Awakeningby Ta-coumba T. Aiken

Dreamsong is pleased to present Awakening, a solo exhibition of recent paintings and works on paper by Ta-coumba T. Aiken. Named a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, Aiken’s oeuvre encompasses hundreds of public murals and sculptures in the Twin Cities alongside a dedicated studio practice long overdue for serious critical attention. Born in 1952, Aiken is fond of reminding interlocutors that his first art exhibition was held at six-years-old in the basement of his family’s home in Evanston, Illinois.

Through a studio practice rooted in abstraction, with particular affinities to the work of Norman Lewis and Romare Bearden, and alongside a renowned public art practice ignited through John T. Biggers’ mentorship, Aiken has spent decades channeling the spirits of his ancestors through form and color. In Awakening, a symphonic complexity emerges across paintings built through layers of loose, swirling gestures and tondos blasted with explosive shards of color.