Where ‘Block Party’ Has a Score of Meanings

Kahlil Robert Irving, “Street Block: Lost/Found/Chance,” collagraph and collaged found objects, 2017.
"Crushed cans, old playing cards, burned out cigarette butts, a lone, fading and bright red bow — the beauty and detritus of urban life — were culled from the streets by Kahlil Robert Irving, a 26-year-old artist who has mixed found objects into a collagraphic print hanging in a turn-of-the-century Brooklyn limestone that houses the Jenkins Johnson Projects. The work, 'Street Block: Lost/Found/Chance' is a fitting introduction to the gallery’s latest exhibition. Called 'Block Party,' a riff on the New York summertime tradition, the group show features an array of emerging voices including Devin N. Morris, Alex Jackson and Kenturah Davis. What’s refreshingly missing are the images one might expect of a city in seasonal repose. Instead, the exhibition casts its gaze on the grittier, more pressing concerns people in urban communities discuss when they come together: race, gender, immigration, violence and gentrification. ..."
NY Times