Jabari Zuberi & Dale Washington at the South Side Community Art Center

Paul Branton

Roseland Series, Jabari Zuberi

Friday nights are always a tough choice – especially for art lovers.  It’s impossible to be at every opening reception across the city, so you hope that you pick the one or two that satisfy your visual thirst.  I decided to visit the South Side Community Art Center, which featured the work of two completely different artist at two completely different time periods of their art lives.

At first glance the work of Jabari Zuberi seems more journalistic than fine art.  That is until you take a step closer.   In a series entitled Roseland, Jabari tackled a glaring social issue that has plagued the city of Chicago for several years.  How do you transform an alarming death toll of Chicago students into art?  You captured their lives, or rather the remnants left over on the faces of loved ones after that child is gone from senseless violence.  The pain on the face of Derrion Albert’s mother captured my senses from across the gallery.

Dale Washington

Derrion’s murder made global headlines after YouTube footage showed the tragic high school brawl to the world.  And for the first time people saw what some of our teens live with daily.  There was a sensitivity with Jabari’s work as well.  The split screen images that allowed us to meet the family of victims, coupled with audio interviews, stirred the soul.  This 22 year old Philly kid was able to capture in one frame, what several Chicago papers could never fully describe in words.

Upstairs in the historic building held the work of Dale Washington.  It was an entirely different vibe from the Roseland exhibit.  Dale has mastered lines in a way that it seems that his pen never leaves the paper.  He captures form in such a simplistic nature, but is uniquely his own eye.  Half of the exhibit seemed to be self-portraits, but each one very different from the next.  Color had no boundaries as Dale’s lines cut through them forming these completely open and expressive compositions.  Some of the work reminded me of Kooning, with the strong lines dominating the pieces.  I left SSCAC fully satisfied.