*VIEW/PURCHASE ARTWORK HERE*

Shawn Theodore, Bus Stop —Oshun, Elegba, Oya, Papa Legba on the way, acrylic and collage on panel,  24"h x 30"w, 2024

Shawn Theodore: A Race of Angels
October 4 – November 10, 2024

Paradigm Gallery + Studio proudly presents A Race of Angels, a solo exhibition showcasing the mixed media artistry of conceptual photographer Shawn Theodore. This exhibition marks Theodore's second solo show with Paradigm, where he boldly explores new dimensions beyond traditional photographic forms. Through his Afromythology™ series, Theodore crafts a visually compelling narrative that invites fresh perspectives on the divine connections within the family, their ancestors, and the cherished images they leave behind.

In A Race of Angels, Theodore delves into the specific experiences of African American families, capturing a longing for lost photographs, missing heirlooms, and vanished archives. Using a blend of traditional portraiture, found photographs, paint, paper, pencils, and digital manipulation, Theodore creates archetypes representing hypothetical family members, spiritual guardians, and ancestors. These boldly crafted archetypes inhabit an imagined macro-family album, offering a unique perspective on portraiture, connection, and community. Theodore's work aims to deepen spiritual connections and encourage personal introspection.

Theodore's process begins with examining vintage portraits from the 1940s to the early 1970s, coinciding with the Great Migration. These photos capture the crucial moments in time that preserved people, places, and objects as cultural artifacts and vessels of nostalgic elements ubiquitous within Black America. Concurrently in history, Black people were increasingly taking control of their narratives, decolonizing the lens behind the camera to craft a collective identity during the post-Jim Crow era.

Shawn Theodore's photographic practice has always been rooted in single-person portraiture. However, his creative vision transcends the individual, delving into the reimagining of historical narratives within Black communities. Theodore finds profound inspiration in everyday objects like church fans, family photo albums, or wooden chess sets, seeing them as symbols of cultural and spiritual significance.

Using collages, both traditional and digital, Theodore crafts layers and intersections of imagined familial ties, traditions, friendships, secrets, and rituals that bind them, something akin to the stories of long-lost relatives one might encounter in faded, blurry photographs. For Theodore, photography is a fleeting moment, while collage allows for a deeper, more introspective exploration. By integrating collage into his practice, Theodore takes ownership of the narrative, imbuing his work with personal resonance. Theodore abstracts his portraits, layering them with paper, colored pencils, and meticulous hand embellishments. This technique transforms his subjects into textured, almost celestial beings, evoking a sense of otherworldly presence.

Paradigm Gallery is honored to present this reimagination of Black figuration through reclaimed photographs and Theodore’s artistic expression in the heart of his familial roots in Philadelphia. His critical approach to examining historical narratives aligns with Paradigm’s commitment to exhibiting meaningful and process-intensive work. A Race of Angels will be on view on the second floor of the Paradigm Arts Building (12 N 3rd St) from October 4 through November 10, 2024.

*VIEW/PURCHASE ARTWORK HERE*

ARTIST TALK
Sunday, October 27 • 12 PM
Watch the recording here

PHILADELPHIA OPEN STUDIO TOURS:
October 26 & 27, 2024
Saturday • 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Sunday • 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

EXHIBITION HOURS
Thursdays • 10 AM – 6 PM
Fridays • 10 AM – 6 PM
Saturdays • 11 AM – 6 PM
Sundays • 11 AM – 5 PM
And by appointment outside of hours.

LOCATION
12 N. 3rd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106

MEDIA CONTACT
For all inquiries contact info@paradigm-gallery.com

SOCIAL MEDIA
Instagram: @ParadigmGS
TikTok: ParadigmGallery
Facebook: facebook.com/paradigmgallery

PRESS
CBS Philadelphia
Kolaj Magazine
Black Collagists
Medium
Meer

About Shawn Theodore
Shawn Theodore (b. 1970) is an interdisciplinary artist/ Afrotheorist based in Philadelphia whose work merges photography, theory, mythmaking, and creative writing to reimagine Black presence as sovereign, eternal, and uncontainable. Born in Germany and raised between Devon, PA and West Philadelphia, Theodore learned early to navigate contrasts-rural stillness and urban urgency, ancestral memory and contemporary life-that continue to shape his vision. 

Through his original trademarked framework of Afromythology, Theodore expands photography beyond documentation into ritual and cosmology. His practice spans neighborhood portraiture, mythic figuration, and archival reconstitution, transforming the ordinary into archetype and everyday spaces into portals of memory. 

Theodore's work has been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery (his portrait of Amanda Gorman, the inaugural National Youth Poet Laureate), Philadelphia Museum of Art, The African American Museum of Philadelphia, the Library of the Metropolitan Muse um of Art, Library of the Whitney Museum, Library of the Guggenheim Museum, Library of the Getty Institute, Amon Carter Museum of Art, Arcadia University, Texas State University, ArtCenter College of Design, Syracuse University, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Drexel University, and The Coca Cola Company. His work has also been collected by former First Lady Michelle Obama. 

He has exhibited at Temple Contemporary at Tyler School of Art, Hudson Valley Community College, The University of the Arts, and Notre Dame of Maryland University, and has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Musee Magazine, VIBE Magazine, The New Yorker, and Paper Magazine.  Across images, text, and theory, Theodore creates a body of work that resists erasure and insists on presence, reconceiving Black life as a luminous, sovereign continuum. 

About Paradigm Gallery + Studio
Paradigm Gallery + Studio® was established in 2010 by co-founders and curators, Jason Chen and Sara McCorriston. The gallery exhibits meaningful, process-intense contemporary artwork by emerging and mid-career artists from around the world, with a focus on Philadelphia. In 2023, Paradigm moved locations and opened its new 5-story, 7,000 sq. ft. home, The Paradigm Arts Building, in Old City, Philadelphia. Open to the public, the building boasts multiple floors of exhibition space, integrated in-house design and printmaking, a dedicated events floor, and art advisory offices. With this, Chen and McCorriston expanded their vision for the greater Philadelphia arts community. The gallery is at the heart of this vision, anchoring Paradigm’s overall mission of increasing access to the commercial art world, supporting artists and advancing their careers, and collaborating with like-minded partners to build a more equitable, sustainable arts economy for all.

*VIEW/PURCHASE ARTWORK HERE*