JOHN ISIAH WALTON

Code Black

June 1 – July 16, 2022

JOHN ISIAH WALTON

Song of Storms, 2018

oil on canvas

96h x 92w in
243.84h x 233.68w cm

"Gaining inspiration from Picasso’s "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," 1907 and Paul Cézanne’s Bathers series, Isiah uses contemporary references in "Song of Storms." To produce these figures, the artist combined characters from the New Orleans’ Burlesque and Strip Clubs scenes with Majora Mask elements from the video game Zelda. The masks donned by the dancers represent the obscuring of the dancers’ individuality in favor of a more fantastical character that allows them to protect their identity and earn their income."⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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JOHN ISIAH WALTON

Moon Rock, 2019

oil on canvas

72h x 48w in
182.88h x 121.92w cm

Moon Rock is a work of art done in oil paint highlighting 16 Psyche, a large asteroid discovered by the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis on March 17th 1852 from Naples and named after the Greek mythological figure Psyche. In addition to Psyche over 15,000 Astroid objects have been discovered, and their orbits all come in close proximity to Earth. These Astroids also feature highly desired precious metals people generally look for when mining Asteroids.

The initial inspiration to make this painting came to me when I was told how potent the high was when smoking “Moon Rock.” I was told “it would have me feeling like I was in outer space.” A concept came to me, of a person smoking the “Moon Rock,” chilling with Prada shades on, with a Bluetooth signal connecting the human subject with these valued celestial objects.

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JOHN ISIAH WALTON

Dark Continent, 2020

oil on canvas

60h x 120w in
152.40h x 304.80w cm

The child with the crown on the left panel is a young Mansa Musa, who was the tenth Mansa of the Mali Empire, an Islamic West African state. He has been described as the wealthiest individual of the Middle Ages.

Golden Double helix & figures represents the first humans evolved in Africa, and much of human evolution occurred on that continent. The fossils of early humans who lived between 6 and 2 million years ago come entirely from Africa. Most scientists currently recognize some 15 to 20 different species of early humans.

The Great Mosque of Djenné located on the top of the diptych is a large banco or adobe building. The mosque is located in the city of Djenné, Mali, on the flood plain of the Bani River.

On the bottom right two grey lemurs look out to the viewers. Two new independent studies estimate that there are only between 2,000 and 2,400 ring-tailed lemurs.

Two camels symbolize the 80 camels that carried up to 50–300 lb of gold dust. Musa gave the gold to the poor he met along his route.

Baobab trees (Tree of Life) shown in the right panel grow in 32 African countries. They can live for up to 5,000 years, it provides shelter, food and water for animals and humans.

The Continent of Africa is filled in with a bright red, with yellow stars similar to the Chinese National flag.The Jubilee Debt Campaign— calculated that, as of 2018, around 20 percent of all African government debt is owed to China. China's debts in Africa are mostly located in resource-rich countries, and this is the case with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Zambia, Sudan, Congo ,Kenya.

The bottom of the painting represents Shark Island or "Death Island" which was one of the five concentration camps located on Shark Island off Lüderitz, Namibia in Central Namibia. It was used by the German empire during the Herero and Namaqua genocide of 1904–1908. Between 1,032 and 3,000 Herero and Namaqua men, women, and children died in the camp between its opening in 1905 and its closing in April 1907.

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JOHN ISIAH WALTON

Nigga For All Seasons, 2021

acrylic paint and oil pastel on canvas

48h x 36w in
121.92h x 91.44w cm

I’m either too black or not black enough-Aries Brown, an 18-year-old African-American student at an international school in Eastern Europe.

This work highlights social politics in the African American descent community.
Oreo is slang for a black person that appears to the community to embody the social and cultural features of a white person. The idea of being “white in the inside” is made with white paint strokes within the figure with the patterns of the Oreo symbol within it and other strokes in the piece.

In the middle of the composition, the Global Citizen is someone who: is aware of the wider world and has a sense of their own role as a world citizen respects and values diversity has an understanding of how the world works. His head is one with the world through my abstraction, his mind is symbiotic with the “Global Community”. The global aviation industry produces around 2% of all human-induced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Aviation is responsible for 12% of CO2 emissions from all transports sources, compared to 74% from road transport.

