Chaz Guest | |
|---|---|
 Chaz Guest in his studio | |
| Born | May 2, 1961 Niagara Falls, New York, United States |
| Years active | 1985 – Present |
| Children | Two sons |
| Parent(s) | Algirtha Guest Rev. Theodore James Guest |
| Website | www |
Chaz Guest (born May 2, 1961 [1] in Niagara Falls, New York [2] ) is an American artist who works in the mediums of painting and sculpting. He is described by the Huffington Post as "an American artist of profound inventiveness." [3]
Guest's parents are Algirtha Guest (born 1933) and Rev. Theodore James Guest (born 1922 - 2006). Guest's father - Rev. T. J. Guest, is a World War II Purple Heart recipient. [4] Guest is the 7th of nine brothers and sisters. [4] Guest graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design from Southern Connecticut State University in 1985. [5] Guest grew up in a quiet community in Niagara Falls, New York with his family. His parents divorced when he was ten years old. After the divorce, he moved with his mother and siblings to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Guest has two sons, one born 1994 and one born 2003. [6]
Guest received a Gymnastic scholarship to go to Southern Connecticut State University (S.C.S.U.) to study Kinesiology and pursue a degree in Graphic Arts. He subsequently competed successfully in the U.S. Olympic program. After graduating from S.C.S.U., Guest moved to New York City, where he enrolled in a fashion design curriculum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. It was during this period that he honed his formal skills in drawing. [7] While at the Fashion Institute, Guest made the acquaintance of Antonio Lopez. Lopez inspired and influenced his decision to seek work as an illustrator. Guest studied at the Fashion Institute for nine months.
In 1986, Guest moved to Paris, France, to work as a freelance fashion illustrator. Guest joined Joyce Magazine as an illustrator for their magazine covers and was responsible for the illustrations of the JOYCE magazine covers for the 1987/1988 season. It was while working at Joyce Magazine that Guest met Christian Lacroix. Lacroix encouraged him to apply his illustrator skills to painting after Lacroix saw one of Guest's illustrations of couture designs done for Joyce Magazine. After the 1987/1988 season, Guest left Joyce magazine and moved to Dax, France, where he started painting. [5]
After leaving the Fashion Institute of Technology, Guest began studying the paintings of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí. Guest also studied the paintings of Balthus. In 1991, Guest sold his first painting to a passerby outside his Soho apartment. [8]
Guest's first museum exhibit was a group show, "Decoding Identity: I Do it for My People" (January 23, 2009 – March 22, 2009) [9] [10] at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco (MOAD). His works are primarily made with Sumi ink. [11]
In 2004, while at the home of Mattie and Michael Lawson in Hancock Park, Los Angeles, Guest was struck by the presence of Barack Obama, then running for Senate, while interacting with the guests. This image stuck with him, and he created a painting of The President based on that mental image. [12] The President saw the painting of himself at a fundraiser at the home of Oprah Winfrey in 2008.
Guest's painting of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall hung in President Barack Obama's Oval Office at the White House. [13] [14] On October 11, 2005, then-Senator Obama sent a note to Guest thanking him for the painting. [15] Guest has also authored a serigraph series of President Obama. Subsequently, Guest was invited by Kouji Matsuzaki San, Mayor of Obama, Fukui prefecture, to present the serigraphs. [16] [17] [18]
On February 24, 2010, Chaz Guest presented the President of Gambia, Yahya Jammeh [19] a portrait of the Gambian President. During his visit to the Gambia, Guest discussed with the Gambian leader the renaming of James Island and Juffereh in the North Bank Region. Guest proposed to the Gambian leader that the Island be renamed 'Kunta Kinte' Island. On February 6, 2011, James Island, the former British Slave Fort used for the slave trade of Africans in the River Gambia in the North Bank Region, was renamed by the Gambian President to Kunta Kinte Island. [20] At the renaming ceremony of James Island in 2011, Guest revealed the miniature replica of his 30-foot statue of Kunta Kinte that will be displayed on Kunta Kinte Island.
Guest created two paintings to help the family of Trayvon Martin, an African-American teenager killed in an incident in Florida in 2012, to support Martin's younger brother. Guest donated the proceeds from selling the paintings to the Martin Family. [21] Mr. Guest also did a painting of Troy Davis - a man sentenced to death for the murder of a Georgia police officer in 1991, for Amnesty International, USA. [22] [23] [24]
Guest was named the Goodwill Ambassador to the Republic of Gambia, West Africa, in 2011 and the U.S. spokesperson for the 2014 International Roots Festival in Gambia. [25] [26]
The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for the western part, which is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean.
Alexander Murray Palmer Haley was an American writer and the author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and aired it in 1977 to a record-breaking audience of 130 million viewers. In the United States, the book and miniseries raised the public awareness of black American history and inspired a broad interest in genealogy and family history.
Yahya Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh is a Gambian politician and former military officer, who served as President of the Gambia from 1996 to 2017, as well as Chairman of the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council from 1994 to 1996.
