Neo-Ancestralists

Tom Phelps, Jimi Jones, and Ken Leslie started using the Neo-Ancestralist label in the late 1980s at the Third World Gallery, then a haven for black artists in Cincinnati. In 1991 they began sharing a studio in the Cincinnati Arts Consortium building on Linn St, which facilitated their turn to collective production and large-scale installations. This collaborative making exposed their work to the larger Cincinnati arts community, and they were featured in exhibitions at the Arts Consortium (1995), the Contemporary Arts Center (1992, 1996), the Weston Art Gallery (1997), and Shot Tower Gallery (Columbus, 2003). They continually hosted exhibitions and projects within their studio space and ran it as their own artist run space within the Arts Consortium.

In the press release for the exhibition “Neo-Ancestralist Portraits” at the Weston Gallery, Weston founding Director Salli Lovelarkin stated, “… the artists have built a strong reputation for both the creative energy of their installations and a particular aesthetic that blends ancient African culture with contemporary urban imagery. By combining found objects with carefully executed sculptural and painted forms utilizing bold colors and ritualistic artifacts, the artists will produce an elaborate setting for the Weston Art Gallery that includes small rooms, altars, and strange maze-like spaces. This multi-layered work, awe-inspiring in its complexity and splendid in its detail, is designed to lead the viewer into an active engagement with the past and the present and to suggest the possibilities available in worship and reflection.