Out Now on our YouTube channel: check out our fourth interview of the NXTHVN Studio Tea series with Cohort 04 alumna @ashantekindle 🤩
In this series, Cohort 04 Curatorial Fellow alumna Kiara Cristina Ventura @kiara_cristina , founder of @processa.art interviews NXTHVN alumni representing each cohort from the first five years of NXTHVN’s Fellowship program for intimate conversations around their practice and journey before, during, and after their Fellowship year.
Interviews have been released every other week and will conclude with a joint interview with Clare Patrick and Marquita Flowers (Cohort 05).
This series is presented by the @fordfoundationgallery and NXTHVN in conjunction with the alumni exhibition THIS IS NOT A RETREAT! NXTHVN Through the Years, which was on view June 5-August 2, 2025 at the Ford Foundation Gallery.
Edited by Jeremy Kotin
Photos by John Dennis, courtesy of NXTHVN
💥OPENING TONIGHT AT @seankellygallery 6-8pm💥
Im so excited to share the growth that has taken place in my practice during my time at @__nxthvn__ .
#Repost @__nxthvn__ with @use.repost
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NXTHVN Artist Spotlight: Ashanté Kindle. In this mini-doc, Ashanté invites us into her NXTHVN studio and shares insights into her creative process and practice.
Kindle utilizes the textures, curl patterns, and styling of Black hair to envision new realities of personal existence that defy standards of conformity. Through her abstract paintings and video work, she challenges easily digestible ideas of Black femininity. By magnifying the hair strand on canvas, accentuated by stylish adornments, the cellular properties of the hair follicle begin to symbolize the infinite space of the cosmos.
Opening tonight, this year’s NXTHVN Studio Fellows will be sharing work in a culminating group exhibition titled RECLAMATION, curated by Curatorial Fellows Kiara Cristina Ventura and Cornelia Stokes.
RECLAMATION opens Thursday, June 29, 6–8pm and will be on view from June 30–August 11, 2023, at Sean Kelly, New York. @seankellygallery
NXTHVN | RECLAMATION
Sean Kelly, New York
June 30- August 3, 2023
Video by @madbasic
#NXTHVN #ashantekindle #artistspotlight
Still taking it all in… @154artfair with @katesferriprojects was such a beautiful experience. Grateful for the chance to invite folks into my space, share more about my practice, and have real conversations about the work. The love and energy were everything—thank you to everyone who came through. More soon. 🖤🖤🖤
I am so excited to share that I will have work in this exhibition opening tomorrow. Excited to be showing some new works and to have my work in conversation with such amazing artists. Happy NY art week! Catch me outside for the first time in forever tomorrow! Love yall! 🖤🖤🖤
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Hollis Taggart Downtown is pleased to present Material Memory, a group exhibition featuring new and recent paintings and sculptures by seven contemporary artists, Megan Baker, Edward Holland, Ashanté Kindle, Hans Neleman, Cordy Ryman, Kelly Wang, and Michael Wolf. Material Memory proposes that memory is not something we recall, but something that is physically constructed and embodied in surfaces, bodies, systems, and structures. Across painting, relief, sculpture and assemblage, the artists in the exhibition treat memory as an active process that is built through accumulation, altered through time, and sustained through material form. The works do not illustrate the past, they retain and remake it. Curated by Eleanor de Ropp Flatow, the exhibition celebrates the first anniversary of the Hollis Taggart Downtown, and underscores the gallery’s continued commitment to emerging and mid-career artists. It will be on view from May 15 through June 20, with an opening reception on Friday, May 15, from 6-8pm.
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OPENING RECEPTION
109 Norfolk St
Friday, May 15, 6–8pm
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#hollistaggartdowntown #groupexhibition #material memory
Happy Teachers Appreciation Week to all my fellow educators!!! Thanks to my Mommy and my sweet angels (my students) for these sweet gifts and reminding me why I do what I do. Bless a teacher if you know one.
Venmo: @ashantekindle 👀 cough cough lol.
🖤
Ashanté Kindle
Dark and Lovely (In this Place of Sweet Serenity)
Hair styling strips and acrylic on wood panel
36 x 36 in
(91.44 x 91.44 cm)
ON VIEW this is weekend at Untitled Houston!
📍George R. Brown Convention Center, Hall A3, 1001 Avenida De Las Americas, Houston, TX
Open to the public: Sat, 20 Sept, 12-6pm Sun, 21 Sept, 12-6pm
#ashantékindle #redarrow
So I’ve been documenting myself everyday for about the last month. Today was the first time I really noticed some of the ways I subconsciously process hard feeling. As I watched this back, there were so many things I finally saw about the ways I handle hard emotions. For the first time, I see what my therapist was saying about me smiling.
“Ashante you dont have to smile and be okay all the time”. Seeing it for the first time while processing emotions in real time is definitely eye opening. I haven’t really processed the news about my Dad’s cancer diagnosis while in the midst of so many other major transitions in my life. Life is hard but I constantly remind myself that someone is less fortunate and try to focus on just being grateful for what I do have. But in doing that, could I be doing more harm by trying to just smile through it all? Its jarring to see the smiles when nothing is funny but then the long pause which I know was a moment to recenter. Emotions are weird.
Healing is hard. But I know what is on the other side of it all and thats where I want to be.
Yesterday’s lesson? Self care is not optional. Fell way off of my hair health journey. Went in for a trim and left with a whole haircut. Been on this journey with @maxximizedhairstudio for almost 2 years. Definitely was bittersweet but excited for new growth in all aspects of my life. Thank you for always keeping this crown together @maxximizedhairstudio
#AshanteKindle
Ashanté Kindle
By Faith I Shall Receive, 2025
Hair knockers, barrettes, beads, butterfly clips, and acrylic on canvas
18 x 18 x 3 inches
45.72 x 45.72 x 7.62 cm
On view for MAMI WATA @eastvillemuseum through November 30th, and now part of the @hamptonsblackartscouncil contemporary collection at Eastville Heritage House!
