This is another of the ten large-format paintings at the 1001 Black Men exhibit at the CIIS main building in San Francisco, 1453 Mission, third floor. See these paintings, along with 200+ images from this website, on display until August 4, 2013.
Ajuan Mance
If you look closely, you can see that the man is this drawing has two hearts, like Doctor Who! It’s a way of locating him firmly in nerd culture, after all, Comic-Con is only one month away!
This is another of the ten large-format paintings at the 1001 Black Men exhibit at the CIIS main building in San Francisco, 1453 Mission, third floor. See these paintings, along with 200+ images from this website, on display until August 4, 2013.
This is another of the ten large-format paintings at the 1001 Black Men exhibit at the CIIS main building in San Francisco, 1453 Mission, third floor. See these paintings, along with 200+ images from this website, on display until August 4, 2013.
Ajuan Mance
This is one of ten large-format pieces on display at the 1001 Black Men exhibit at the CIIS main building in San Francisco, 1453 Mission, third floor.
Ajuan Mance
This is one of ten large-format pieces on display at the 1001 Black Men exhibit at the CIIS main building in San Francisco, 1453 Mission, third floor.
Ajuan Mance
REI, Berkeley, CA
This is one of ten large-format pieces on display at the 1001 Black Men exhibit at the CIIS main building in San Francisco, 1453 Mission, third floor.
Ajuan Mance
See this painting and others (plus 200+ images from this online sketchbook) at the 1001 Black Men exhibit at the CIIS main building in San Francisco, 1453 Mission, third floor.
Ajuan Mance
This is the second of ten paintings in the 1001 Black Men show at the CIIS Main Building in San Francisco. For this show, I create a series of figures who are composites of many Black men I have thought of and/or imagined. I tried to put together a representative sampling of the forms of Black manhood and masculinity that I have encountered over my many years of drawing African American men.
Ajuan Mance
The painting is one of a series of ten paintings that I created for my current show, available for viewing at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). The show is titled “1001 Black Men,” and in addition to these paintings, it features 203 images from my online sketchbook. These pieces will be on display until August 3. CIIS is located at 1453 Mission, in San Francisco. Follow THIS LINK for more details.
Ajuan Mance
Here’s one more drawing from my college reunion. This is one of the undergraduate temporary workers who was staffing the college reunion events. In this image, he is peeking into the door of Sayles Hall where the members of my graduating class were attending our reunion dance. When we graduated, back in the late 1980s, the student in this drawing hadn’t yet been born. I can only imagine how curious it must have looked to see a room full of middle-aged men and women laughing and talking, and dancing to a bizarre assortment of 1980s and late-’70s tunes.
Thinking back to the moment at the dance when I saw him peering into the door of the hall, I wonder if seeing older folks come back to campus gave him the same feeling that it gave me when I was a senior. When I graduated, reunioning alums from the class of 1983 all the way back to the class of 1913 were in attendance, reconnecting with members of their classes and welcoming us, the newest crop of grads, into the family of alumni. Back when I was a 21-year-old graduating senior, the sight of all of the older folks returning to the campus gave me a profound sense of being a part of something bigger, and that recognition filled me with gratitude and pride. 25 years later, I wish all of the current grads–the members of the class of 2013–the same feelings of mingled gratitude, pride, and connection.
Ajuan Mance