MIAMI, FL (October 29, 2020) LnS GALLERY presents For Those Gathered in the Wind, a solo exhibition by Miami-based artist, T. Eliott Mansa. The powerful collection of recent assemblages featured in the exhibition embodies Mansa’s expression of the connection between mourning and loss, calling to both ancient and current practices, from Africa to the American West. For Those Gathered in the Wind is curated by Donnamarie Baptiste, Cultural Producer and Independent Curator. A catalog with an essay by Baptiste accompanies the show. For Those Gathered in the Wind by T. Eliott Mansa will be on view at LnS GALLERY, December 2, 2020 – February 9, 2021.

“T. Eliott Mansa challenges and questions the efficacy of the role of the artist as a change agent, his assemblages and sculptures involve found materials that have their own evocative narratives,” said Sergio Cernuda, co-owner, LnS GALLERY.

T. Eliott Mansa, a multidisciplinary artist, who attended the Yale School of Art (2013) and received his MFA from CUNY Hunter College (2018). In exploring his sense of mourning for those who have lost their lives to extrajudicial killings and state violence, T. Eliott Mansa charges the gallery as a site to acknowledge and memorialize the value of lives lost. With his use of materials found in grassroots memorials, such as toys, teddy bears, plastic flowers, and offertory candles and bottles, the works themselves operate as locales of defense, honor, and protection. These objects, such as nkisi nkondi and bocio, present various modalities of art making in their ritualized combination of materials designed to operate within the axis of defense and attack. Mansa incorporates both aesthetic and purposeful references to various apotropaic art forms found throughout the African diaspora, examining their connective threads. For Those Gathered in the Wind is partially funded by The Ellies, Miami’s visual arts awards, presented by Oolite Arts.

Baptiste writes that “these assemblages invite viewers to think about how individuals express mourning. They ask us to examine how we deal with our pain, and how memorials lessen the impact of trauma. For Those Gathered in the Wind explores Black grief and death through art and reveals the profound relationship we all have with mortality.”

All catalogue sale proceeds will be donated to the initiative for the planned Miami Museum of Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora (Miami MoCAAD).

EVENT dates are as follows:

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2020 AT 3:00pm – Miami MoCAAD #CreativeConversation in collaboration with LnS Gallery will kick off Miami Art Week with a virtual zoom conference prior to the exhibition’s Opening, with artist T. Eliott Mansa and exhibition curator Donnamarie Baptiste. For more information visit www.miamimocaad.net.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2020 – For Those Gathered in the Wind Opens at LnS GALLERY to groups of ten or less, regulated using timeslots to allow visitors in and out of the space.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2021 AT 5:30pm – A virtual tour of the exhibition led by Gallerist, Sergio Cernuda. All events require advance registration. Please visit www.lnsgallery.com.

ABOUT T. ELIOTT MANSA
T. Eliott Mansa is a recipient of The Ellies Creator Award from Oolite Arts 2019, “for an exhibition that honors the African-American victims of state violence, using objects from grassroots roadside memorials, while referencing African sculptural art forms and the vernacular yard sculptures of the South.” T. Eliott Mansa is currently a 2020 Oolite Arts Studio Resident.

ABOUT MIAMI MoCAAD
The Miami Museum of Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora plans to develop into the preeminent national showplace for innovative contemporary visual arts production of the Global Africa Diaspora. In its journey towards creating a physical home, Miami MoCAAD, through co-sponsored and independently produced pop-up exhibits and virtual Creative Conversations, presents contemporary art and art talks that provide a window into the Black experience and its global connections to our shared world.