Cliff Notes
Each week, our regional Cliff Notes columnists Jaydra Johnson, Brittney Frantece, Blessing Greer Mathurin, and Quintessa Matranga pick the most exciting events and exhibitions on the West Coast.
Dez’Mon Omega Fair: Eon Ephemera III
Method Gallery, Seattle, WA
June 5 – July 26, 2025
There’s an immersive power behind Dez’Mon Omega Fair’s Eon Ephemere III at Method Gallery. This installation takes up the entire gallery—covering walls, floor, and ceiling with canvas fabric that has graffiti-like multicolored swirls and tie-dye-like splashes. A playful mixture of colors and shapes, along with the movements of the fabric, offering a spectrum immersion.
Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that we enter into Fair’s mind and imagination when we step into the gallery because of the complexity of materials, colors, and textures, as well as their overlapping placements. Alongside the draping fabric are framed watercolors. Some paintings are abstract while others are surreal portraits—beautifully chaotic and full.
I admire the communal aspects of Fair’s installation. This installation is a gift because it allowed me to reckon with how my ideas can be elusive, playful, and unclear, yet still be worth expressing and sharing. Being able to find fun and ease in the commotion of Eon Ephemere III can teach us how to hold the complicated mind as a whole, not just in compartmentalized bits and pieces.
Reflection: What are the shapes, colors, lines, and figures that play in your imagination?
Jite Agbro: Penumbras
Patricia Rovzar Gallery, Seattle, WA
July 1- 30, 2025
I’m always fascinated when artists experiment with portraiture because they offer new ways for us to see, understand, and represent other people in our lives. Alternative portraiture gives new light to people’s lives and cultures. Jite Agbro’s Penumbras at Patricia Rovzar Gallery combines multi-colored fabrics and paper to portray femme presenting bodies performing everyday activities with some anonymity. We don’t see the figures’ faces, skin, or any details that would disclose who they are. Yet, I found an alternative way of knowing them through body language, colors, and contrasting designs within the fabric.
In “Take Vigal,” four figures are present, but they aren’t all engaged with each other. One figure composed of textured maroon paper and fabric sits in the foreground on bent knees as if they’re in a meditative state. Another figure, sitting on their knees, is composed of pinkish and mauve colored paper and one floral print fabric. The two subjects are seemingly in a conversation with each other, and I’m drawn to the differences in the figures. In one print, we experience four different figures in three separate situations. Despite their differences, their visual proximity marks their connection in some way.
Reflection: What color or design prints and fabric would you use to represent parts of your identity?