Meta Evil©Tavarus Blackmonster

Tavarus Blackmonster: Meta-Evil

Tavarus Blackmonster: Meta-Evil, represents a chance to view his brilliant work. With a history of personal struggles and triumphs, the art of Tavarus Blackmonster is at once a way of healing and understanding. Expressing his own unique experiences, he helps us to understand his life in a way that has inspirational and positive outcomes. The University Art Gallery’s programing helps to support our faculty’s teaching. It is through faculty recommendations that many exhibitions come to our galleries. This exhibition was recommended by my colleague Mirabel Wigon, who wrote the following about Tavarus work:

Tavarus Blackmonster is an interdisciplinary/intermedium artist, curator, and educator based in Sacramento whose work discusses issues of domesticity, race, and joy. This exhibition consists of primarily paintings and music, showcasing Blackmon’s use of vibrant colors and bold forms that create a process-based narrative. This exhibition envelops the viewer in a synesthetic experience, hypnotizing and destabilizing the space with the interplay of forms and music. Blackmon aims to expand painting, using beauty as a subversive and powerful tool to work through trauma, building a space for healing.

I am very excited to be able to exhibit Tavarus work for others to enjoy.

I would like to thank the many colleagues that have been instrumental in presenting this exhibition. Tavarus Blackmonster for the chance of exhibiting his work, Mirabel Wigon for recommending Tavarus’s exhibition, Brad Peatross of the School of the Arts, California State University, Stanislaus for the catalog design and Parks Printing for the printing this catalog.

Much gratitude is extended to the Instructionally Related Activates Program of California State University, Stanislaus, as well as anonymous donors for the funding of the exhibition and catalogue. Their support is greatly appreciated.

Dean De Cocker Director, University Art Galleries California State University, Stanislaus

Tavarus Blackmonster

BIOGRAPHY

Tavarus Blackmon, also known by the Anglo-Saxon, Blackmonster, is a devoted, Black, Father and Partner with three children in the City of Trees, Sacramento, California. He earned his MFA as Provost Fellow at the University of California Davis and his MA in Studio Art at CSU, Sacr amento. He has been under Fellowship at the Headlands Center for the Arts and is the recent Parent Artist Fellow at the Kala Art Institute. His is the recipient of the 2020–2021 Kala Art Institute Fellowship and the Curatorial Fellowship at Root Division. He is the winter, 2021, AiR at Calder a Arts in Sisters, OR. His practice is interdisciplinary and intermedium.

His work has appeared in The Racket, Susurrus, Calaveras Station, The Suisun Valley Review, Sacramento City Exchange, Instagram; he has contributed to The Sacramento News and Review: Arts and Culture, Reverb, Voices against mass incarceration, CURA, Literary Magazine of Art and Action, Fordham University, IO Literary Journal and Brushfire Journal, Edition 72, vol. 2, University of Nevada, Reno. He has exhibited in San Francisco; at American Steel Studios, Oakland; Los Angeles at The Center for Digital Arts; Chicago (Arc Gallery); New York (Limner Galler y); Mexico City and Berlin (Blue Banana Video Art Festival). Tavarus Blackmon has cur ated panel discussions, presentations and exhibitions, at Beatnik Gallery, The Golden One Center’s digital media displays, Axis Gallery, the Master of Art in Studio Art Thesis Exhibition, Cr itical Response at CSU, Sacramento and is founder and webmaster of Art Music Lit Space, an online galler y presenting virtual exhibitions. He is an artist member and Vice President at Axis Galler y, Sacramento. He also serves on the Marketing and eCommerce committees and is webmaster of the eCommerce website, Axis Editions.

He has developed and published work for the web including the sites Tavarus Blackmon Ar t, Awedio Codex and Black Monster Night Light. His site, BlackmonsteReview hosts his thesis, The Politics of the Cartoon and Contemporary Art. Additional and substantive video and audio can be found under the profiles Tavarus Blackmon and Black Audio Monster on Vimeo and Soundcloud, respectively. His current body of sound art, Lock Down, is released through Spinnup, a Universal Music Group platform .

