20:36community get to decide when we're not on trend anymore and was was so our push is really to get
20:44more of us excited about it so that no one outside of our community can ever turn our valve off
20:51you know i'm saying and the more of us that are participating in the space the more we get to own
20:56our cultural legacy i love to see you know us getting together through you know um cooperative
21:04economics to open museums to open galleries to open framing shops i think that's the future of black
21:11art is us um creating and building our own tables in every facet i love that um i would say
21:22it's very important for us to if we haven't started to become serious about collecting art
21:32that and not the legacy piece is is is really beautiful but the fact that you're you can put
21:42yourself in a position to take care of it can create generational wealth there's it's a very
21:49simple way to put it and you you can do the numbers like say say you bought a carrie james marshall
21:54print over 10 years ago i want to say the the price which was you could consider high was about six
22:00thousand now a carrie james marshall print the same one goes for like twenty thousand dollars
22:06that's not a long stretch of time the same thing goes for um you know figurative art when you do
22:14the numbers and you study people that have been collecting throughout the years their collections
22:22they become worth a lot of money if you guys are familiar with the kinsies
22:26um they're a much older couple they started collecting in the 60s now their collection is
22:33worth tens of millions and their first piece was like 50 bucks and it wasn't about collecting
22:39really pricey work you just collect and what you learn along your journey is that a few of those
22:45artists in your collection are going to become major that's just how it goes so it's i think it's a
22:53very and we have the money it's just where we put it like black women i know we love purses and they
23:01can become vintage to a degree but not in the same way just the numbers don't lie if you do your research
23:10watch the trajectory of of art and its value and how it goes up and how we're in a position to
23:18create wealth as a result of collecting
23:24come the same question brother uh what do you see black art going in the future and how can we
23:29make sure it's preserved and passed down the right way how do i see it for the future i feel like
23:34black art is just gonna be unbound uh we step into more and more spaces from just hearing you mention
23:42like the purses like knowing that there are black fashion designers that have purse brands and
23:47as a community we go and support those brands because that's our people and we like the product
23:53and i think just continuing that me me myself i make art toys that's something that plenty of people
24:00have never seen before and so i expect just like i've done that somebody else is going to do that
24:06there's more people introduced to a medium right now there is a craze with the
24:11la bobo things so now people be like oh cop you made this i'm like yeah so they interested in the
24:18land now so i just feel like the future of black art is just unbound we just gonna keep breaking down
24:24doors and doing things our way and our people love that and everybody else love it too so that's how i
24:30see the future of black art man i mean i think all y'all like hit on so many points i don't even know what
24:38to say but now man the future of black art is going up and up man i don't see it coming down
24:45like you mentioned i did read an article about the black figurative art uh taking a decline like well
24:52you know who who are who are you to um feel that way or say that way like you don't you know it's so
25:01many art sales and and so many private collectors that invest in art and certain kind of art that
25:09they don't have to promote what what art they're they're collecting and how they're collecting it
25:15we don't there is no um this is not a stock market type of business to where you can track what's
25:24selling and what's not right i mean certain fairs like basel they keep track of like sales or what
25:31went on that weekend uh stuff like that but you know like for me example in my agency we have a
25:40wide range of collectors and a collector base and and people that we communicate with on a day-to-day
25:46basis and sending newsletters out to and and i just delivered a piece to dallas it was all figurative
25:54art to a black collector in a in a a young black collector at that beautiful home and has a home
26:04full of black art you know so i think the i think especially like younger you know around our age are
26:12now getting into the collecting buying prints starting off there and investing in certain pieces
26:19that they can afford and i'm okay with that you know i'm actually glad you robbed the collecting
26:25aspect so i wanted to ask you two um a question um as collectors which has been the most challenging
26:30part of collecting art for y'all two um i don't think there's anything too challenging about it from
26:37from our experience um but i will say this sometimes um
26:41um because there are more spaces for us to buy our work now like we're in a time period in 2025
26:51where if you want to acquire work by artists of color it's not that difficult um it used to not be
26:58that way you know um so i think we're it's in a is we're in a really really really great place
27:04artists are thriving and making you know full-on careers from their artistry it's a beautiful scenario
27:09um i just think there's just so much opportunity i don't think that we've encountered a well besides
27:14trying to buy somebody who's like in in really high demand and if by the time you got there wasn't
27:19available anymore like that's the only thing is trying to access somebody who's so hot and they're
27:25sold out by the time it opens that's that could be challenging i would say my my biggest challenge
27:32is the um the lack of the ability to travel throughout time because i would love to go back and buy
27:41some pieces that i i could have bought um some years ago um like a amy shirl you could have got her for
27:51like 12 000 a few years ago which is like oh that's expensive now she's about what like her floor is like a
28:00i don't know her floor is high sixes right now so time travel is my only art issue i guess i kind
28:10of want to talk about i guess the technical aspect like uh is it any difficulty in terms of verifying
28:14you know like let's talk about amy shirl like knowing that this piece of artwork that you're
28:18getting is authentic you know how's that process like i think in our experience we've been fortunate
28:24because we we um you know we live in a time where we collect living artists personally right and so
28:31a lot of times we're you know we develop relationships with the artists like these brothers
28:35talked about like they know their collectors right and so i think that takes you know that part out of
28:39it a little bit but if you are buying works of masters or you know works that you might find on
28:45auction like how do you verify that that's a that's that would be an interesting play i think you know
28:51inquiring about its provenance like knowing exactly where it came from like knowing where the work
28:57came from especially if it's not a living artist i think could provide a little challenge so you got
29:01to be careful treading because you don't want to buy a forged piece and think you got a basquat and
29:06somebody's kid made it man you go sell it and it's a basquate yeah now uh before we get out of here
29:13um i want i'm gonna start with you jay can you tell all the people your socials and where they can find you
29:18all right um i'm jay mckay you can find me at art by underscore jay on instagram that's art by
29:26underscore jay tattoo artists too yeah tattoo artists as well oh look real quick too i have
29:31an exhibit coming up august 16th um it's called let the children play and also i'll be giving out 300
29:39pairs of sneakers to the youth with a partner with adidas so if y'all in the area august 16th yeah
29:45uh i'm compton compton three compton the third whichever one you want to choose uh on instagram
29:55i am compton dot iii the next things i have coming up is uh an official release for spy boy at sneaker
30:04politics in the fall um and you can find me at axiom art gallery and currently i'm doing an artist
30:11residency at tola with kofi you can follow us on art melanated on instagram art melanated dot com
30:23and if you want to see my artwork um i have some of it on my instagram page it's my name which is
30:30would take longer than the time we have but it's jania frederic on instagram um we have a she gave you
30:39our socials um but we have a summit coming up in february it's going to be february 28th it's called
30:46the black art empowerment summit it's going to be in los angeles um guaranteed to be a very empowering
30:55as the name suggests day of art and culture so if you uh can make your way to los angeles february 28th
31:02we highly recommend it and you can find information uh launching in august on our website at art melanated
31:09dot com and you can learn about us on essence oakland did an amazing article on art melanated
31:14uh that came out about a month ago so you can look for that too thank you thank you thank you so yeah i
31:19want a loud loud round of applause for all by jay compton and soul engineer from art melanated thank y'all
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