Dec. 4, 2025 – Feb. 21, 2026
Opening Reception Thursday, Dec. 4, 7-10pm
Black Folk Stars: Black Folks Are Naturally Iconic Part 2 by artist Daniel Gilstrap and curated buy Éngel Ellis of Kei Museum serves to pay homage to the idea and sense of Black Folks. The show sees Blackness as well as being a part of the Black Diaspora is enough of a cultural foundation to have a natural sense of pride and dignity with your sense of self. This plays a role for our community regardless of your essential way of life or being. Being Black is an iconic and a golden experience.
Black Folk Stars: Black Folks Are Naturally Iconic, is the second part of an art experience, with the first being an art tasting titled Black Folk Stars: Black Lens, held at an apartment in the Ponce De Leon area. The first show was about perception and featured Black Folks with primary colors and black to elicit differing feelings and messages about Black Folks. As the viewers went throughout the apartment the warm colored paintings with yellow and red backgrounds seem to feature happy, passionate figures filled with wonder. While the black and blue pieces featured more somber and honest looking black portraits, some pondering that solitude and others honoring it.
The arrangement of Black portraits featured within the exhibition highlights how Black Folks have accomplished a sense and feeling of being an iconic figure no matter their role in the Black Community. Black Folks can cherish the simple life and the natural beauty of the mundane, while also acknowledging that we face obstacles reflective of the negative history of the world that we live in. Black Folks do an excellent job at prevailing regardless of those hardships. The goal is for this to be a prideful showcase of Black identity. Many of these pieces are close ups of Black faces and headshots exemplifying Black features to inspire pride of self, character, and uniqueness. Allowing our beauty to be the focal point of the show, as we in our essence are exquisite.
Black Folk Stars: Black Folks Are Naturally Iconic Part 2 will open with a free, public reception on Thursday, Dec. 4, 7–10pm, and the artist will be present. Viewing hours are Fridays and Saturdays,12–5pm, or by appointment.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Daniel Gilstrap
Daniel James Gilstrap also known as Dan, is a painter from Atlanta, Georgia, born and raised. He is a fine artist whose focus is hooking in his audience and transforming their perspectives through interdisciplinary offerings. He uses his lifetime in the south as inspiration for his portrait work as he highlights Black People. Throughout their body of work, Dan captivates his audience with pieces, invoking his values and interests delivering a soft spotlight allowing for a peek into his mind.