In the bottom section of the painting, the four seasons—spring, summer, fall, and winter are a homage to the select a character screen on a video game, in this adaptation you can pick the personality type of the POC. The upside-down A is a math symbol for all & the question mark symbol represents random selection, the selection of seasons could be possible with the mouse in the bottom right corner of this painting.

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JOHN ISIAH WALTON

The Lovers, 2022

oil pastel and acrylic on canvas

36h x 24w in
91.44h x 60.96w cm

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JOHN ISIAH WALTON

Follow the Drinking Grounds, 2020

oil on canvas

96h x 60w in
243.84h x 152.40w cm

Description written by Allison K Young curator/historian - June 2020

About a month ago, an attempt at mass ally-ship went awry on social media. While #BlackLivesMatter activists flooded city streets from Minneapolis to London to protest the police-involved murder of George Floyd, an avalanche of black squares cascaded down Facebook and Instagram news feeds. Intended as a show of solidarity and to amplify BIPOC voices, the “Blackout” ultimately impeded resource-sharing and rendered #BLM posts hyper-visible. This made small work of police surveillance, as their posts came into view within a patchwork grid of dark squares.

This incident comes to mind when I consider John Isiah Walton’s Black Paintings, which seem to wrestle with the terms of visibility and invisibility, presence and absence, figure, and void. Walton starts by making a black square of his canvas, perhaps an emulation of the “zero-sum” narrative of Modernist abstraction. The paintings are then marked up in layers of acrylic and oil stick, in glaring neon hues, as scenes ranging from the controversial to the intimate or mundane come to populate his canvases.

In Follow the Drinking Grounds, 2020, a portrait of Harriet Tubman floats within a field of aqua and green shapes, which are derived from the 16-bit maps of a childhood videogame. Playing as the elf named “Link,” we would navigate a mythical world, seeking to rescue Princess Zelda from a tyrannical demon. In the painting, Tubman gazes at us, intensely, from an aperture at the center of this swamp-like space. Her body is the map, the North Star, rescuer and rescued, all at once.

Along the Underground Railroad, invisibility—akin to what Edouard Glissant deceptively called “Opacity”—was the only method of survival.

Walton offers clues and annotations across the canvas: the command “Follow,” written in a lower corner of the map, speaks at once to intuition and ancestral knowledge, to surveillance and pursuit, and to the curated digital communities that have become our lifeline these days. The painting’s bottom register is filled with overlapping white shapes. Reminiscent of playing cards or internet pop-ups, they bear symbols denoting Spyware, the Patriot Act, bloodhounds, or Pokemon. In other words: to being followed, surveilled, and chased.

For me, this work reflects on the theme of “navigation”—online and offline, in society, in history, or on the streets. In our generation’s quest, is visibility or invisibility the greater asset? The FBI recently tracked a masked arsonist in Philadelphia by following a trail of online cues, from Etsy to Instagram to Poshmark to LinkedIn, before confirming her identity by a forearm tattoo. Visibility, however, remains critical. In Walton’s painting, Tubman’s portrait is surrounded by floating “20”s, a reference to the now-canceled plan to honor the abolitionist hero on the twenty-dollar bill. This is, ironically, the same unit of currency that George Floyd was accused of counterfeiting.

The numbers may also just point to 2020, with all we’ve had to navigate, in six long months and counting. Walton told me these symbols reflect multiple realities, multiple paths. That it’s up to each of us to interpret these clues, ourselves.

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JOHN ISIAH WALTON

Cane River, Louisiana, 2020

oil on canvas

96h x 60w in
243.84h x 152.40w cm

A vertically stacked diptych painting on canvas, “Cane River, Louisiana” is inspired by the rare 1982 motion picture Cane River, made by independent black filmmakers, financed by black patrons and “dealing with race issues untouched by the mainstream.” Exploring a taboo narrative of Colorism this piece shows a light-skinned Creole woman with the last name Metoyer, whose ancestors once owned a local plantation and slaves, despite being of African descent themselves. Here, the Metoyer descendant has a come to Jesus moment as she is confronted by her mirror image in the water. As she stares into her reflection, you’ll notice the fleur-de-lis pattern on the dress in her dark-skinned reflection is a little more pronounced, signifying that over in her world, things are the same, yet...a little bit different. The gazing Ms. Metoyer is flanked by a West African originated Louisiana tradition, a dark blue Bottle Tree, which has been erected to offer protection from possibly harmful, roaming spirits.

