Sowebo B - Quentin Moseley (NEW)
Sowebo B, Quentin Moseley

Sowebo B

Artist

Quentin Moseley

Nationality

American

Heritage

European American

Medium

Offset Lithograph

Hand Cutting

Date

1986

Dimensions

22 x 30 inches

Edition Size

48 prints in this edition

Printer

Robert "Bob" Franklin

Provenance

Brandywine Workshop and Archives

Location

Philadelphia, PA

About the Work

From the Artist

The title Sowebo stands for Southwest Baltimore. I came to live in this freshly identified neighborhood, which had become an inner-city gritty environment that attracted a large group of resident artists, art bars, and art entrepreneurs. The artists eventually ran an arts festival yearly with a lot of attendance from all over the city.

We felt the energy and integrated with the locals to some extent, though the effects of inner-city neglect with boarded up houses, trash in the streets, and the effects of gentrification following in the artists' steps came shortly behind. But it became a great community of artists, some who are still there, though less so now.

The name Sowebo was also a play on Soweto in South Africa, as that was a neighborhood with a renowned image of deprivation but also a newfound image of change and hope that seemed on the horizon. In both instances the better aspirations of inner-city hope became out of reach—an image of so many cities remaining today.

So, the image was “inspired” by looking out my apartment/studio window at a brick wall and being aware of the jagged broken glass and broken lives that were a part of the neighborhood. But the effect of looking up from my window at the sunset colors of a sky with the swoosh of maybe clouds or dreams flying fast and fleeting is the counterbalance to the isolation and dilapidated remains of the neighborhood below.

I had a great apartment and studio in Sowebo, cheap rent, made a lot of art, and hung out at the local bars with a wonderful community of artists, poets, and others of like mind. I have great memories of the artist community—a truly inspiring community energy that is so needed to revive the inner cities.
—From Brandywine Workshop and Archives records

About the Artist

Quentin Moseley

Maryland-based artist, printmaker, and professor Quentin Moseley received his BFA from Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts, New York, and MFA from Hoffberger School of Painting at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Bal...

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