Artist Statement
“Ten Minutes Into The Honeymoon” drawn from my memory of the beating of a Gay man in Kingston, Jamaica WI. As he was being beaten, he called on the Christian Bible for help. And as his violators beat him, they too called on the Christian Bible for his destruction while quoting scriptures. Coupled with the signing of the same sex marriage bill into law by Gov. Cuomo of New York in June 24, 2011, I created “Ten Minutes Into the Honeymoon” as a liturgy where a union of love triumphs over fear, ostracism, disparagement, hate, et al.
Lawrence Graham-Brown
(Born and raised in Jamaica, self educated, lives and works in NY & NJ) Is a cross-disciplinary artist who works in sculpture, painting, performance, among other media. Graham-Brown uses his work as a palliative gesture to dispel the trauma and shame to which people of color and Gay people are routinely subjected. His work has been presented at: The Queens Museum of Art; El Museo del Barrio NY; Leslie Lohman Gay and Lesbian Museum; Institute of Jamaica, Museum of Ethnography; The National Gallery of Jamaica, WI; Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance NY; Aljira Center for Contemporary Art; One of thirty artists to represent USA in the 2008 Shanghai Biennial in China; Galleria Homero Massena, Victoria, Brazil; Galerie Lutz Rohs, Duren, Germany; New York University, Grey Gallery; Creative Art Center, University of The West Indies, Jamaica; The streets of New York City among other places. His work has been written about in print by: The New York Times, Hartford Courant, Yankee Magazine, Hartford Advocate, Out in NJ, CAW Magazine, Jamaica Gleaner, In his catalog: Disconnecting, Reconnecting…Disconnected by Dean Daderko, Contemporary Art Museum Houston, published by Aljira Center for Contemporary Arts, among other periodicals and blogs and appeared on BET TV and online by: The Queens Museum TV, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art TV, BAAD TV, Real Art Ways TV, Dixon Place Theater TV among others. Lawrence has been the recipient of the Juror’s Award and Prize at NYU Small Works International Exhibition and is currently a Franklin Furnace Fellow for Avant-Garde performance art for 2011-2012.