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JOHN ISIAH WALTON

Hot Girl Summer, 2019

oil on canvas

60h x 48w in
152.40h x 121.92w cm

Hot Girl Summer 1 &2 are both similar in theme and the use of color in this specific piece pictured above accentuates the different segments of the painting. Above the centralized figure and between the bright oranges and blues towards the top of the canvas, you may read and recognize some well known New Orleans streets. The figure dressed in a tight yellow bodysuit portrays a Bounce dancer. Her twisted, squatting position is supported by two school buses converted into “party buses.” These buses are a popular fad in New Orleans culture when wanting to observe celebratory events with friends and/or family during those unbearably hot Louisiana summer nights. We love John Isiah’s representation of a fun NOLA based activity and how well he literally highlights the lively ways of our modern world.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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JOHN ISIAH WALTON

Hot Girl Summer 2, 2019

oil on canvas

60h x 48w in
152.40h x 121.92w cm

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JOHN ISIAH WALTON

City Girl, 2020

oil on canvas

48h x 48w in
121.92h x 121.92w cm

This work transports the viewer into a bustling city, filled with entertainment galore. The upper half of the piece seems to be scattered with alcoholic drinks and party busses. The cups contain the words “Fat Tuesday,” implying a Mardi Gras celebration is underway. The titular figure, crouched, with her arms spread wide, seems to welcome the chaotic ensemble graciously. Separated from the upper half by a river, the lower half of the painting depicts an aerial view of many streets found in New Orleans. Walton once again demonstrates his expert proficiency in symbolizing wild energy and effectively representing the party life in New Orleans.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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JOHN ISIAH WALTON

The Empress, 2020

oil on canvas

48h x 36w in
121.92h x 91.44w cm

The Empress is a painting documenting the idea of what a dating profile would look like to an audience of the future. This work of art is a continuation of the “black painting” technique the artist has been practicing the last 4 years. The Empress presents herself as confident and regal in a time of quick and easy.

Tarot symbols reign supreme to communicate her spiritual importance when gazing upon her sitting on her throne. Flower patterns welcome the viewer as a offering to swipe right on her, which might gain you access to her DM’s if you’re lucky.

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JOHN ISIAH WALTON

Hot Deet, 2020

oil on canvas

48h x 36w in
121.92h x 91.44w cm

Documentation of Summer in the year 2020. To wear a mask or not is the question some Americans are asking themselves as they head into Day 129 of the COVID-19 Viral Outbreak marked by Civil Unrest in the light of racially motivated police shootings. The warm color palette evokes the sweltering heat of a tropical Louisiana Summer, which can act as an added layer of oppression.

Daily temperature checks become the norm for many attempts to resume normal activities. Their temperature must fall into the acceptable range, noted in the box up, in order to be characterized as a non-threat. Opposite the thermometer is a different kind of scale. A Social Temperature is tracked on the right, ranging from a tranquil blue PAIS (Peace in Old French) to a warm orange NEUTER (Neutral in Latin) and escalating into the red hot RIOTER zone.

The BLM mask-wearing head in the center references the relationship between the two races that is being held together by several threads. A sprinkling of mosquitos, remind us of viral vectors from our landscape’s past and represent an added threat to anyone attempting to social distance in the Great Outdoors. Instead of a mask, this threat uses a DEET Mosquito Repellent mist to protect the body.

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JOHN ISIAH WALTON

The Fool, 2020

oil on canvas

48h x 36w in
121.92h x 91.44w cm

This composition features a commonly known interface for folx who are looking for some love online. The fool is shown flexing those biceps and trying to keep cool in front of a reflection while snapping a selfie. On the inside however we see a toothy smile, a reference perhaps to their innermost feelings that are kept from plain sight. ⠀⠀⠀⠀

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JOHN ISIAH WALTON

Zoom, 2020

acrylic on paper

48h x 34w in
121.92h x 86.36w cm

Zoom is a painting giving the viewer some quantum supremacy mixed with a little white supremacy. The abstracted figure represents when Ben Vereen wore blackface to Reagan’s Inaugural Gala. Vereen staged an homage to the legendary black vaudevillian Bert Williams, one of the most popular entertainers of the early twentieth century. Vereen sang the popular show tune “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee.” He did so dressed as Williams, wearing coat and tails, and, as Williams would have as was required of African American theatrical performers of Williams’s era wearing blackface, too.

