August 23 - September 22, 2024

H-E-B Gallery

Reception Saturday, September 14th, 5-7pm

Pen, Collage, and Digital Media Artist

Sam Modder is a Nigerian-Sri Lankan artist who works figuratively in pen, collage, and digital media to portray Black and Female characters. In her practice she seeks to take up space for those who have historically been on the margins, making figurative and narrative work that is both accessible and empowering. Sam describes her work as, “I draw Black people taking up space in all their texture, vibrancy and power.”

Sam graduated from Dartmouth in 2017 with a double major in Engineering and Studio Art and from the Thayer School of Engineering in 2018 with a B.E. in Mechanical Design. She recently received her MFA from Washington University in St Louis in May 2022 and currently work at the University of Tampa as an Assistant Professor of Art and Design.

She says, “I want my art to take up space, be accessible and exude truth, joy and hope.” As a little Black girl growing up in Southeast Asia, she was a spectacle. The finger-pointing, jokes, and stares were a constant reminder that her Blackness was not only different but supposedly inferior. In her work, she reclaims this spectacle through self-portraiture that takes up space unapologetically. Her self-portraits tell new narratives that go beyond the here and now of the stories and experiences that have sought to define her. This is the power of the imaginary within the Black diaspora. For a people whose “here and now” has often featured the worst forms of physical, mental, cultural, and spiritual oppression, the Black imaginary enables moments of relief, pleasure, and breakthrough, even while speaking to those difficult realities. In this safe creative space, she joins those that work toward a reality that might one day imitate narrative.

Her process begins with the figure, working in pen, paper, and collage to form her characters. With gentle strokes of her ballpoint pen she draws curls with the same patience she spends detangling her own, making the mundane precious in the application. As the figure progresses, she works non-linearly, scanning the drawings to recompose them in new digital compositions and patterns, moving between the paper and the screen. This movement allows for both the spontaneity of her hand and the control of digital tools.

The exaggerated poses, strong action lines and clear silhouettes in her work borrow from the visual language of comics to emphasize the defining feature of my characters: their hair. With soft curls and defiant shapes, she uses Black hair to both comfort and confront. “In the gaze of her Black sisters, hair is a point of connection, a way of saying “I see you; I am you.” In the gaze of others, hair is often political because it is the easiest racialized feature to change or conceal. Black hair then is framed as a choice – either resist or conform to a world built on the assumption of white supremacy. In my work, I make my choice, choosing to draw Black hair that is expansive, free, and ever evolving.” she says

In many ways, she says her “work is for the little Black girl I was, providing her with narratives of escape, uplift, and breakthrough in the midst of an oppressive reality. Within the continued project of the Black imaginary, I center my personal experiences and imaginings, aiming to confront issues of race, gender, and identity as I take up space for myself and others.”