“Defiant,” by Dallas-based artist Jeremy Biggers at Daisha Board Gallery, is a virtuosic solo exhibition that captures the everyday grandeur of Black Dallasites being their full, authentic selves.
The subjects of these paintings seem to be bursting from the canvas, such is the life force, the ashe, that Biggers has captured with his brush.
Biggers’ most recent exhibitions have been about showcasing the multidimensionality of Black people, specifically Black men. In his 2021 solo show “Unspoken Burdens” at the South Dallas Cultural Center, Biggers examined how insecurities and societal burdens affect Black men in the absence of spaces where they can feel safe being vulnerable. At the start of 2022, Biggers’ solo exhibition “Presence” at Pencil on Paper Gallery included portraits of Black fathers with their sons and daughters in loving, tender and vulnerable ways.
“Defiant” showcases Black men and women in equal measure, and for me it is Biggers’ portraits of Black women that become his tour de force. The painting Defiant 001 shows a Black woman with orange hair, wearing purple lipstick, a septum nose ring and a brightly colored varsity jacket with at least 10 attached stuffed animals, on top of a flowy multi-colored striped dress. Some viewers will recognize that the woman is Mattie Calloway, a Dallas-based artist, longtime hair stylist and nationally prominent musician who works under the moniker MATTIE.
Biggers has painted this portrait in a monumental scale — it’s the largest studio painting of the artist’s life — and it has the majesty and details of an Anthony van Dyck court painting, particularly in the handling of the folds of the dress. It is the type of painting that one could contemplate for hours, such is the richness of the work, and the decision to place it on a billboard to advertise the show was well-deserved. Hopefully it will be placed in a museum next.
Another highlight from the show is Defiant 005, a portrait of a Black woman with a flower-covered crown, natural hair, large cat-eye glasses, a collared patterned shirt, and a bemused side-eye and smirk.
As a many-time recipient of that exact glance, I knew at once that this could be none other than Dallas’ creative, fashion, event and style legend Marion Marshall. Once again, the details transport this piece into otherworldly territory. The delicate flowers on the crown, the shadow of the glasses and the light reflected in the eye, the sumptuousness of the lips — all of it works together to capture the essence of a moment.
White dots throughout the exhibition represent the artist’s mother. After her death, Biggers kept encountering ladybugs, which he believed were comforting messengers from his mother. The dots are his interpretation of the ladybug pattern as well as a way to honor his mother’s presence and meaning in his life.
Defiant 009-014 is a suite of six very small paintings in black, white and grayscale, showing that Biggers can succeed in miniature just as well as larger-than-life. These works have a more impressionistic quality. The backgrounds are slightly out of focus, as if they were painted Polaroid snapshots.
“Defiant” as a whole offers a snapshot of an artist who has worked hard for over a decade, getting better year after year, show after show, to achieve this level of excellence and this rarified, unapologetic space.
Details
“Defiant” by Jeremy Biggers is on view through Oct. 1 at Daisha Board Gallery, 2111 Sylvan Ave., Dallas. Tuesday through Friday from noon to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 1 to 6 p.m. daishaboardgallery.com.
