The actor and activist Ossie Davis said it well: “Any form of art is a form of power; it has impact, it can affect change — it can not only move us, it makes us move.”
That’s a hint of the story of artist Alvin Clayton, a world renowned model who turned to oil and canvas. After 40 years of self-taught skill, Clayton’s engaging, thought-provoking work will be on display at the Southampton African American Museum, kicking off this Saturday, July 20.
The exhibit, curated by Victoria Giraudo, is entitled “Reflections of Time: Through the Eyes of a Caribbean-American Artist,” and features 26 of Clayton’s recent paintings, most created during 2023 and 2024, and much of it skewed to the artist’s open-minded exploration of the political, racial and class issues in the United States.
For Clayton, though, they’re less about making statements than, as Davis said, affecting change through understanding and a clear-eyed view of what’s happening around us.
He takes pains to find common ground, like in “Blinded By Political Ideology,” demonstrating the Supreme Court’s current partisan leanings. In the painting, the 12 justices are shown with blue and red blindfolds covering their eyes. “It was inspired by a painting I saw at Art Basel,” he says. “In a gallery was a huge wall with a photo of all the Supreme Court justices and everyone’s eyes were blacked out.” It made him ponder the current political climate and how the Court seems far from immune.
“That’s what I do with my art: I raise questions from a place of not making anyone wrong. I come to every conversation knowing that information I may have may not be absolutely correct and I’m always open to having discussion and change,” Clayton says. “If you come in knowing all the answers already, there’s no room for discussion, and that’s where we are now — we speak at each other and don’t listen or empathize.”
For another partner painting entitled “SCOTUS: Shameless Court of the United States,” he takes a bipartisan hit at across-the-board ethics violations of members of the Court.
“When I first did the painting, I had all the republican [justices] covering their faces in some way out of shame. Then I did some research, because I’m trying to come from a fair place. I found that both [Sonya] Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson had book deals they didn’t talk about. I added them to the shame after… I thought it was important because if I come from a fair place, people will listen as opposed to thinking the work is partisan. It’s about credibility.”
Indeed, it’s that desire to connect that forms the basis of much of his work.
“In my art, I paint humanity. Regardless of your color when you look at my work, if you react as your human self, you will see yourself in that painting – or see your father or your grandfather,” says Clayton. “Our natural human responses are very much alike.”
Clayton, who was born in the Caribbean and grew up in Washington, D.C., found his muse while living in Paris as a model in the 1980s. It was here he encountered the work of Henri Matisse at the d’Orsay Museum, whose his bold portrayals of the human form and use of color spoke to him. He began to paint in earnest, using oil and canvas just as the French master who inspired him.
“I’m a self-taught artist, and I was a Wilhelmina and Ford model for 15 years [starting] in the late ’80s. It was in the era of super models and I was [one of] the only black models. During that time that I was in Paris, I fell in love with art, but coming from Caribbean parents, I couldn’t say I wanted to be an artist,” Clayton recalls. “[Matisse’s] work spoke to me; the patterns in his work spoke to me — they reminded me of patterns in my grandmother’s house. I started copying his work to teach myself to paint.”
At the turn of the next decade, Clayton moved to New York City and, while his agent was visiting his loft, saw his work and called a friend who owned a gallery. Within two weeks, he had his first gallery show in SoHo.
“I actually give credit for being born in the Caribbean with the way I look at the world. It was a society where I was never a second-class citizen. When I first came to the U.S. at age of 14, I went to Catholic school in Washington, D.C., and it was almost evenly divided between black and white. I had friends of all ilks and my view of the world was always from that point of being equal and level,” he says. “I know it’s a cliché, but at the end of the day we have more in common than what divides us.”
The opening reception for “Reflections of Time: Through the Eyes of a Caribbean-American Artist” will be held at SAAM (245 North Sea Road, Southampton, 631-353-3299) Saturday, July 20 at 7 p.m. The exhibit runs through November.
