UConn Ties Highlighted in Stamford's Symphony of Colors Exhibit

Briana Ford '24 (CLAS) doesn't generally talk about her art, even if she's asked.

"Putting my work on a wall is extremely vulnerable," she says. "If you ever see me at an art show, I usually walk away and if someone asks who painted a piece, I'll point to the person next to me. I identify as a surrealism/realism painter. I want you to look at it, figure it out, and not have to think too much."

It might also be the reason Ford paints under the name Brie Miyoko and leads a dual life as a human development and family sciences major, with plans after graduation to focus mostly on a career in child development.

But her painting, "I Don't Bang or Slang on Gang," which is on display as part of the "Symphony of Colors" exhibition at the Ferguson Library next to UConn Stamford, marries both her interests. The piece was inspired by a photograph a friend took during a visit to Ivory Coast and shows four boys wearing smiley-face stickers, making silly faces, and staring down into a camera lens.

"To me, it's 'Black boy joy' of just being carefree on the beach," Ford says, momentarily breaking from her credo of not talking about her work. "They're just children, not something to be demonized or targeted for failure. They are just Black children who want to have fun."

And as much as she doesn't like the spotlight, "Don't Bang or Slang" was featured in all the promotional materials for the show that features Fairfield County artists, many connected to UConn Stamford, through the curating skill of Isabella Montenegro '19 (SFA).

Montenegro says her curating experience started during the pandemic on Instagram when she'd go to exhibitions, take pictures of works that moved her, and post them online - during a time when, for many, visiting an art gallery wasn't enough reason to leave the house.

And while she didn't consider that curating, others did and suggested she apply to The Norwalk Art Space as its first Korry Fellow in curating.

That successful application prompted a handful of curating opportunities in Fairfield County and a seat on the board of the Stamford Art Association, which approached her in late 2023 to ask if she'd be interested in putting on a show at the Ferguson Library for Black History Month in February and Women's History Month in March.

She titled it "Symphony of Colors" because she says she wanted to tell a harmonious story of Black artists and their experiences.

"After the artists dropped off their works and I started figuring out what walls everything was going on, when I was done hanging everything, I sat down, looked around the room, and had the biggest smile," she says. "This show felt so special because a lot of the artists are my friends or people who I've become close with the past year."

Montenegro says she doesn't consider herself an artist - she notes that if she drew a picture of a dog, it wouldn't much look like one - but does call herself a "creative" and does see now that she has an artistic eye when figuring out how to group sometimes disparate works, whether in size and shape or subject matter.

The show, after all, is about the artists, she says, and in the case of "Symphony" 14 Black artists, some of them young and emerging and others who are more defined in their work.

Take, for instance, Brea Young '19 (SFA) who has exhibited in four shows yet says this one is perhaps the most special - she used to visit the Ferguson as a young child, borrowing books and sitting for story time.

"I've always been an artsy person and enjoyed the artwork displayed at the library, but now coming here and saying, 'That's my piece,' to be able to bring my niece here to see the show and my work, is extra special," she says.

Her painting, "Power Puffs," which shows the silhouette of a Black girl from the forehead up with Afro puffs on top of her head, is one that Young says was inspired by her inner child. It was her favorite hairstyle growing up, one she describes as a "superpower" in which she felt most confident.

"My niece looked at that piece and said, 'I do my hair like that! It looks like me,'" she says, remarking she hopes the young girl also feels powerful in the hairdo.

Montenegro says that many of the pieces refer to the artists' experiences or childhood - Young's other work in the show, "Untitled," is a round canvas depicting a pattern reminiscent of the loud prints on Coogi sweaters from the 1990s, with which she says she was fascinated as a child.

Tara Blackwell (Malone), who is associate director of UConn's Center for Career Development for the regional campuses, has been a painter off and on most of her life, she says, working steadily over the last decade and drawing inspiration from one of her favorite television shows growing up: Sesame Street.

"Young, Gifted & Black - Roosevelt Franklin" depicts the Sesame Street character who was on the program from 1970-75. She says that as a young girl his song, "The Skin I'm In," resonated most with her.

Kermit the Frog's song, "It's Not Easy Being Green," also helped Blackwell work through feelings of acceptance, she says, and her piece by the same name pays tribute to that while tying in the struggle of the more contemporary Black Lives Matter movement.

"I was a very shy child and wish that I was able to use my voice more in certain situations. I think I still feel that way now as a woman," she says. "Through art I use my voice. It's interesting because I'm very soft spoken and quiet, but my artwork is very bold, bright, colorful, and kind of satirical as well."

Montenegro has paired Blackwell's third entry "Good Trouble" - one of a series of paintings that display fortune cookie-type sayings and in this case declares from civil right activist John Lewis, "Get in good trouble, necessary trouble" - with paintings of Malcolm X and Lewis, a former U.S. representative.

"I didn't ask for any of the artists for specific works. I also didn't ask them to send me a photograph ahead of time. I just gave them the theme, title, and what I was looking for, so when they dropped off their submissions that was the first time, in many cases, that I saw them," Montenegro says.

In some instances, like with the John Lewis quote, the pairings came naturally. On the two curved walls of the gallery space, though, Montenegro needed to get a little more creative.

"I grew up taking art classes but there wasn't anything that I felt confident enough about to keep pursuing. In high school I took a marketing elective, and at UConn was drawn to DMD with a concentration in digital media strategy for business," Montenegro says, adding of her work as curator, "I've now come full circle."

"Symphony of Colors" is on display through March 21 in the Third Floor Auditorium Gallery at the Ferguson Library's main branch, 1 Public Library Plaza, Stamford. It's two blocks from UConn Stamford in the city's downtown.