The Nigger Inside Me

The Phatory is pleased to announce The Nigger Inside Me: a mixed-media installation by Jeffrey Hargrave. The exhibit opens on May 13 and runs through June 12. An artist's reception will be held on Friday, May 13, from 7 to 9 P.M.

Jeffrey Hargrave's work resonates with the many wounds he experienced growing up at a time when racism was still openly practiced. By conjuring memories of abuse, Hargrave's use of "nigger imagery" simulates the hostage's survival strategy of identification with his or her captor. Standing before his disturbing, yet mesmerizing, array of self-portraits, one feels the brutalizing affects of this de-humanizing process.

Jeffrey Hargrave received a Bachelor of Art from the North Carolina School of the Arts, and was a graduate student at the Rhode Island School of Design before moving to New York. He has been artist-in-resident at The Millay Colony, Henry Street Settlement, and Art in General and has previously shown at Art In General, Alexander and Bonin, Tricia Collins Contemporary Art, Exhibit A, ATM Gallery, Suite 106 Gallery, Mitchell Algus, and the Henry Street Settlement.