TAHA DELVES DEEP IN ARTIST CONVO FOR DECADENCE DEUX
On Saturday, October 31, author and cultural architect Halima Taha sat down with sculptor Eric Stephenson and artist Kevin Okeith at Bridgeport Art Center for a conversation that closed out Black Fine Art Month, now in its eighth year. Both artists are featured in Decadence Deux, presented by September Gray Fine Art in partnership with Pigment International, another successful collaboration between the two organizations.
Taha gave the packed audience an interior look at each artist's practice, skillfully probing their histories, influences, motivations, mentors, growth, and what comes next. Audience questions were equally insightful, including one about the shadows in Okeith's painting honoring his late mother.
Stephenson, a protégé of the late Richard Hunt, shared how he cold-called Hunt after arriving in Chicago in 2000. Surprised when Hunt answered, he learned the master sculptor was looking for a welder. Stephenson stayed until Hunt's passing in 2023. Hunt's most poignant advice: find your own voice. "We'd work an entire day sometimes without saying anything," Stephenson recalled. "I could count a thousand times I handed him a tool without his having to ask." Hunt, he says, still speaks to him.
Okeith, a Chicago native mentored by artist Kevin "Wak" Williams, paints museum-worthy landscapes shaped by his love of nature. Gallerist September Gray encouraged him to make them a focal point of his practice, a partnership now more than 15 years strong. Gray met Stephenson through Hunt, whose work she has offered her clients.
“Art, at its most profound, is a dialogue between the artist’s inner world and the world around them,” offered Gray. It is through this exchange that ideas become tangible experiences, find expression, and individual perspectives contribute to our collective understanding of humanity.”
Taha also educated the audience on valuing art, as she does in her seminal book, Collecting African American Art: Works on Paper and Canvas. Works printed by the artist's own hand are significantly more valuable than mechanical prints, she explained, and a lower number in a series isn't always the most prized. Her guidance: buy what you love and want to live with, be intentional rather than chasing resale value, and buy the best you can afford.
The author’s persistent refrain is, “Collecting is a basic part of human personality, don’t let misconceptions about the inaccessibility of the art market deter you from becoming an informed collector.”
A longtime Pigment collaborator, Taha has also contributed commentary to Pigment Magazine. Decadence Deux is on view at Bridgeport Art Center through November 6.
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