KMAC Contemporary Art Museum
November 15, 2024 - March 2, 2025
Chapter 3: Be Home Before The Streetlights
Be Home Before the Streetlights is the third and final installment in Gee Horton’s trilogy of exhibitions. Following Chapters 1 and 2 in Cincinnati, this marks his first solo museum exhibition and his homecoming to Louisville. Rooted in personal memory and present-day reflections, his work explores the universal pursuit of grace, reconciliation, and healing.
This chapter features new additions to Horton’s photorealist drawing series alongside photography, video, charcoal, graphite, and collage, incorporating found objects and materials from his family archives. His practice, deeply influenced by a transformative journey to Senegal, West Africa, continues to navigate themes of Black masculinity, generational memory, and childhood reveries.
The exhibition unfolds in two sections: The Great Outdoors, referencing the cautionary phrase Be home before the streetlights, evokes the delicate balance between freedom and responsibility. Ova Granny’s House, housed in the video room, offers a sanctuary of warmth and connection, where the inner child finds solace. This final chapter weaves together themes from the previous two, culminating in a meditation on safety, belonging, and cultural heritage.
Virtual Exhibition – Click the play button to take the gallery tour
Kennedy Heights Art Center
September 7 - November 2, 2024
A Subtle Farewell To The Inner Child
Gee Horton: Coming of Age Chapter II – A Subtle Farewell To The Inner Child – Gee Horton’s second solo exhibition, Chapter 2: A Subtle Farewell to the Inner Child, deepens his exploration of identity, belonging, and memory by blending personal narratives with collective experiences. As a featured artist in the FOTOFOCUS 2024 Biennial, Horton expands on themes introduced in his 2021 debut, Chapter 1: Coming of Age, using photography, drawings, cyanotypes, collage, family archives, installations, and videography. The exhibition invites viewers to reflect on the loss of childhood innocence, healing fractured relationships, and the pressures of growing up too fast. Divided into four sections—The Little Boy Inside, Ova Granny’s House, The Rupture, and Family Business—the work culminates in a collaborative short film, Be Home Before the Streetlights..., which explores transformation and healing. Horton’s photorealistic and multimedia approach celebrates resilience while urging us to reconnect with the essence of our inner child despite societal pressures, fostering growth and self-discovery through art.
Virtual Exhibition – Click the play button to take the gallery tour
The Alice F. & Harris K. Weston Art Gallery
Nov 17 - Jan. 10th 2022
Gee Horton: Coming of Age Chapter I – In Search of Self…Identity
Horton's inaugural solo venture into the contemporary art realm unfolded with his 2021 award-winning showcase, "Coming of Age Chapter I – In Search of Self…Identity," hosted at the esteemed Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in downtown Cincinnati. Through hyper-realistic charcoal and graphite portraits, Horton's exhibition beckoned viewers to delve into the intricate landscapes of modern adolescence. His immersive, multidimensional artworks not only illuminated themes of personal identity, but also addressed the objectification of the Black body, the cultural influence of contemporary media, his quest for ancestral ties, and the preservation of innocence. Through an autobiographical lens, Horton constructs an installation that engenders a rich, multilayered discourse on the journey of Black male adolescence—a quest for identity, acceptance, purpose, and love.
Virtual Exhibition – Click the play button to take the gallery tour
The Cincinnati Art Museum
July 6 - Oct 9, 2022 • Gallery 150
Gee Horton's "Coming of Age" Series
Gee Horton’s “Coming of Age” series is a visual and thematic exploration of the complexities of African American Adolescence. Through the iconography of Contemporary culture, and Hip-hop music, he dignifies and celebrate the Black experience while addressing the vulnerability of youth in Black on Both Sides and Me Against the World. His subjects, his teenage nephew and niece, are at an age that reflects the most formative years of one’s life. He depicts the influences, cultural expectations, and dualities of what it means to be Young and Black in America. The portraits serve as a channel for Horton to reflect on his youth, becoming a modality to heal personal trauma.
Gee Horton (American, b. 1983), Black on Both Sides, The Sweetest Thing, and Me Against the World from the series Coming of Age, 2019–2021, charcoal and graphite, Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Endowment for Contemporary Art, 2022.13, 2022.14 and Courtesy of the Artist, L10.2022.
Gee Horton (American, b. 1983), Black on Both Sides, The Sweetest Thing, and Me Against the World from the series Coming of Age, 2019–2021, charcoal and graphite, Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Endowment for Contemporary Art, 2022.13, 2022.14 and Courtesy of the Artist, L10.2022.