Dewey Crumpler (b. 1949, Arkansas) examines themes of race, capitalism, and the history of oppression with mixed media. Crumpler began his practice as a city muralist, studying under Pablo Esteban O’Higgins and David Alfaro Siqueiros. After working over a decade as a muralist, he began to address slavery in America. Crumpler’s work examines powerful structures that frame social interpretations, exposing the malleability that leads to empowerment and liberation.

In one extensive body of work, Crumpler used tulips as a symbol for African bodies, both of which were taken out of their original environment and shipped around the world. Crumpler was attached to the physicality of the flower, its simultaneous fulness and emptiness, as well as to its relationship to space. Contemporary African Americans stand as enduring survivors of the peculiar institution of slavery; similarly, the tulip symbolizes resistance and is one of the most resilient flowers, maintaining its physical integrity amidst extreme climatological conditions. With these subtle metaphors, Crumpler addresses the idea of subjugation in America and the way this condition was transformed into a state of cultural self-fulfillment and spiritual development.