Curated Works

Beyond Man (Series)

BEYOND MAN (2020) - a view of being as I experience it or see it from within. These works which will both painterly, and sculptural in time--are a vantage of the everyday; the rising sun, the setting moon, the changing tide. A look through unknown lenses at search for a fleeting answer...the unknowns of tomorrows yet passed. We kiss the bossom of life with each storm we wade, we dance into infinity in solace, our beings hold no limits--both within and outside the box. 

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(originally debuted at Onward Gallery, RiNo Art District, 2020, Group Show; Humane)

It Was Her - It Was Her - It is and Forever will be, is an exploratory
series of paintings, drawings, and mixed-media by Lio Bumba
and collaborators. It is a study into the artist self
assessment of woman in society and aknowledgment of his own male gaze. The
study is greatly influenced by the works of past mid-century
male artists namely Otto Mueller, Matisse and Picasso.
Further reference to mention is the influence of performative
artists Yvonne Rainer and Isadora Duncan, who’s inspiring
works and activism played a key role in setting the tone for the works.

Witnessed --  one part-installation, one part-live performance, depicted the shooting of a seemingly unarmed black teen. The work was presented Black History Month (February) 2017, on the heels of ongoing civil unrest around the killings of numerous un-armed black men and women around the United States.

The piece was made up of three components. 

First of which was the paper-maché characters and set I built. Two police officers ("Morts")  one holding a firing gun, the other a baton--and on the floor the black youth, who appears on his stomach, crawling, crawling to no end, for in the next breath, the bullet will be piercing his back, taking his fragile life with it.

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(The audience standing within close proximity of each other, gathered just beyond "Caution" tape which you would find at any crime scene.)

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Juxatapoze to this "static"--still-life--portrayal, I enter the room, escorted, with a white veil around my head...I can't see a thing, I appeared to crowd limp bodied, as if I had been beaten. Then a rope is placed around my neck, which is attached to brick wall adjacent the "crime scene".

(I've been roped to the wall like a common dog. On top of a cardboard cutout reminiscent of any houseless person's cardboard sign; which reads "Dead Or In Jail by 25". 

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The third part of the piece was the soundtrack and video montage which were created to play simultaneously. The opening of the show began with guests entering until the portion of the room designated as "witnesses" is full. Guests were given newspaper like pamphlets as they entered. 

Once the room was filled, Danae Simone, sang the Black National Anthem, as the lights were dimmed, and the mood was set. Danae then exited the room, and MLK's "I have a dream" speech followed, over Tribe Called Quest, We The People Instrumental....This kind of sound montage goes on for some bit, until silence, and I enter the room.

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(On the screen the audience is presented from excerpts from the Watts Riots, as well as the KKK riots of Denver.)

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It is at this point the Mike Brown testimonies began over the soundtrack. I pulled both his friends testimony and the officer's testimony and had them played back to back. Mind you, at this point in the performance I am veiled and roped to the wall. When the Officer's testimony begins, I began reacting to what he's saying, as if I was embodying the trauma Mike Brown must've felt. The officer describes shooting Mike Brown a first time---and I leap out into the audience with pain in a shriek, unable to relieve myself from the rope around my neck. The officer continues, shooting him a second, third, and fourth time--and with each utterance, I shriek even louder, I struggle and grimace even more until the officer says he shot him a final time; at which point the life leaves my body.....

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This was then followed by spoken words by Duce Gold, who has just been released from prison a few days prior, after having served 3 years for attempted robbery. I wanted him to touch on his experience in jail, and what truths, he could share with the audience from that perspective; he didn't miss a beat. 

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I ended the show with a special performance by Typhy, a closing speech, and destroying the set...entirely....The future doesn't have to be our past. 

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The Fish Market - You are what you eat..The idea with this piece was rather simple, and is part of a series of work I'd like to amplify, called "Free Water". The works are fundamentally based on the environment, our treatment of the world, its realities, and repercussions.

With the Fish Market, I wanted to recreate how you would view fish at the fish market or butcher shop. But instead of being real fishes, the fish would depict what we're actually putting into our bodies. I went around and collected thousands of cigarette butts for neighborhood parks, and created a series of fishes which I then hung accompanied by plastic bottles and caps-symbolizing the waste we find in our bodies of water today....