Tavarus Blackmon

https://tavarusblackmonart.com

@tavarusblackmon

https://art-music-lit.space

https://opensea.io/collection/play/collection

American Milk, synthetic polymer pigment on watercolor paper, 32 x 40 inches, 2019

Tavarus Blackmonster

ARTIST STATMENT

My practice is involved with trauma and healing. As an artist use interdisciplinary terms. discuss the difficult nature of being a disabled, Black, artist through a cultural lens. More specifically, how my internal struggle is portrayed in my work and how for me, that creates healing. am a survivor of physical trauma, having underwent open-heart-surgery as a child. The post tr auma has caused challenges in my life but art and making have provided a way to heal, a way to address my Black identity and a way to place my personal history within the histor y of art.

I use motif to discuss issues of domesticity race and joy. For example, my role as a Father who was sexualized as a young adult. I use gestures to engage the contradiction of being both objectified and a caretaker with a visual language, a written verse and plastic pixels of virtual space . I employ abstraction and surreal images. twist lyric into feeling and churn catharsis from the wrought emotion. The combination of distasteful visual expression and embodiment of the work is paradoxically beautiful because my use of color, original forms and my passion for the studio practice. am informed by my experience as a Black man and inspired by my life as a successful and professional, schizophrenic.

The major contr adiction in my life is that my personal struggles inform my work but do not overlap with my professional relationships. Further, that due to my disability making art presents the only labor not concerned with my psychology. receive retirement benefits because of my childhood trauma. But I have never worked harder than as an artist. In this way, my experience has evolved parallel with duality. Where through my art, I express my personal histor y - a unique history of a Black experience - yet I also share difficult truths about myself through the removal of a visual language, a written language, an embodiment of the lived exper ience that is both solitary in its trauma but universal in its quest for healing.

My work is involved with trauma and healing. My work is involved. My work. Work.

Tavarus Blackmon, MA, MFA https://tavarusblackmonart.com https://art-music-lit.space

Vice President, Axis Gallery https://axisgaller y.org

Webmaster, Axis Editions https://axiseditions.com

2020–2021 Artist Fellow, Kala Art Institute

Cur atorial Fellow, Root Division

Lecturer, CSU, Sacramento/Folsom Lake College

Lead Broker to the Art Consultants of UC Davis Health

Classic Milk, archival inkjet print, 40 x 50 inches, 2020

Game of Consequences, synthetic polymer pigment, urethane, glitter on canvas, 140 x 84 inches, 2020

Game of Errors, synthetic polymer pigment, urethane, glitter on canvas, 108 x 72 inches, 2020

Game of Life and Dead, synthetic polymer pigment, urethane, glitter on canvas, 141 x 90 inches, 2021

Game of Peril and Folly, synthetic polymer pigment, urethane, glitter on canvas, 144 x 84 inches, 2021

Gaming, synthetic polymer pigment, cel vinyl, ink ion canvas, 60 x 60 inches, 2019

Game Over, synthetic polymer pigment, cel vinyl on canvas, 60 x 60 inches, 2019

Milk 3, synthetic polymer pigment, urethane, aluminum flakes on watercolor paper, 22 x 28 inches, 2019

Milk 2, synthetic polymer pigment, urethane, aluminum flakes on watercolor paper, 32 x 40 inches, 2019

Milky Brood, synthetic polymer pigment on watercolor paper, 32 x 40 inches, 2019

Milk, synthetic polymer pigment, urethane, glitter on watercolor paper, 22 x 28 inches, 2019

Mom’s Dead, synthetic polymer pigment, urethane, glitter on canvas, 36 x 42 x 2 inches, 2019

The Family Cowl, synthetic polymer pigment, cel vinyl, urethane, glitter on canvas, 36 x 72 x 2 inches, 2019

Creep, synthetic polymer pigment, urethane, glitter, cel vinyl on checkered fabric mounted to faux leather upholstery vinyl, thread, hand-stitching, 60 x 72 inches, 2021

The Milk and the Matron, synthetic polymer pigment, cel vinyl, urethane, glitter on canvas, 36 x 42 x 2 inches, 2019

