February 2021
Reggie Burrows Hodges Community Concern, 2020, acrylic and pastel on linen, 40 × 36 inches; 101.6 × 91.4 cm; 41 × 37 inches; 104.1 × 94 cm (framed)
Regular studio visits with artists is the way I see new work and encounter new artists. As these visits are impossible during the lock down I started studio visits with artists by Zoom being of course aware that these do not replace a real-life studio visit . One of the advantages is that it also allows me to encounter artists in more remote locations outside the big cities. One of the most extraordinary new encounters occurred this week, in early February 2021, when I visited the African American painter, musician and writer Reggie Burrows Hodge who is in his 50s and is based in Maine as have many artists before him from Winslow Homer to David Driscoll. Hodges whose work has been under the radar for so many years currently presents his first exhibition in NYC at the Karma gallery where he shows a group of his mysterious paintings centered on the human form. Both the background and the figures are painted in matte black color. All of Burrows Hodges works are based on a very strong desire and longing for human beings to connect which makes them so relevant for the current moment. Memory also plays a central role. Burrows Hodges’ work show us that we live in a age of exponentially growing informations flows but that maybe amnesia lies at the core of this digital age. When I asked the artist at the end of our visit what would be his advise to a young artist his answer was; “Do the work beyond any expectation of an outcome. Find a way to believe.”
