Bria Lauren: Gold Was Made Fa' Her

Bria Lauren Gold Was Made Fa’ Her Cecily E. Horton Gallery Lawndale Art & Performance Center Sept 18, 2021 - Jan 15, 2022

Bria Lauren Gold Was Made Fa’ Her Cecily E. Horton Gallery

“Gold Was Made Fa’ Her is an ode to Black hood women in the South—a visual poem that depicts the true meaning of wealth being found in the lived experiences of Black women. The documentation of these women in the landscape of their homes explores the need to transform personal space into an altar that enshrines memory.

Bria’s photography honors the power to reclaim sovereignty within a sense of one’s belonging and connection to the land.

Rooted in the intention to normalize glory in the everyday expressions of Black women, this body of work is a tribute to her own mother, Mama Peaches, whose sacrifices laid the foundation for pride and healing within Bria’s upbringing in 3rd Ward.

“Gold in this context becomes a metaphor for being resourceful and claiming ownership of home as a place of safety and acceptance. The spirit of this work calls out to the women who buy their gold from King’s Flea Market, wearing it as armor of protection and statements of their value. For the matriarchs who carried families on their backs, using the book of Psalms a reminder that trouble don’t last always. These women transmute suffering into survival, pain into prosperity, and lack into sustainability.

Roses will forever bloom in honor of their narratives.”

— Danielle Mason Gold Was Made Fa’ Her is organized by the artist and Rebecca Matalon, Curator, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. This exhibition is made possible with the support from The Idea Fund and funded in part by The City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.

Saturday Services Monthly beginning Saturday, October 23 Taking place once a month from October 2021 to January 2022, the Saturday Services open the doors of Gold Was Made Fa’ Her as a sanctuary for Black women to commune and unpack the stories and experiences that shape their identities. These services explore the intersection of art and spirituality, honor expressions of sisterhood, and venerate community engagement, while holding space for vulnerability and collective healing.

The first Saturday Service, entitled Clean Up Woman: Honoring The House of The Womb, will take place on October 23 from 1 - 3 PM, commencing with a Hood Gospel.

Bria Lauren Gold Was Made Fa’ Her Cecily E. Horton Gallery

Bria Lauren (b. 1993) is a Texas native, born and raised in 3rd Ward, Houston. The south is a sacred and integral part of her work as a visual storyteller, healer, and queer Black woman utilizing ancestral healing as a tool to navigate intersectionality as an act of resistance. Analog photography is a catalyst for Bria to translate her own unspoken vulnerability, visually and to hold space for marginalized voices to be seen, honored, cared for, and respected. The heartbeat and intention of Bria’s work intersects race, gender, vulnerability, motherhood, and Black feminism. She travels through time using 35mm, medium format, and motion picture film to bridge social and political gaps within her community – to communicate the true essence of one’s identity and truth without censorship.

Rebecca Matalon is Curator at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), where she recently organized Wild Life: Elizabeth Murray & Jessi Reaves (2021) and Garrett Bradley: American Rhapsody (2019), the first solo museum presentation of the work of artist and filmmaker Garrett Bradley. Previously, Matalon was Assistant Curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), where she organized exhibitions including Tongues Untied (2015), Mickalene Thomas: Do I Look Like a Lady? (2016), Welcome to the Dollhouse (2018), and Décor: Barbara Bloom, Andrea Fraser, Louise Lawler (2018). In 2018, she co-organized Zoe Leonard: Survey, a major mid-career retrospective of the work of Zoe Leonard, which debuted at The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York before traveling to The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Matalon was a Co-Founder, and from 2015-2018, Curator at JOAN, a notfor-profit exhibition space in Los Angeles that is dedicated to presenting the work of emerging and under-represented artists.

She serves on the board of Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), and is on the Organizing Committee of Texas Talks Art, a multiinstitutional initiative that launched in January 2021.

Danielle Mason is a writer from Houston, TX, who uses the genre of prose to explore themes of vulnerability and transcendence among black female characters in fictional and non-fictional narratives. Her work delves into the mysteries of divine feminine archetypes offering futuristic perspectives on the power of mythological forces to assist in the human plight.

