Acrylic paint, rhinestones, sequins, cowrie shells, jewelry, and beads on panel.
18 x 24 in.
2020
Eye am Oshun
Water, blood, and eating to live
Colored pencil on cut paper. 11 x 7 in.
2021
A courthouse wedding because I couldn’t wait to marry you
Linoleum print with colored pencil.
11 x 14 in.
2021
TOUCH, Woman Made Gallery Virtual Reception June 13TH @ 2pm
June 5–30, 2020
Facebook Live Opening: Saturday, June 13, 2020 | 2–3 p.m.
Meet the juror Gina Lee Robbins and some of the exhibiting artists!
I will be a panelist during the virtual opening reception talking about my piece in the show!
CHICAGO — Woman Made Gallery (WMG) is pleased to present “TOUCH, A Virtual Exhibition” with work by 180 artists from the United States, Canada, England, France, Germany, Greece, India, Kuwait, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Poland and Switzerland.
Inspired by the current pandemic, this exhibition looks at something that many of us have had to completely do without: TOUCH. Most of the world is under order to shelter in place, practice social distancing, stay 6 feet away from each other. This is particularly punishing given that the tactile is such an integral part of the way we develop human relationships. In fact, our use of the word “touch” in English has long referred to how we stay connected–even from a distance.
In curating the 430 entries, Gina Lee Robbins looked for very specific personal responses to the theme. She began to see touch as its own complex language. Robbins selected works that convey the myriad ways we use touch to communicate with ourselves, others and the world around us, and how we respond emotionally to its presence or absence. Among these are representations of comfort, healing, tenderness, love, control, pain, fear, grief and loss.
Retrospective Solo Exhibition in Chicago
Photography of opening reception by: Natalie Battles
Download Updated LF Press Release: Reflections of Re-Emergence: Symphonic Identity
Public Programming:
THE cre.æ.tive ROOM | 7034 S Martin Luther King Dr, Chicago, IL 60637 Opening Reception
January 7, 6:00pm-8:00pm Friday
Healing WorkShop Series | Creative Rituals of Divinity & Rootwork
March 5, Saturday 1:00pm-4:00pm March 12, Saturday 1:00pm-4:00pm
OpenStudio | By Appointment
(Contact Lashon Fouché at 773.663.0270, venisekeys925@gmail.com)
Gallery Hours
March 4, Fridays 10:00am-2:00pm March 11, Fridays 10:00am-2:00pm March 18, Fridays 10:00am-2:00pm March 25, Fridays 10:00am-2:00pm
Closing Reception
March 26, 3:00pm-6:00pm Saturday
About: WILD YAMS – Black Mothers Artist Studio Residency at THE cre.æ.tive ROOM
Introducing a new Studio Partnership, WILD YAMS Black Mothers Artist Residency at THE cre.æ.tive ROOM. WILD YAMS Artist Residency provides sustainable creativity + equity for Black Mother Artists in Chicago. THE cre.æ.tive ROOM is an Art | Design collaboratorium studio located on Chicago’s southside. TCR Studio Residency Programs provide space + time to “imagine, create, envision” a distinctive Studio Practice platform for Women Creators. This new ongoing Studio Collaboration serves as a creative incubator for WILD YAMS Black Mothers, providing space, time, community, and entrepreneurial resources. A distinctive unified collaboration, both founded by Black Women with missions committed to equity + access through the Arts on the Southside of Chicago for Black Women Creators.
2022 Solo Exhibition in Chicago
CHICAGO (Winter 2022) – WILD YAMS: Black Mothers Artist Residency at THE cre.æ.tive ROOM is pleased to announce, “Reflections of Re-Emergence: Symphonic Identity,” a Solo Exhibition featuring WILD YAMS Artist | Lashon Fouché. “Reflections of Re-Emergence: Symphonic Identity” captures the intersections of Black Female Spectatorship, examined through figural symbology, rigorous mark-making, vibrant color palettes, abstract patterns and portraiture. The exhibition is curated by Founders, Clemenstien Love | Wisdom Baty, with select programming highlighting Fouché’s Studio Practice: Artist Talk, OpenStudios, WorkShops, and Performance Art Interventions. The Opening Reception is Friday, January 7th 6:00pm-8:00pm. The exhibition is on view at THE cre.æ.tive ROOM, from January 7- February 19, 2022.
