Alisa Sikelianos-Carter explores space and Black history in new SLOMA exhibit 

How does your hair define you?

For New York-based mixed-media artist Alisa Sikelianos-Carter, hair—specifically Black hair—is a tool, a device that allows an exploration of something far more than just outward appearance.

"My work is using images of hair and extrapolating the stories that hair tells into more abstract work," Sikelianos-Carter said. "In this case, I focus on hair as a symbol of power and empowerment for people of color—primarily Black people."

click to enlarge

• Image Courtsy Of Alisa Sikelianos-carter
• WONDERFUL WAVES Blending the power of strands of hair and explorations of abstract space, Alisa Sikelianos-Carter crafts artistic wonder like this piece, There's a Wave in Every Cell.

That expression of empowerment is on display in Sikelianos-Carter's upcoming exhibition at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art (SLOMA), officially titled Space and Splendor: A Topography of Wildness.

"Hair is such a powerful tool that is used by Black people as a means of expression and showcase of their freedom," Sikelianos-Carter said.

She has had her work featured across the country in different forms, but this is the first time she's bringing her efforts to an in-person exhibit in California.

"I am thrilled to show my work to other people, especially in California and San Luis Obispo since I'm so new to the area," she said. "This is the first show I am putting on out here where I will be able to attend and see all the pieces in person."

Sikelianos-Carter said that now more than ever, it's important to have art that explores the role hair has in the day-to-day resilience that people of color display.

"I wanted these pieces to focus on Black hair as this divine technological adaptation that Black people have carried with them over the years," she said. "Especially in recent times, where they have encountered acts of white supremacy."

The exhibition—on display in the Gray Wing of SLOMA through March 2024—aims to explore the unconditional, ancestral, and ancient history of Black people through small sculptures and large installations of works on paper.

"Most of the time I come up with them, I take these pictures of strands of hair and space I find online and use them as inspiration," Sikelianos-Carter said. "It comes out as these two half images where one part is this abstract space and the other is the flowing hair or braid."

click to enlarge

• Photo Courtesy Of Alisa Sikelianos-carter
• SPACE SPLENDOR New York-based artist Alisa Sikelianos-Carter, whose work is now on display at SLOMA, aims to explore the divine technology of Black hair through abstract works that blend space, strands, and stories to tell a narrative of resilience.

Space—and the open vastness and existentialism that accompanies it—is another major source of inspiration for Sikelianos-Carter, who said she has opened up to purely exploring the cosmos in her work in recent years.

"I've been exploring physics and the idea of how we perceive the world around us—especially in how that reflects off of my more traditional influences," she said. "As a result, some of the pieces are more abstract, taking influence from things like plants, celestial objects, and even geographical concepts."

Sikelianos-Carter explained that this exploration into the more abstract concepts has given new life to some aspects of her art and the divine nature of Black hair.

"It has helped open up the world around me more than my work did in the past," she said. "Especially since it's a theme and concept that I never really sat down and chose to focus on before."

click to enlarge

• Image Courtesy Of Alisa Sikelianos-carter
• BEAUTIFUL BLOOM Wild, flowing, and ever-shifting depending on the viewer's perspective, this is how Alisa Sikelianos-Carter views her abstract mixed-media art (including Bloom).

In this new body of work, she said she's found that she can move away from a physical figure and more into the pure expression that is afforded by the openness of space.

"When you are thinking about these concepts like the beginning of existence and how something as simple as one's hair plays into that, you start to see the world differently," Sikelianos-Carter said. "It leaves my world—at least to me—feeling very celestial."

It's that openness to explore and express such grand concepts that Sikelianos-Carter is hopeful will resonate with the viewers of the gallery and in turn invite them to explore the symbols and objects in their culture that not only express resilience but allow them to stand out.

"I've had a lot of people describe the feelings of seeing my work as seeing a video or being in person when the moon is coming up over the horizon," she said. "When you look at the art like that, you are doing more than just expressing something, you are exploring." Δ

Staff Writer Adrian Vincent Rosas is watching the moon come up on the horizon. Reach him at [email protected].