Kianja Strobert's First Major New York Exhibition at Studio Museum in Harlem

Kianja Strobert's exhibition 'Of This Day in Time' at The Studio Museum in Harlem marks her first major New York presentation, running from November 13, 2014 through March 8, 2015. Located at 144 West 125th Street in New York, the show features works that challenge painting traditions through unconventional materials. Strobert employs substances like crumbled pumice stone, fruit skin, chicken bones, powdered graphite, papier-mâché, and glitter alongside acrylic, oil, and matte medium. Her 2010 untitled piece incorporates four gold-painted chicken bones against a silver, white, and gray cloudburst composition, with two red fingerprints serving as a signature. A 2011 series of four untitled paintings displays yellow borders, graphite dust skies, and hand-applied brown, orange, and ochre blots. Works like 'Archaism and Ecstasy' (2014) and 'Taurus II' (2014) feature troweled gestures with filler materials, creating accretive textures. All paintings are executed on thick watercolor paper that buckles under layered mediums, questioning assumptions about flat substrates. Strobert's practice references historical figures like Yves Klein and Jean Dubuffet while exploring painting as practical magic and self-portraiture through material traces. The exhibition positions her work within abstract landscape, diagram, and portrait genres, framed in perfect boxes that contrast with her unpredictable medium use.