Qubit’s in the top left corner is a two-state quantum-mechanical system & text at the bottom under the Nike logo reads Zoom. Zoom is a cloud-based video conferencing service you can use to virtually meet with others either by video or audio-only or both, all while conducting live chats and it lets you record those sessions to view later. “Just Do It” is written under Zoom as a reference to the Nike slogan used by the company for decades, but in this case, Vereen has done it to himself.

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JOHN ISIAH WALTON

Frenchman Karen, 2022

oil pastels and acrylic on canvas

36h x 24w in
91.44h x 60.96w cm

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JOHN ISIAH WALTON

Fan Duel 2k12, 2022

oil pastel & acrylic on canvas

36h x 24w in
91.44h x 60.96w cm

FanDuel Group is an American gambling company that offers sportsbook, daily fantasy sports, online casino and online horse race betting products. Originally founded in 2009, the company operates sportsbooks in a number of states including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana and West Virginia; an online horse race betting platform; and a daily fantasy sports service.

The image of Lebron is from when he & the Miami Heat we’re down 3-2 against the weak ass Celtic franchise (go lakers!). This was a legendary game for Lebron for they would go on to win this game & game 7 to advance to the NBA Finals. I put the Ukrainian flag & Russian flag representing the iconic comeback of the Ukrainian people not letting the Russian army destroy / takeover their country

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1 June 2022 (New Orleans, LA) JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY is proud to present the first solo exhibition of New Orleans-based artist John Isiah Walton entitled Code Black. In this collection of fifteen new and recent works, Walton explores themes of race, identity, and contemporary culture. The “Black Paintings,” a series Walton began in 2017, address issues of identity including visibility and invisibility, presence and absence, figure, and void. On canvases painted black, layers of neon-hued acrylic and oil stick depict scenes ranging from the mundane to the controversial.

His neo-expressionist works are internationally recognized for their commentary on race, class, identity, and current events through his irreverent, frenetic, and sometimes absurdist style. Influenced by internet aesthetics, Black identity, pop culture, and Louisiana history, Walton’s subjects are often unconventional and sometimes shocking. In the tradition of Basquiat, his work frequently has hidden meanings and symbols, and his choppy brushwork endows the work with the energy and intensity that the artist is known for. Rooted in concern about the social, economic, political, and cultural structures at play in contemporary life, Walton’s best-known series encourages discomfort as a vehicle for discussion.

Walton was born in 1985 in New Orleans where he currently lives and work. He attended St. Augustine H.S. (1999-2002) and graduated from Sarah T. Reed H.S. (2003). Walton received an AA degree in 2012 from Delgado College, New Orleans and has been a member of Second Story Gallery (2012-13), The Front, New Orleans (2014-2017), and Level Artist Collective (2015-Present). His work has been exhibited show at the Art Lab Akiba (Tokyo, Japan); the Atlanta Contemporary Biennial (Atlanta, Georgia); the Ogden Museum of Southern Art (New Orleans, Louisiana); and appears in numerous museum collections including: the New Orleans Museum of Art; the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art (Biloxi, Mississippi); P339 (Brooklyn, New York). His residencies include the Macedonia Institute (Chatham, New York) and the Joan Mitchell Center (New Orleans). In 2022, he will showcase work in Tel Aviv, Israel.

The exhibition will be on view from 1 June to 16 July 2022, with an opening reception coinciding with the Arts District of New Orleans’ (ADNO) First Saturday Gallery Openings from 5-8 PM on 4 June 2022.

For more information, press or sales inquiries please contact Gallery Director Matthew Weldon Showman at 504.343.6827 or matthew@jonathanferraragallery.com. Please join the conversation with JFG on Facebook (@JonathanFerraraGallery), Twitter (@JFerraraGallery), and Instagram (@JonathanFerraraGallery) via the hashtags: #JohnIsiahWalton, #CodeBlack, #JonathanFerraraGallery, and #ArtsDistrictNewOrleans.