From the Najee & Seteria Dorsey Collection…

The Najee & Seteria Dorsey Collection at Black Art In America consists of over 400 works in various mediums and genres by both legacy and leading contemporary artists.

Think they’ll baby him too much? Think they’ll dote over him, lovingly, relentlessly, and rear him like the little prince that he is?

How could they not?

Big sisters leading the way, apple of Mama’s beautiful brown eye. The world, his oyster.

Until it’s not. Until things change, with time, always with time, and Mama begins to question, like Daddy keeps sayin’, they are raising him “too soft” and he’s “not prepared” for the world at hand, not the protective oyster-like cocoon they enabled but the “real world” that jumps at the chance to disillusion him, devalue him and, if the first two don’t work, destroy him. 

Who’s right? And what’s truly real?

Certainly not the world, for how could such a love be so wrong…?

July 2, 2021 Atlanta – Portrait of acclaimed artist Charly Palmer at his studio on Friday, July 2, 2021. (Hyosub Shin / Hyosub.Shin@ajc.com)

Over 30 years and counting, Charly Palmer’s art speaks for itself. Literally, Palmer’s paintbrush is a Griot. In every painting, he bears witness of African ancestry and contemporary experiences — rhythmic, visual stories that shifts what each viewer believes to see — should one dare to look deeply. 

Palmer has an innate awareness of documenting the intricacies of Blackness with such depth, patterns, symbols, and textures that it is easy to forget that he begins with a blank canvas. The ways in which he applies acrylic is somewhat its own aesthetic that transcends where one’s thought begins and ends. 

As a Fine Artist who paints upwards of 50 paintings a year, Palmer’s heart’s desire? To be used as a vessel and expression of something higher than himself.

Follow the instructions of the ancestors and you will see greatness happen; there’s intrinsic beauty and strength of Blackness in each body of work. Much of Palmer’s messaging is in the eyes of his people, as if conversing with one another. Conversing with you. From loose sketches and tight lines to blocks of color to nuances of mixed media, his art manifests in visual expressions to the questions, “What came before? What truth must be told?”

Browse and shop for fine art from our growing network of artists, collectors, estates, galleries — specializing in works by Black American artists with great values on premier art.

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Deloris and Eddie YoungEsther Silver-ParkerEugene FoneyZadig & Voltaire, Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art, John and Melanie Guess, Frank Frazier, Houston Museum of African American Culture, Leslie Fields, Jim Nixon, Dr. Michael Butler, Mary “Madea” Jones, Patrick Stewart, Noreen Winningham, Reg Pugh, Kevin Smokler, Deborah R. Moore, Dr. Skyller Walkes, Jae M, Jocelyne Lamour, Marion Zweig, Shannon DeVaney, Ashlee Jacob, DaNia Childress, Rev. Anita Marshall, Mary Ali-Masai, Devera Redmond, Roslyn Valentine, Robin King, Brenda Larnell, Michael, Jeffery Washington, Tricia Konan, Debra L Lacy CHARLES BIBBS, Fredric Isler, Silvia Peters,  Harold Moore, Shurvon Haynes K.Coleman Shannon Dale Davis Terese L Hawkins M. Rasheed Jamal Love Annette, Mason Archie, Manuelita Brown, Carolyn L. 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