Reggie Burrows Hodges

Reggie Burrows Hodges explores the power of storytelling and visual metaphor in his figurative paintings that address themes of identity, memory, community, and truth.

The use of a black ground is a method of dealing with blackness’s totality. For him, blackness is both the ground and the figure within his work. In terms of the process, he approaches the raw canvas, linen, or wood panel with a layer (or two) of an opaque, matte black paint as the ground. Then he uses paint and oil pastel sticks to shift between drawing and painting.

In the new body of work Bathers and the Cleansed, Hodges revisits the art-historical trope of a female bather and presents her in various states of activity, from a moment of respite to exiting the bathtub. While the expressive marks and layered colors appear soft, even sensual, Hodges’s paintings honor the characters—washing away centuries of culturally imposed eroticism on the Black female body. By doing so, the painter imbues his bathers with a quiet agency as they occupy and reclaim their histories within the domestic sphere.

Reggie Burrows Hodges (United States, born 1965), *Bathers and the Cleansed: Pearl*, 2021, acrylic paint and pastel on canvas, 48 1/2 x 57 x 2 1/2 inches. Courtesy of Karma and the artist. © Reggie Burrows Hodges. Photograph by Luc Demers

Reggie Burrows Hodges (United States, born 1965), *Bathers and the Cleansed*, 2021, acrylic paint and pastel on canvas 68 1/2 x 68 3/4 x 2 1/2 inches. Courtesy of Karma and the artist. © Reggie Burrows Hodges. Photograph by Luc Demers

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Reggie Burrows Hodges

Reggie Burrows Hodges explores the power of storytelling and visual metaphor in his figurative paintings that address themes of identity, memory, community, and truth.

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Guest UserFebruary 11, 20222022 nat artist

Reggie Burrows Hodges