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In Black and White with Ai Cambell

Medvis Jackson
Jul 4, 2015
2 min read

When it comes to minimalist and underwhelming artistic expression, the line is rather fine. However, Ai Campbell, a New York City artist, does such a fantastic job of mastering such juxtaposition. White space in Ai's realm is simply a stage for her self-expression with monochrome patterns and design.

This Friday, July 10th from 6-9 pm, Ai Campbell will be having her opening reception at Littlefield NYC in Brooklyn (622 Degraw). For me and my guests. It will be an evening well spent. (RSVP here).

Self Expression in Black and White

Self-expression is exactly what one gets when consuming Ai's work. In her website's personal statement, she shares that much of her work is simply inspired by the very same objects she ecounters in her own daily routine.

"Water streams on a faded wall, layered leaves on a tree or my own tangled hair, I take the most basic configurations and work with their unformed elements to examine how they can interact each other," says Ai.

Ironic complexity of Monochrome

The bulk of Ai's work is monochrome, a photograph or picture developed or executed in black and white or in varying tones of only one color. One would think that an artist would be severly limited with just one color.

However, Friday night one may likely realize that the contrary is true: your ability to self express is actually enhanced through a limitation of color. In other words, too much color is what can be truly limiting for the artist, unknowingly so even.

Many think of how much more they could do with more. Ai shows us how much more can be done with less.

And hence a lesson for us all: Less often pushes the human to the "more." Like large quanties of water pushed through a narrow valve, so too does Ai's creativity burst onto canvas. Less pushes us to stretch and grapple with our reality. When such a struggle occurs with positivity, we're often left with something very beautiful and true to life.