G Golly, printed felt, felt, wire, thread, hand-stitching, buttons, plastic straws, Zip-Lock bag, dimensions variable, 2022

Meta-Evil installation documentation 1 (1-7), site-specific installation, CSU, Stanislaus, dimensions variable, 2022

Tavarus Blackmonster CV

EDUCATION

2018 MFA, Studio Art, Provost Fellow, University of California Davis, Davis, CA

2015 MA, Studio Art, Sacramento State University, Sacramento, CA

2013 B A, Digital Film and Video Production, Sacramento State University, Sacramento, CA

2008 AA, Social Sciences; AA, General Education, Sacramento City College, Sacramento, CA

SOLO EXHIBITION

2222 Meta-Evil, CSU, Stanislaus, Turlock, CA

2021 Dad Life, Axis Gallery, Sacramento, CA

2019 Exquisite Diver sion, Verge Center for the Arts, Sacramento, CA

2018 For mal Delinquent, Brickhouse Gallery, Sacramento, CA

2016 In Stereo My Studio Gallery, Sacramento, CA

Eating Pie and Rainbows, My Studio Gallery, Sacramento, CA

2014 Dinner Theatre , Advancement to Candidacy, Sacramento State University, Robert Else Gallery, Sacramento, CA

GROUP EXHIBITION

2021 Kala Art Institute Fellowship exhibition Sea of Fertility, Looking at the Invisible, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA

2020–2021 Kala Art Institute Artist Annual Exhibit, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA

2020 Flor Mort, Axis Gallery, East Room, Sacramento, CA,

2019–2020 Ar tist Annual Exhibition, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA

Unibrow Collective Presents, QiPo 02, Mexico City, MX

2019 Empathy Cosumnes River College Art Gallery, Sacramento, CA

Sound Ar t Exhibition, Brickhouse Gallery, Sacramento, CA

The Ordinar y Instant, Graduate Fellow exhibition, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA

SoundPedro, Earmaginations, Sound Art Festival, Angel’s Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, CA

Make-Shift, Art Mix, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA

Magic City Art Connection, Birmingham, AL

Spr ing Invitational (Pattern), Jay Jay Gallery, Sacramento, CA

Group Invitational, Jay Jay Gallery, Sacramento, CA

Engineer s and Artist’s, Hacker Lab, Verizon, Sacramento, CA

Axis Exchange GearBox Gallery, Oakland, CA

2018 Master Class Jay Jay Gallery, Sacramento, CA

Present Tense, MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of California Davis, Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, Davis, CA, (catalogue)

Soft Bytes: A Feminist Animation Exhibit, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Los Angeles, CA

Me Too: Times Up, Jay Jay Gallery, Sacramento, CA

Functional Diver sity Exhibition, Basement Gallery, Davis, CA

2017 Newsletter, Untitled Projects, https://unitedprojectsnewsletter.com, August, Issue XXVI

Reptile: A Cold-Blooded Art Exhibit, Neologian Gallery, Redwood City, CA

Autonomous Love, Group Exhibition Sacramento, CA

Big Brother Comics , Group Exhibition Sacramento, CA

Oddtropolis , The Midway, San Fransisco, CA

Field Notes UC Davis 1st Year MFA Exhibition, Beatnik Gallery, Sacramento, CA

MFA Now (catalogue only), Root Division, San Fransisco, CA

Who is U.S.? Basement Gallery, Davis, CA

2016 Ar t Reveal Magazine (suggested artist), http://www.artrevealmagazine.com

A Show of Heads, Limner Gallery, Hudson, NY

Grand Opening, Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, Davis, CA

Fables, Fairy Tales, Folktales, Legends and Myths, Fe Gallery, Sacramento, CA

Off The Wall, Art + Literature Laboratory, Madison, WI

A Mixed Box of Art, Fe Gallery, Sacramento, CA

Sight, F Street Gallery, Davis, CA

2015 I Can’t Breathe , Arc Gallery and Educational Foundation, Chicago, IL

Chr ysalis Lens, A Brief Survey of Contemporary Video Art, Marymount California University, Marylyn & Chuck Klaus

