Keren Alfred MFA Thesis Exhibition

Keren Alfred's MFA Thesis show is on display in the K. K. Merker Gallery this week. Join her for an artist's talk on Wednesday, March 30 at 6 p.m.: Zoom Link Here!

She will be hosting a closing reception on Friday, April 1 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the gallery.

From Keren: A year and a half ago I wrote a letter saying I (and people who look like me) just want to live. Since then, I’ve thought a lot about what living looks like for me. I’ve realized that living is banana bread that’s not cooked through because turns out you can’t just substitute baking powder for baking soda. It’s counting the days until you get to hold your love’s hand again. Living is spamming your friends with memes and having them text you in all caps if you didn’t get enough sleep last night. It’s video calling Mummy because a friend just died and I’m here, it’s okay, just leave the call going. It’s writing and writing because even when you think you’ve cried all your tears, more keep coming and you realize you’ve been holding so much. It’s doing what you can and I am enough, I have enough, I do enough because baby you’re a star. Living is gold and mud and charcoal and pearls. It’s every colour in the rainbow and standing in the sun barefoot sometimes. It’s me writing this letter to you and it’s everything in between. 

In thinking about living, I think a lot about flowers. Am I (a Black woman from the Caribbean) really allowed to just paint pretty flowers? It’s a tricky question to answer. I realized that the answer is “Yes, and”. This show explores that answer.