Aisha T. Bell in Conversation with Lauren Haynes

On Tuesday, April 21, Welancora Gallery will host an artist talk featuring Aisha T. Bell in conversation with the Executive Director of Atlanta Contemporary, Lauren Haynes. This talk is in support of Bell's third solo exhibition at the gallery, (on view through June 9, 2026). The talk will be held at 6:00pm. Visitors are welcome to join us in person at the gallery or on Zoom. Please RSVP on Eventbrite if you are attending in person, and please RSVP on Zoom if you are attending virtually (click here).

The works on view in Ethos utilize clay, wood, handmade paper, cloth, twine, and acrylic paint. This new body of work is a continuation of the themes explored in Bell's first two shows with the gallery, (2017) and (2020), which presented the concept of conscious inanimate objects existing across multiple realms and identities concurrently. Bell’s subjects have heads that emerge from painted wooden panels, while their bodies remain trapped in their two-dimensional planes. These figures possess a degree of vitality and authority as they extend out of the frame, monitoring the world from their protruding positions. Their simultaneous existence across multiple planes relates to their fragmented, shape-shifting, and hyphenated identities. Bell’s work investigates this multiplicity as an example of the human condition: How does one reconcile conflicting social philosophies regarding how we treat one another? How does the desire to effect change coincide with the persistent ethos of greed, destruction, and even indifference? Above all, are we truly aware of these concurrencies and how they drive us to act?

Aisha Tandiwe Bell's work is inspired by the fragmentation of our multiple identities. Her practice is committed to creating myth and ritual through sculpture, performance, video, sound, drawing, and installation. Bell holds a BFA, an MS from Pratt, and an MFA from Hunter College. Bell received a NYFA fellowship in Performance Art/ Multidisciplinary Work and has had artist residencies/fellowships at Skowhegan, Rush Corridor Gallery, Abron’s Art Center, LMCC’s Swing Space, The Laundromat Project, BRIC and more. She has been a fellow with DVCAI on International Cultural Exchanges (Jamaica 2012, Surinam 2013, Antigua 2014, Guadeloupe 2015 and 17). The Museo De Arte Moderno’s Triennial 2014, The Jamaica Biennial 2014 and 17, The BRIC Biennial 2016, The Venice Biennial 2017, MoCADA, The Rosa Parks Museum, CCCADI, Columbia College, Space One Eleven, Welancora Gallery, and Rush Arts are a few spaces where Bell has exhibited her work. Bell was a 2017-18 LMCC Workspace Fellow. Her work is in the collections of the Columbus Museum of Art, Studio Museum in Harlem, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.

Lauren Haynes is the Executive Director of Atlanta Contemporary. She has also held positions at preeminent arts institutions across the United States, including Governors Island, the Queens Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. At the Queens Museum, Haynes was the institutional curator for the only U.S. venue of “Tracey Rose: Shooting Down Babylon” and co-curated “Lyle Ashton Harris: Our first and last love," which received a project grant from the Teiger Foundation in 2024. At Crystal Bridges, she co-curated “The Beyond: Georgia O'Keeffe and Contemporary Art” and oversaw contemporary art acquisitions for the Museum's Art Committee, successfully acquiring major works by Emma Amos, Firelei Baez, Leonardo Drew, Melvin Edwards, Sam Gilliam, Titus Kaphar, Amy Sherald, and other significant contemporary artists. Haynes holds a B.A. in Art History with a minor in African American Studies from Oberlin College. She is a 2018 Fellow of the Center for Curatorial Leadership and serves on the board of the Association of Art Museum Curators, where she previously held the position of Vice President of Fundraising. Haynes is also a member of the Visiting Committee of the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin. Her writing has appeared in BOMB Magazine, and she has contributed essays to numerous exhibition catalogs and monographs. She has served on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Capital, and the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, among others.

Aisha T. Bell

Blood and Body, 2026

Handmade paper

22 x 29 x 3 inches

55.9 x 73.7 x 7.6 cms

Visit our website to see more work on view in Ethos.

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