Mustafa Ali Clayton’s presentation with Dominique Gallery echoes Mao’s and Serpas’s engagement with selfhood. Best known for his large, ebony-glaze busts depicting Black bodies, in Focus, Clayton presents a new terracotta series referencing legacy-building and commemoration. Gallery owner Dominique Clayton, who is married to the artist, explains: “These are objects of permanence. They are things that are meant to last forever. Clay is the oldest form of technology; it allowed us to make beautiful things, to eat, to warm our homes.” Clayton’s use of natural elements and sustainable materials is a nod to African societies. His work often elevates Black womanhood and manhood, while simultaneously confronting and questioning their associated iconography. Clayton’s hand-built, labor-intensive sculptures present a reclaiming of self as a tool for social justice.
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Under the curation of Essence Harden for the first time, 2024’s section for young galleries is rooted in community, place and ideas of ecology
Taylor Bythewood-Porter, FRIEZE, February 24, 2024
