Adu Jahmal
 Born André Lahori (American, born in 1967)



Artistic approach

 

From conception through implementation each creation is based on rhythms, colors and sounds from Adu’s early Childhood in Chicago Bronzeville neighborhood.   He embodies the frequency of life and transposes them into visual compositions. The complexities of math formulas and experiments brings out his inner scientist.  Zooming in on their own details as small as a pixel to create light or allowing the object to cure by abstracting water molecules to settle in its place. From the hues to the blues, adapting color palettes from past ancestry to current.   Reflecting on conversation shared by elders and people who lived to the fullest, his aim is more like a responsibility and a reminder to those who perhaps forgot. However his dreams allow him to travel through space in full gear, listening to the rhythm of air to carve a concise form or the reflection of the sun to maintain the perception of depth in each object. Research is essential for it allows the facts to maintain the focus of each subject and the importance is never compromised.  The drum keeps the rhythm true to its form. Breathing in and out each layer that make up the symphony and all of it’s arrangements becomes the ingredients to bring forth the soul of life into each art piece. As he dances from one side of a canvas to the other each creation is to uplift another. His search continues to find the best from the worst case scenario. Adu has told quite a few interviewers that “You can't walk past the great Chicago muralist Caton Mitchell's art and not want to speak about your world in bold, colorful strokes.  Likewise, you can't grow up passing great blues clubs like “Theresa's” on your way to school and not want to speak to other people through music. 

Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood combusted artistic expressiveness in us all and wrapped it around the essence of all of our daily triumphs, struggles and very existence.  Today, I can go anywhere, anytime -- and understand people and their culture through the essential languages of art and music. A beautiful thing. I wish more of us were rooted in the natural rhythms of existential, expressive living!”

 Celebration of life is a must…...more champagne please.