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Shown: "Yese" by TAOLB artist Keina B. Davis. Living Work The Art of Living Black embarks on year six at the Richmond Art Center By Aimee Le Duc After 400 years of slavery, 111 years of Jim Crow, 36 years of being equal, we must now face a far greater enemy." A wooden wall-mounted mirror with this message carved on the front was created by artist Sálongo Lee, one of 81 artists in The Art of Living Black (TAOLB) exhibition at the Richmond Art Center. I approach the work, read the warning of this grave enemy, and open the door seeing my own reflection and the word "ourselves" carved underneath it. The enemy we now face is ourselves. I am shocked, but then realize what I'm really doing here and why African-American art exhibitions are vital and precious elements of our community today. There is still work to be done. Art advocates Rae Louise Hayward and Jan Hart-Schuyers co-founded the only annual group exhibition and tour to exclusively feature Black Bay Area artists in 1996. Launched in January '97 with 35 artists on display, TAOLB has grown at an exponential rate. Organizers and participants seek to celebrate and share the Black experience through art and provide a venue for showcasing local artists. Any artist of African descent living in the Bay Area may enter one piece of art in any medium. Every piece submitted is accepted into the show and the artist is given the opportunity to sell their work. But the most valuable and exciting aspect for viewers is the opportunity to meet the participating artists. In conjunction with the Richmond Art Center exhibit, a studio tour reaches out around the Bay. The tour is a key com-ponent in TAOLB's philosophy to create relationships between artists and their communities. Not only do the organizers want to exhibit African-American work of all kinds, they want the artists to be able to sell their work and make a living from their craft. Artists are given the option of opening their studios to the public during the art tour weekend or to display their work at the Richmond Art Center. This insures that all artists inter-ested are able to participate, and that viewers will have a chance to meet each artist face-to-face. For those who can't make it out to the Richmond Art Center, a number of satellite exhibitions are being held concurrently around the Bay Area. Independent juried and curated exhibitions are organized by individuals or groups in full cooperation with TAOLB. Corporate giants CBS Marketwatch.com, ArtShip Windows Project, and the San Francisco African American Historical and Cultural Society at Fort Mason are hosting these satellite exhibitions in the spirit of TAOLB. The Women's Cancer Resource Center will exhibit work as well, featuring the art of TAOLB co-founder Hart-Schuyers. The TAOLB organization is certainly living up to its expectations. Black artists are being exposed to more and more opportunities, but according to co-founder Howard, there are still a lot of hurdles for TAOLB to overcome. She says endless battles finding funding sources, establishing effective ways to distribute information, and meeting the constantly growing needs of the community are some of the organization's biggest challenges. TAOLB is restoring their website in preparation for even more growth, and consequently more challenges, next year. The art on display in Richmond Art Center's Main Gallery runs the gamut, from highly sophis-ticated, to socially charged, to sweet and sentimental. The majority of work is paintings and works on paper, though there is a smattering of jewelry and ceramic pieces. Overall, the quality of work for this non-juried exhibition is remarkable. Thematically many of the pieces deal with issues of race, but there are also some wonderful abstract works by Anna W. Edwards and Bill Dallas. Bryan Keith Thomas and Paula deJoie, two of the award winning artists from last year's show, display paintings and mixed-media work charged with technical mastery, sentimentality, and visual triumph. There are so many levels to this show. It's worth attending -- if for no other reason than to burn the warning of Lee's work onto your memory. Walking through life with our eyes closed to those living around us is like closing our eyes to ourselves. The Art of Living Black is opening Bay Area eyes, teaching us the art of living well through the art of living Black. The Art of Living Black 2002 exhibition runs through March 16. TAOLB Art Tour is March 2-3, 11am-5pm. Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett, Richmond. 620.6772. Gallery hours: Tues-Fri, 10am-4:30pm; Sat, noon-4:30pm. [ East Bay | Metroactive | Archives ]