Kunta Kinteh Island, formerly called James Island and St Andrew's Island, is an island in the Gambia River, 30 km (19 mi) from the river mouth and near Juffureh in the Republic of the Gambia. Fort James is located on the island. It is less than 3.2 km from Albreda on the river's northern bank. As an important historical site in the West African slave trade, it is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, together with related sites including a ruined Portuguese chapel and a colonial warehouse in Albreda, the Maurel Frères Building in Juffureh, and Fort Bullen and Six-Gun Battery, which are located at the mouth of the Gambia River.
Kunta Kinte is a fictional character in the 1976 novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family by American author Alex Haley. Kunta Kinte was based on one of Haley's ancestors, a Gambian man who was born around 1750, enslaved, and taken to America where he died around 1822. Haley said that his account of Kunta's life in Roots is a mixture of fact and fiction.
Roots: The Saga of an American Family is a 1976 novel written by Alex Haley. It tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century Mandinka, captured as an adolescent, sold into slavery in Africa, and transported to North America. It explores his life and those of his descendants in the United States, down to Haley. The novel was quickly adapted as a hugely popular television miniseries, Roots (1977). Together, the novel and series were a cultural sensation in the United States. The novel spent forty-six weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, including twenty-two weeks at number one.
Islam is the major religion in the Gambia, representing 97% of the 2 million population, with the first Muslim communities in the country arriving in 11th century. Islam has therefore had an influence on the Gambia throughout history, and continues to impact its culture, society and politics. The majority of The Gambia's Muslims are Sunni belonging to the Maliki school of jurisprudence, influenced with Sufism. There is a smaller Shiite community, largely stemming from Lebanese and Arab migration. The Ahmadiyya movement is also present. Other religious societies exist in the country, including Catholics, Protestants, Hindus and Traditional African religions.
Color of Change is a progressive nonprofit civil rights advocacy organization in the United States. It was formed in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in order to use online resources to strengthen the political voice of African Americans. Color of Change is a 501(c)(4) advocacy organizing with an affiliated political action committee.
The tourism industry today in the Gambia started when a party of 300 Swedish tourists arrived in 1965. That pioneering trip was organised by a Swede named Bertil Harding together with the tour operators Vingresor. It was seen as an ideal place to escape the harsh winter months of Scandinavia where Europeans would enjoy not only sun, sand and beaches but also experience the excitement of a real African holiday. It also offered a new opening for an affordable holiday to increasing numbers of traveling Europeans.
The Gambian hip hop scene is a relatively new scene in African hip hop which developed in the mid-1990s and was heavily influenced by American hip hop and Senegalese hip hop. Gambian hip-hop has been heavily influenced by international music scene including worldbeat, Senegalese wolof music, and American hip hop, as well as traditional Gambian mbalax and n'daga music. Dominican merengue and Jamaican reggae, ragga, and dancehall have also influenced the development of Gambian hip-hop.
Circular reporting, or false confirmation, is a situation in source criticism where a piece of information appears to come from multiple independent sources, but in reality comes from only one source. In many cases, the problem happens mistakenly through sloppy reporting or intelligence-gathering. However, the situation can also be intentionally contrived by the source or reporter as a way of reinforcing the widespread belief in its information.
Joel Gilbert is an American filmmaker and musician. Gilbert's political films advance various theories. He has been a frequent guest on InfoWars.
Michael D'Antuono is an American contemporary artist whose painting style focuses primarily on socio-political issues. He is best known for his controversial portrait of U.S. President Barack Obama crucified in front of the Presidential seal entitled "The Truth," which twice became a U.S. and international news story. The UK publication The American called him "one of the world's most controversial artists."
Roots is a 2016 American miniseries and a remake of the 1977 miniseries with the same name, based on Alex Haley's 1976 novel, Roots: The Saga of an American Family, which follows an African man who is shipped to North America as a slave and his descendants. It first aired on May 30, 2016, and stars Malachi Kirby, Forest Whitaker, Anna Paquin, Laurence Fishburne, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Anika Noni Rose, T.I. and South African actress Nokuthula Ledwaba. It was produced on a budget of $50 million.
Sheikh Omar Faye is the Gambian ambassador to Mauritania. Prior to this position, he was Gambian Minister of Defence, as well as a former diplomat who served as the Gambian Ambassador to the United States from 2015 to 2016, and an athlete who represented the Gambia in the 1984 Olympic games.
Fatoumata "Fatu" Camara is a television presenter and journalist from the West African state of The Gambia.
President Barack Obama is an oil-on-canvas portrait of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, completed by the artist Kehinde Wiley in 2018 for the National Portrait Gallery.
First Lady Michelle Obama, initially titled Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, is a portrait of former First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama, painted by the artist Amy Sherald. Unveiled in 2018, it hangs in the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in Washington, D.C. The six-by-five-foot oil-on-linen painting shows Obama, rendered in Sherald's signature grisaille, resting her chin lightly on her hand, as a geometric print dress flows outward filling the frame against a sky-blue background.
Fatou A. "Toufah" Jallow is a Gambian beauty queen. She became known in 2014 for her accusations of rape and sexual harassment against Gambian President Yahya Jammeh.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)