Exhibition Statement
Threads: The Art Exchange is pleased to present Griot Genesis, a digital exhibition by Detroit-based artist Miriam Uhura. Exploring lineage, becoming, and Black identity through intimate portraiture and narrative-driven painting, Uhura’s art practice centers on storytelling and lived experience, positioning painting as a tool for preservation, reflection, and becoming. Presented alongside a dedicated podcast episode and curated Spotify playlist, the exhibition extends beyond the visual, inviting audiences to listen, reflect, and engage with the conversational and sonic landscapes that inform Uhura’s practice.
Organized thematically, Griot Genesis unfolds through three interrelated frameworks: Lineage + Becoming, Presence + the Intimate Gaze, and Living Folklore: Freedom + Black Possibility. Together, these frameworks define a practice rooted in care, imagination, and emotional inheritance. Family and ancestry are approached as living forces, shaping identity through acts of recognition instead of nostalgia, while intimacy operates as method, rendering vulnerability as presence over performance. Drawing from myth, lived experience, and collective memory, Uhura reimagines Black legacy as expansive and self-authored. Across these themes, painting becomes a way of holding space for family, for self, and for lineage, inviting slow looking and sustained engagement as storytelling remains open and ongoing. The presented work positions memory as something shared between the artist and viewer, where time moves gently through the work, allowing for moments of tenderness, nostalgia, and evolving.
"Safe Haven," 2025, oil and acrylic on canvas, 30x40 inches
"A Collect Call From The Grief Hotline," 2024, oil and fabric on canvas, 30x40 inches
Across intimate portraiture and narrative-driven imagery, Uhura masterfully blends realism with moments of mixed media and personalized embellishment. Weaving references ranging from everyday folklore, lived observation, and imagination, Uhura insists that Black life can be tender, resilient, playful, and expansive all at once. Uhura’s process is both ritualistic and research-driven with each body of work emerging through grounding practices, journaling, music as material, conversation, travel, and close observation. Using herself, family, and friends as subjects, the artist introduces subtle material interventions that give her paintings added texture and emotional resonance, allowing each subject to feel lived-in rather than rendered. Central to Uhura’s work is a desire to expand the visual language of Black identity beyond trauma-centered narratives. Figures such as the cowboy and cowgirl emerge not as nostalgia or trope, but as gestures of liberation, self-possession, and autonomy, reclaimed through a contemporary Black lens. An added stitch, a piece of clothing from a loved one, or rhinestone embellishments are intentional gestures, allowing each work to feel like a personal diary of the artist and of those she knows.
As a unified title, Griot Genesis speaks to the birth of stories through remembrance. Through storytelling and lived experience, the exhibition positions Uhura as a contemporary griot, one who preserves, interprets, and reimagines memory through painting. The exhibited work unfolds with immediacy and care, where vulnerability is treated as authorship and Uhura’s voice becomes a central, self-defined mode of expression. Painting operates as an emotional record, holding moments as they are lived, remembered, imagined, and felt. Resisting conclusions, Griot Genesis invites reflection. It asks viewers: How is identity formed? How are memories carried? How do we honor our lineage? And most importantly, how does becoming continue to unfold across a lifetime through storytelling, presence, and the quiet courage to be seen and felt?
Griot Genesis releases Wednesday, February 18th on our website + streaming platforms.