ARTIST TALK: April M. Frazier
Saturday, March 4th, 2023, 6 – 7:30pm
Free and Open to the Public!
We are delighted to be hosting Texas-based photographer April M. Frazier at VCP for an artists talk in conjunction with her solo exhibition “Frame of Reference” which opens March 3rd, 2023 in VCP’s Main Gallery.
Frame of Reference is the pictorial representation of familial influences and experiences which shaped Frazier’s life. Using images and genealogical research, Frame of Reference serves to present an alternate narrative of the African American experience in Texas and beyond. Images of accomplishment, celebration and love are shown from as early as 1890 to present day including selected portraits from her family collection.
Collages in the in exhibition carve out details of those lives lived and highlights certain triumphs, including Emanuel Roberts, Frazier’s 2nd Great Grandfather and his acquisition of two hundred and seven acres of land in Wharton County, Texas in 1893, and Henry Cox, my 3rd Great Grandfather, whose parents Jacob Cox and Malissa Truesdale married as freedmen in Fayette County, Texas, January 1866.
Portraits from The Missing Chapter: Black Chronicles on loan from Autograph ABP, London are displayed in parallel to Frazier’s collection of portraits from Texas to demonstrate similarities in features, style of dress, and strong presence through time of Afro Descent people across the globe.
Frame of Reference demonstrates the growth, breadth, and interconnectedness in tradition and experiences over many generations. The threading signifies those connections in family ties and derived from observing the thread pattern on the back of a collage of images sewn by Frazier’s grandmother. The work speaks to the power of photography and the privilege of a family’s rich access to and appreciation of the artform. Frazier wants the viewer to feel like they are looking through the pages of a family photo album in a relative’s living room and see similarities in their own lived experience. She chose to leave the portraits as-is to show their less than pristine condition. They serve as tangible evidence to reaffirm this was family known and loved then, now and into the future.
Our Story is Evergreen.
About the Artist
April M. Frazier is an artist and photographer from Houston, Texas. She is a graduate of Prairie View A&M University with a BBA in Management Information Systems in 2002 and Rice University, with a Master of Business Administration in 2011. April worked in Oil & Gas for fifteen years in various Information Technology roles, including a 10-month expat position in Hamburg, Germany. In 2011, April transitioned to photographing professionally and has since served clients in all genres and specializes in creatively collaborating with minority and women owned businesses in her Houston community.
April’s personal photography projects include architectural and documentary images from her travels across Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean. Her most prized and ongoing work involves research and documentation of her ancestral roots in Texas through the creation of imagery on lands with familial connection from the time of enslavement to present day. The exhibition, Frame of Reference was a culmination of this work and received national acclaim from its showing at the Houston Museum of African American Culture and the Fayette Heritage Museum & Archives in 2021 and 2022. Frame of Reference and other works have been exhibited in galleries and museums across Texas, New York, Oregon, and Vermont including a group exhibition in London. April is also a launch partner for the Getty Images Black History and Culture Collection and utilizes the robust archive to bring light to the stories of African Americans and others of the Black diaspora. April is married and enjoys raising her daughter Lily in Richmond, Texas.