Fouché stylised elements of color, pattern, and mark-making are multilayered, generating a kinetic flow of evocative feelings-sensibilities. Investigative themes of identity figuration, chromatic relationships and material embellishments add to the complexities of Fouché’s mark-making evolution. Her current explorations examine non-representational abstractions of the human body and the “Black Gaze.”
Public Programming:
THE cre.æ.tive ROOM | 7034 S Martin Luther King Dr, Chicago, IL 60637
Opening Reception
January 7, 6:00pm-8:00pm Friday
Artist Talk
January 22, Saturday 2:00pm-3:30pm
Moderated By: Wisdom Baty, WILD YAMS Founder
Healing WorkShop Series | Creative Rituals of Divinity & Rootwork
January 29, Saturday 1:00pm-3:00pm
February 5, Saturday 1:00pm-3:00pm
February 12, Saturday 1:00pm-3:00pm
OpenStudio | By Appointment
January 14, Friday
January 28, Friday
February 4, Friday
February 11, Friday
(Contact Lashon Fouché at 773.663.0270, venisekeys925@gmail.com)
Gallery Hours
January 14 – February 12, Fridays & Saturdays 10:00am-2:00pm
Closing Reception
February 19, 6:00pm-8:00pm Saturday
About: Lashon Fouché
Venise Lashon Keys | Lashon Fouché (b. Chicago, 1991) is a visual artist, writer, performer, and educator. Fouché activates painting, drawing, objects, printmaking, movement, and writing to commune with her ancestors. She holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Fine Art with an emphasis in Painting and a Certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Fouché’s consistent imagery and studio research on Black hair paraphernalia i.e combs, bobby pins, etc. began as an homage to her parents’ entrepreneurship in the Chicago hair industry. Fouché utilizes black cultural iconography along with elements of color, pattern, mark-making and abstraction to create dialogue centering notions of beauty, heritage, and resistance. Fouché has exhibited throughout Chicago and nationally.
About: WILD YAMS – Black Mothers Artist Studio Residency at THE cre.æ.tive ROOM
Introducing a new Studio Partnership, WILD YAMS Black Mothers Artist Residency at THE cre.æ.tive ROOM. WILD YAMS Artist Residency provides sustainable creativity + equity for Black Mother Artists in Chicago. THE cre.æ.tive ROOM is an Art | Design collaboratorium studio located on Chicago’s southside. TCR Studio Residency Programs provide space + time to “imagine, create, envision” a distinctive Studio Practice platform for Women Creators. This new ongoing Studio Collaboration serves as a creative incubator for WILD YAMS Black Mothers, providing space, time, community, and entrepreneurial resources. A distinctive unified collaboration, both founded by Black Women with missions committed to equity + access through the Arts on the Southside of Chicago for Black Women Creators.
Artist Talk Thursday September 16
ONLINE STORE OPEN
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The Devil’s Punchbowl: An American Holocaust | Audio and visual installation on view in my living room.
Wooden shelves, repurposed textiles, hand stitched rag doll, wooden beads, acrylic jewelry, wooden figurine, broom, artificial vines, yarn, tree branches, adhesive
My installation is inspired by the history of a contraband camp at the Devil’s Punchbowl in Natchez, Mississippi during the Civil War. Free slaves crossing into Union soldiers’ territory were re-captured and made property of war. The recaptured slaves were worked to death and buried wherever they dropped dead. Today, the site is heavily covered with foliage, trees, and wild peaches from the fertilized soil of my ancestors’ bodies.
I immortalized my people through hand-stitched eclectic spirit dolls interacting with tree branches, artificial vines, and found objects to signify a rootwork / conjure aesthetic of protection and gratitude for my ancestors. Alchemy symbols for the Sun, Moon, and Earth dance on the wooden shelves to the left. This installation sends blessings to the physical fruits and endows special gifts to whomever eats directly from those trees. A small broom, from my personal collection, activates conjure, which is commonly integrated in the domestic chores of indentured slaves. A wooden figurine of fruit basket also rests on this shelf pointing back to the sacred function of mother nature in all conjure rituals.
Continue to seek knowledge and question the fabric binding us all into one nation.
I asked Great Scott, an underground visual artist and music producer, to curate music setting a vibration of feelings for audiences to hear as they experience the spirit of this artwork.
Lashon FouchÉ Art 