Ky Vassor
Ky Vassor is an interdisciplinary Baltimore based artist, currently focusing on mixed media projects with a heavy emphasis on illustration. The aim of their work is to bridge the often wide gap in accessibility to academic texts, Black history, and reflection on queer voices, stirring viewers to seek more information. Growing up in Baltimore, and having Haitian/Black Southern roots, they were often exposed to underrepresented Black artists that stirred them to start drawing at a young age. In their early years, they were given some formal training from private lessons to a summer course at MICA, and even some formal training in their high school arts classes. Growing in to adulthood, they abandoned these formal teaching styles completely to further explore the administrative side of art. Here, they learned from Baltimore’s youth by becoming an assistant art teacher through a local non-profit called Art With A Heart. After being a T.A. through the program, they decided to explore more aspects of arts administration by putting on their own small art shows at local cafes with friends that they dubbed “Local Expressions”. This made them hungry to obtain work in a more formal gallery setting. With a lack of formal education, and the drive to get other local Black/Brown voices heard, they began volunteering at a local gallery called Tectonic Space that was located off of Greenmount Ave. While volunteering, they aided the gallery director in sourcing local LGBTIA+ artists of color that often struggled to have their work seen/represented by major galleries in the city. From there, they were hired to work as the gallery assistant which allowed them to use their graphic arts background to create promotional materials for the gallery, contact media about gallery events, and further make sure that each show had underrepresented artists from the city get the shine they deserved. After almost a year of working with the gallery, it closed, forcing Ky to move on to their own work again. This allowed them to study the greats in “Naive” Style Haitian art like Hector Hyppolite, Préfète Duffaut, and Laurent Casimir. Over the next year, these greats became a foundation for a shift in their style. Here they began to stray away from the more structured and polished illustrations they’d created previously, leaning more in to scattered patterns and bold color stories. Today, they are still studying Haitian artists, often referencing their own families abstract works. They often take Black cultural relics, using them to drive points surrounding self reflection, religion, and unheard voices. In their latest exhibition through Motorhouse, they plan on revealing a compilation of research conducted during quarantine that centered around self preservation and identity for Black people.
Available for:
Mixed Media Art, Curating