Mason commits to the art of truth-telling as a process of navigating the heart as a landscape of one’s identity. Her work interrogates qualities of perception by blurring the line between visible and unseen worlds, honoring the potential to discover magic in ordinary aspects of life. Mason hosts quarterly Journaling to Heal workshops that guide women through the intuitive healing journey of speaking from the womb.

Mason received a B.A. in English from Prairie View A&M University in Houston, TX and an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College in Oakland, CA. Essay by Mason forthcoming.

mo nikole, known under the performative name womon, is a Houston, Texas based sound practicioner focused on creating safe spaces to heal, connect, and discover through curated sound experiences, archives and text. Vulnerability is a divine offering that is seen, felt, and encouraged here.

Bria Lauren Gold Was Made Fa’ Her Cecily E. Horton Gallery

Jamey Watts, Yellowstone, Texas, 2020 120mm (archival inkjet print) 20 x 24” “Mama Phyllis” Reese, 3rd Ward, Texas, 2021 120mm (archival inkjet print) 20 x 24” Mama’s Room, South Union, Texas, 2021 120mm (archival inkjet print) 20 x 24” “Sista” Emily Sam, Southwest, Texas, 2021 120mm (archival inkjet print) 20 x 24” Sista’s Room, Southwest, Texas, 2021 120mm (archival inkjet print) 20 x 24” Madison, Mo City, Texas, 2020, 120mm (archival inkjet print) 20 x 24”

“Ganny” Jewel McFarlin, Yellowstone, Texas, 2020 120mm (archival inkjet print) 20 x 24” Bud’s Meat Market, Sunnyside, Texas, 2020 120mm (archival inkjet print) 20 x 24” “Cookie” Saffire Stone, South Terrace, Texas, 2021 120mm (archival inkjet print) 24 x 20” Jaylynn, Second Ward, Texas, 2019 120mm (archival inkjet print) 20 x 24” “Mama Peaches” Rhonda Harrison, 3rd Ward, Texas, 1993/2021 Digitized Polaroid (archival inkjet print) 20 x 24”

“GWMFH” sound tribute, 2021 Audio, duration 50:02 Press play and start from the beginning.

“GWMFH” sound tribute: A healing dialogue between mother and daughter remembering their beginnings and makings of one another through soul-filled sound, nostalgic storytelling, and intimate prayers.

This soundtrack is an ode’ to mamas and daughters alike navigating the beauties and complexities of life outside the womb.

This sound offering was curated by mo nikole, known under the performative name “womon,” in collaboration with Mama Peaches and daughter, Bria Lauren for Gold Was Made Fa’ Her.

Mission Lawndale is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center that engages Houston communities with exhibitions and programs that explore the aesthetic, critical, and social issues of our time.

About Lawndale believes in the role of art and artists to inspire and inform the world around us. By serving as an intimate gathering place to experience art and ideas, Lawndale seeks to foster connections between communities in Houston and beyond. Lawndale presents a diverse range of artistic practices and perspectives through exhibitions and programs, including lectures, symposia, film screenings, readings, and musical performances.

Through exhibition opportunities, the Artist Studio Program, institutional collaborations, and the engagement of an advisory board comprised of artists, curators, and scholars, Lawndale seeks within its mission to support all artistic and cultural communities of Houston.

Supporters Lawndale’s exhibitions and programs are produced with generous support from The Anchorage Foundation of Texas; The Brown Foundation, Inc.; David R. Graham; The Joan Hohlt and Roger Wich Foundation; The John M. O’Quinn Foundation; The John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation; Houston Endowment; Kathrine G. McGovern/The John P. McGovern Foundation; The National Endowment for the Arts; The Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation; the Texas Commission on the Arts; The City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance; and The Wortham Foundation, Inc. Additional support provided by Lindsey Schechter/Houston Dairymaids, Saint Arnold Brewing Company, and Topo Chico.

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