Say:Word is visual dialogue between artists de’Angelo DIA and Renee Cloud. This multimedia collaboration is a hybrid of exhibits, Not Another Word and Dichotomy, used to examine misrepresentation, cultural appropriation, and the significance of cultivating your own narrative and distribution of those narratives. The artists’ visual and poetic words are a reflection of excavated intimate and public conversations, journal entries, and social media debates. This exhibition title, Say:Word represents the numerous questions raised when presented with shocking or almost unbelievable narratives and statements. The title serves as a rhetorical question, challenging the viewers to consider, “if we are processing the same reality, how are we coming to a diversity of conclusions?”
– Renee Cloud & de’Angelo DIA
Works by Renee Cloud & de’Angelo DIA
Renee Cloud
de’Angelo DIA
About the artists
de’Angelo DIA investigates public opinion and contemporary beliefs on cultural, social-political, and theological issues through poetry, performance art, and photography. His work focuses on the intersectionality of Black liberation theology and theopoetics. DIA studied art in Athens, Greece; Guadalajara, Mexico; and Nairobi, Kenya. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Applied Communication and Sociology from Appalachian State University, a Master of Arts in Literature from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and a Master of Divinity and Doctorate of Ministry from Union Presbyterian Seminary. DIA’s artistic influences include ethno-gothic literature, comic books, graphic novels, and neo-Appalachian art. His forthcoming chapbook, dichotomy (Theurgical Studies Press), bridges comic book mythology and biblical narratives to examine toxic masculinity and the psychology of parenting. His poems have appeared in The Skinny Journal, Artist Writing on Liberation, and Cru Arts & Culture.
DIA is the recipient of awards and fellowships from Cave Canem, The Watering Hole, the McColl Center for Art + Innovation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture. DIA is the Collective Manager of the Goodyear Arts based in Charlotte, NC.
Renee Cloud is a Charlotte native. She attended the Savannah College of Art and Design before transferring Appalachian State University in 2015 where she received her BFA in Studio Art. Using a combination of text art and mixed media, Cloud creates work that focuses on the personal narrative, the Black experience, and the power of the written word. The text incorporated into her work provides only a fraction of the narrative, leaving the viewer to create the rest. Cloud currently resides in Charlotte, North Carolina and is working as a freelance creative within her community. Solo exhibitions include: When You Get the Chance, Gaston College, Gastonia, North Carolina (2021); Not Another Word, Rowe Gallery at UNC Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina (2020); and No One Sits Next to the Black Girl on the Bus, Looking Glass Gallery, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina (2014).
Additional resources
Renee Cloud
- https://www.reneecloud.com/
- https://www.instagram.com/nathanknowsbetter/
- https://www.goodyeararts.com/renee-cloud
de’Angelo DIA
- https://dia1518.com/home.html
- https://mintmuseum.org/a-chat-with-constellation-clt-artist-deangelo-dia/
- https://mccollcenter.org/artists-in-residence/artist/deangelo-dia
- https://www.instagram.com/1518dia/?hl=en
- https://www.goodyeararts.com/
- https://www.wfae.org/crime-justice/2022-01-13/charlotte-artist-wonders-how-his-family-will-find-its-way-back-to-joy-after-the-slaying-of-a-cousin