Biography
Pace, who had 12 siblings, was born in Birmingham, Alabama, where his father was a minister in the Church of God in Christ. [1] [2] He spent his youth in Chicago, except for a year spent abroad studying in Paris. [1] By the time he returned to Chicago, he was determined to become an artist and soon was inspired by a wood carving of the Last Supper to pursue that specialty. [2]
Pace had his first exhibition at the South Side Community Art Center, [1] where a University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) dean lured him to the UIC art school with a full scholarship. [2] After one year there, he transferred to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), again on a scholarship, where he attained Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees. [2]
He attended the Illinois State University’s (ISU) School of Art in Normal, Illinois after being introduced to chairman Fred Mills by SAIC president Donald Irving. [2] At the outset of his dissertation defense, Pace performed a flute concerto by candlelight. [2] Under thesis advisor Max Rennels, [2] he obtained his doctorate in art education from ISU in 1978. [1] After teaching at UIC, he moved to New York City where he became part of the Harlem arts community. [2] Pace has also taught at Medgar Evers College and served as director of the Montclair State University art galleries, a position he was first appointed to in 1988. [3]
In 2000, his black granite [2] abstract monument, Triumph of the Human Spirit , was dedicated; it had been commissioned eight years earlier and rejected twice along the way. [3] It was funded by New York City's Percent for Art to be the centerpiece of Foley Square in Lower Manhattan and as a memorial to the nearby rediscovered African burial ground located at what is now known as African Burial Ground National Monument. [4] The top-level crown is based on the Chiwara female antelope forms in Bambaran art. The middle-level long form represents the Middle Passage slaves endured in the Atlantic slave trade. [4] At the front, a replica of Pace's forefather Steve Pace's slave lock, a family heirloom, is embedded into the work. [4]
Pace has exhibited at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, as well as galleries in Brazil, China, France, Peru, Senegal, and Suriname. [5]
Pace is also the author of Jalani and the Lock, a children's book which tells the story behind his ancestor's captive restraint which became a familial keepsake. [6]
Pace works at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley as a professor of art. [7]
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