New Image Art is pleased to present Strange Noise On The Rooftop, a solo exhibition with Brooklyn based artist Theresa Chromati featuring a series of new works.

The women depicted in these works are free; frolicking, stomping, laughing, and lounging. Within this universe, fear, hate, ignorance, self-doubt, and anxiety are symbolized by various home structures, while these women occupy the rooftop above these limitations. These robust women also capture pride through comforting partnerships and support for one another. Their bodies possess armor in the form of voluptuous pussy lips, protruding nipples, and masked faces, taking delight in themselves and one another.

“My ideal reality would be an environment above every rooftop, where black women always have the space to be all parts of themselves.”

Theresa Chromati explores black women as opaque idealized figures that embrace the empowerment of women and various body conscious topics. Full figured women adorned with whimsical protective armor such as masks, pussy lips, and protruding keloids reference diversity of self-identity, ownership, body manipulation, and an act of self-preservation against appropriation.

Rotating between digital and analogue media, Chromati's environments take place in an alternate universe. Graphic elements reminiscent of checkerboard tiles are placed against grand arches, which create a royal backdrop and support for women. Chromati emphasizes subtle gestures of intimacy within familiar, romantic, and congenial relationships. As well as looking into a spectrum of experiences that exist for women within public and private spaces, exceeding the limitations traditionally imposed on them.

Chromati often pulls references from women she experienced during her adolescent years in Baltimore City by focusing on the various nuances of communication within partnerships and black women as community. She received her BFA from Pratt Institute and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York.