DC music legend Chuck Brown dominates the southeast quadrant of one floor of the 1223 Potomac Gallery in Georgetown—on one wall, a tessellated image of Brown parades across a framed relief. On another, a portrait of Brown is composed of smaller images that showcase reference points of DC culture like Rock Creek brand soda, the Ritz nightclub sign, and the phrase “say less,” all printed on hexagonal tiles.
Those bases are meant to recall the tiles on Metro, explains Jermaine “jET” Carter, the artist whose work makes up the majority of “Something for the People,” a new exhibition at the gallery that celebrates DC’s homegrown culture at a time when the District’s streets are still riddled with National Guard troops and Home Rule, established in 1973, faces frequent threats from President Trump. “I wanted a piece that contextualizes a lot of culture in one piece,” Carter tells Washingtonian. “I thought, what better way to do that than use DC Metro tiles, the way that we traverse the city?”
Carter is a fellow at Hamiltonian Artists and teaches at Alexandria’s Browne Academy. He and 1223 Potomac’s proprietor, the musician and activist Yaddiya, met after Yaddiya saw Carter’s work on Instagram; Carter created five of the eight works on view just for this show. The exhibition shares its name with a forthcoming documentary directed by Sebastián Vizcarra about the Yaddiya-organized Moechella protests that began during Trump’s first term. (A screening of the film is planned for October 29 at Georgetown Law.) Of the current political moment in DC, Yaddiya says, “Art is the only thing that will help us transcend the negativity.”
For Carter, works like the ones in this show, which includes pieces like the large “Rhonda, Our Last Hope” that faces Brown’s portrait, are part of what he calls his “world-building practice,” making “things that feel like monuments.” Someday, he’d like to create work for public spaces. Right now he’s experimenting with not being beholden to any one medium to make art: With this show, he incorporated tile-making and mold-making as well as painting. Carter plans another show with Hamiltonian in November inspired by rhythm and blues, and he’s working on a comic in his spare time.
Yaddiya plans to bring an exhibition inspired by DC’s homegrown culture and the “Free DC” movement to Miami Beach later this year for the Art Basel festival. It will include some of the work from this exhibit—he’d love to bring the Chuck Brown piece—and has posted an open call on the gallery’s website for aspiring contributors. Yaddiya says he was immediately attracted to Carter’s pieces: “I could see the culture speaking thru his work,” he says. “We look at all of it as a public art campaign.”
“Something for the People” runs through November 15 at 1223 Potomac Gallery, 1223 Potomac Street, Northwest. The gallery is open Friday-Sunday from noon-6PM and on other days by appointment.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
