Hadiqa Jardin Garden, captures a fractured memory before the catastrophic explosion in Beirut, Lebanon on August 4, 2020–where Westly completed a residency 2016. Westly frantically attempted to reach out to friends and loved ones in the city, praying that they were safe. Galleries, museums, restaurants and places he visited frequently had been completely erased. The work features cerulean blues that coated the houses, cadmium greens reminiscent of the palm trees and gardens found lining the streets of the city, oranges and reds reminiscent of the brilliant sunsets seen from the coast out between the crumbled facade of a building destroyed by the blast. This piece originated as a print collaboration between Westly and fellow artist Andrew Ross hosted by Basic.Space to raise funds for the Beirut Art Residency relief fund after the tragedy.
The use of social media and documentation play an important role in Westly’s work, not only in learning about individuals' experiences and perspectives during events throughout the world, but also by way of our means of communication and our interpersonal relationships. Westly is known for depicting friends, subjects who generally sit for the artist in-person. With the pandemic progressing, he began communicating with each of his models through social media and collaborating within the digital sphere. Each individual expressed feelings and experiences of what this time has meant to them, life before, during and post-quarantine. Unable to travel, unable to see loved ones, loss of jobs, loss of loved ones, falling out of love, falling in love. Westly’s painted “dreams” combine memories, associations, and photographs replacing the grim realities of this time for both artist and subject.
The show’s title A Dream Deferred is a reference to the poem Harlem from the book A Montage of A Dream Deferred by the Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes.
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
-Langston Hughes, "Harlem" from Montage of a Dream Deferred, 1951
Darryl Westly (b. 1989 Chicago, IL) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He received his BFA from the Cooper Union in 2014 and previously completed the Pratt Institute Sculpture Program. After graduating, Westly was recruited to work as a finish painter under artist Jeff Koons. In 2016, he participated in the Beirut Art Residency Program. He has had a solo exhibition at ParisTexasLA Gallery LA, included in notable group exhibitions including Vanquishing Ocular curated by David Salle and Nicole Wittenberg at East Hampton’s Rental Gallery, Ways To Die by The Bruce High Quality Foundation, been featured as part of Art Central Hong Kong with Cuturi Gallery in SIngapore and has exhibited as part of the Watermill Gala’s Annual Benefit, and has shown with the Nars Foundation in New York. Currently, he paints full-time and exhibits his work internationally. Darryl worked additionally as an independent curator, art advisor and is a board member of the fundraising initiative Black Artist Fund. His work and practice has been reviewed in Interview, Juxtapoz, Whitewall, Artnet, Surface Magazine, Artsy and Office Magazine among others. His studio is in Industry City, Brooklyn.
