A Whisper Out Of Range
Franck Hodelin and Sienna Reid
A Whisper Out of Range, is a multimedia exhibition curated by the director of Rafael Gallery, Wade Bonds. The exhibition features visceral paintings by the Haitian-American artist Franck Hodelin and drawings, photographs, ceramics, and film by multimedia artist Sienna Reid. These two New York artists materialize in their work the strength and beauty of the human body while counterpoising a physical and emotional fragility in the face of societal prejudice, judgment, and oppression. Both artists take their inspiration from a deep exploration of, and reaction to, the historic and contemporary nature of this oppression, in order to arrive at a reckoning between the past and the present. The title of the exhibition pays homage to Maya Angelou’s poem “Equality”, a powerful work pleading for an end to gender and racial inequality.
About the Artists
Sienna Reid’s multimedia work is concerned with how character assassination, gender, and racial terrorism are used worldwide, to eliminate the history of “non-conforming” women, people of color and LGBTQ+ and their achievements; and used to keep us from achieving today. Through scratching, gouging, writing, filming, photographing, drawing, sculpting, painting and sounding, Reid explores this historic and contemporary assault, with visceral artistic multimedia work to challenge the senses. Reid’s work encourages examination, dialogue, exploration and thinking by examining how words can perpetuate a bizarre mythology to destroy the accomplishments and even existence of females, LGBTQ+ and people of color, through conscious and systematic character assassination and elimination from the historic record. We live in a world in which a word or phrase can be used by anyone from a neighbor, a president or a dictator to direct an online, worldwide “army” to attack and destroy people within seconds. A false narrative can be perpetuated with ease, and lead to the torture and death of people who are subjugated by prejudice and sexism. Reid has taken great inspiration from the #SayHerName, #MeToo, #WomanLifeFreedom, #Intersectionality #BlackLivesMatter #TransLivesMatter #InnocenceProject #StopKillingUs #DieciSecondi movements.
For more information on Sienna visit her website and follow her on Instagram.
Franck Hodelin is an artist and interior designer born in NYC. Franck received a BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Primarily a figurative artist, his oil paintings straddle the boundary of realism and abstraction. Many of his works feature profoundly intimate and painterly portraits of black men, homosexuality, the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized people. In 2021, Franck received a grant from the New York City Artists Corps and held a successful open studio exhibition. He was awarded a Queens Council on the Arts “New Works Grant” in 2020 to create a series of works exploring the human form, sexuality, and equity that were featured in a solo show at Local Projects Gallery in LIC. Recent exhibitions include the Long Island City Artists “Heritage” group show at Queens College in May 2022; Greene County Council on the Arts “New Perspective: Selected Works of Artists From the African Diaspora” 2019 ; LIC-Artists “Fear III: Visiting Death” 2019. Franck Hodelin currently resides and works in Sunnyside, Queens.
For more information on Franck visit his website and follow him on Instagram.
Wade Bonds ( Curator) is a native of Buffalo, N.Y. He is the Director at Rafael Gallery, NYC, and an independent curator. Notable shows curated include:
The Frank Wimberley Collection / Winter 2017-18 – Rafael Gallery, NYC
Fusion: The Openness Of Abstraction In Thought And Practice, Featuring: Thomas Heath, Pat Houbaugh, Edward Holland and Sasha Meret – November 2022 – Gallery LTD, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Styx And Stones: William Norton / March 2023 – The Boiler, Williamsburg, Brooklyn HOME : Lisa Cain / April 2023 – Heath Gallery, Harlem, N.Y.A Visionary Journey : Thomas Heath – Kente Royal Gallery, Harlem, N.Y.
For more information on Wade follow him on Instagram.
