Holman: A Living Archive, is a community project that centralizes art and social engagement as a key component to the revitalization of the historically black Holman High School in Stuttgart Arkansas. The installation will have three components: interviews from alumni, books/zines, and works produced by the resident artist. The project will function not only as a form of record keeping but as a radical gesture to create equity in a historically marginalized neighborhood.
Born in Stuttgart, Arkansas, Justin Bryant received his BFA in Studio Art from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2012 and his MFA in Studio Art from Louisiana State University in 2018. He has taken courses at Penland School of Craft, Ox-bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency, the Art Students League in New York and he was also a participant at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (’17). Justin’s recent work investigates the past and present imagery of African-Americans to reflect a multi-contextual narrative of poetry, personal narrative, and history. In his work, he uses found objects, painting, drawing, and video to suggest a fugitive notion of blackness. Justin has shown at the Zoe B. Art Center in Chicago Illinois, Ten Gallery in New Orleans, Michigan State University’s LookOut! Art Gallery and will soon show at the Thea Arts Foundation.