Center for the Arts, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

Oddville , American Steel Studios, Oakland, CA

California State Fair, Cal Expo, Sacramento, CA

Extra Ordinary, Master’s of Arts Exhibit, Sacramento State University, Library Annex Gallery, Sacramento, CA, (catalogue)

Snap to Gr id, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, CA

Chaotic Collections Sacramento Dance Conservatory, Sacramento, CA

2013 Independent Pixels, Advanced Digital/ New Media Exhibit, Witt Gallery, Sacramento, CA

Core 9, Defining Ourselves, Long Beach, CA

Blue Banana Video Art Festival, East Landau, Berlin, Germany

Pr int International 4, Shy Rabbit Contemporary Arts, Pagosa Springs, CO

Alumni Ar t Association Exhibition, Else Gallery, Sacramento State University, Sacramento, CA

Univer sity Purchase Award Exhibition, University Union Gallery, Sacramento State University, Sacramento, CA

2010 Bold Expressions, NCA, Sacramento Fine Arts Center, Sacramento, CA

TEACHING

2022

2021

Part-Time Faculty, Sacramento State University, (Art 20A, Beginning Drawing, spring 2022)

Part-Time Faculty, Sacramento State University, (Art 20A, Beginning Drawing, fall 2021)

Part-Time Faculty, Folsom Lake College, (Art 300 Prison Ed Program, Beginning Drawing, fall 2021)

Part-Time Faculty, Folsom Lake College, (Art 300/ Art 300 Prison Ed Program, Beginning Drawing, spring 2021)

Part-Time Faculty, Sacramento State University, (Art 20A, Beginning Drawing, spring 2021)

2018 Lecturer, University of California Davis, (Art 7, Beginning Painting, summer 2018)

TA, University of California Davis, (Art 7, Beginning Painting, spring 2018)

Instr uctor of Record, University of California, Davis, (Art 2, Beginning Drawing, winter 2018)

TA, University of California, Davis, (Design 15, Form and Color, winter 2018)

2017 TA, University of California, Davis, (Art 12, Beginning Video, fall 2017)

2015–17 Painting Instructor, My Studio, 2225 Street Sacramento, CA,

2016 Painting Instructor, Family Fridays, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA

2015 TA, Sacramento State University, (Art 22, Beginning Painting)

2014–15 GA, Sacramento State University (Art 7, Introduction to Art and Visual Culture)

2014 TA, Sacramento State University, (Art 192a, Senior Seminar)

2011–15 ISA, Sacramento State University, (E-Learning, Academic Technology Creative Services)

2009–10 Poetry Program Director, Washington Neighborhood Center, Sacramento, CA

RESIDENCIES

2021 Calder a Arts, AiR, Sisters, OR ($800)

2020–21 Root Division Cur atorial Fellowship, San Francisco, CA ($2,500)

2020–21 Kala Art Institute Fellowship, Berkeley, CA ($3,000)

2019 Sustainable Art Foundation, Parent Artist Residency, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA ($1,000)

2018 Headlands Center for the Arts, Graduate Fellow, Sausali

Acknowledgements

California State University, Stanislaus

Dr. Ellen Junn, President

Dr. Kimberly Greer, Provost/Vice President of Academic Affairs

Dr. James A. Tuedio, Dean, College of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Department of Art

Martin Azevedo, Associate Professor, Chair

Tricia Cooper, Lecturer

Dean De Cocker, Professor

James Deitz, Lecturer

Daniel Edwards, Associate Professor

Patrica Eshagh, Lecturer

Jessica Gomula-Kruzic, Professor

Daniel Heskamp, Lecturer

Chad Hunter, Lecturer

Dr. Carmen Robbin, Professor

Ellen Roehne , Lecturer

Dr. Staci Scheiwiller, Associate Professor

Susan Stephenson, Associate Professor

Jake Weigel, Associate Professor

Mir abel Wigon, Assistant Professor

Meg Broder ick, Administrative Support Assistant II

Kyle Rambatt, Equipment Technician II

University Art Galleries

Dean De Cocker, Director

School of the Arts

Brad Peatross, Graphic Specialist II