Meet Emerging Artist Donny Teiko Calhoun - Inside Art with Micheal Rose

Meet Emerging Artist Donny Teiko Calhoun - Inside Art with Micheal Rose

 

Providence art non-profit AS220 is not just the site of galleries and performances spaces, but also houses numerous artists in live-work studios in the heart of downtown. One of AS220’s residents is the enthusiastic young artist Donny Teiko Calhoun. Working in a variety of modes, from painting and collage to installation and performance, Teiko is shaping his own distinct creative path. His artwork is currently on view in a summer exhibition in Providence and his energetic practice promises many more shows in the future.

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Teiko originally came to Rhode Island from his family home in Philadelphia to study at Johnson and Wales University, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Food and Beverage Entrepreneurship in 2019. Alongside his day job in the culinary industry, he has continued to nurture an innate interest in artmaking and creative expression. In 2022, he became a resident of AS220, where he has found a supportive community of artists as well as opportunities to share his work. From his home studio downtown he creates work that probes his own experiences in ways that offer emotional connection to those that see his art.

 

 

Speaking of what it means to him to be a member of the AS220 community, Teiko says, “It means so much more than I'm able to describe. I am quite literally living out my dreams here and I am consistently encouraged to experience and learn more. The resources and opportunities overwhelm me in the best way possible, because I think I'm just getting started…”

 

Through August 31, 2023, Teiko is sharing a new body of work in AS220’s Resident Gallery at 131 Washington Street in Providence. The collection is immersive and includes discrete paintings as well as complex collages and pieces that act as installations activating the space. It is a body of work that he has spent a number of months creating and brings together a variety of his artistic interests that all hinge on ideas of affection.

 

 

Teiko’s show is titled “GLANCE: The Hopelessness of Infatuation”, which hints at the emotional subtext that populates his work. On one side of the gallery Teiko is exhibiting a wall-sized canvas that features expressive brushwork paired with minute text. Another portion of the room is dedicated to an installation that evokes a roadside memorial. When entering the space, visitors will first see an installation dedicated to the recent birth of Teiko’s first child. The work, which utilizes personal items like his identification tags from the hospital, offers a very personal and resonant examination of a moment in the artist’s family life. Typical of Teiko’s art, the works in his summer show feel visceral and immediate.

 

Asked what he hopes visitors experience when viewing his exhibition, Teiko says, “I hope people gratify everything and everyone that infatuates them. I want your desire to drive you to explore a foreign love or at the very least, I want you to stop holding yourself back from daydreaming again.”

 

 

Teiko’s current exhibition is his second in the Resident Gallery, and a testament to the ongoing hard work he is putting into his artistic practice. An active maker, he is constantly painting, drawing, journaling, and writing. His work is meant to forge meaningful connections, and it succeeds in bringing viewers into his life and experience and enabling them to share their own.

 

Looking forward, the artist is aiming to expand and deepen his artistic practice in order to merge it with other interests, like his professional acumen in the hospitality field. About his future plans he states, “I originally came to Providence to study cooking at JWU and I've always wanted to circle back and incorporate both of my passions in the city that gave me so many platforms to be creative. I'm going to be taking up pottery and soon, host a pop-up dinner where my old classmates will come up with a menu and it'll be served on commemorative plates made by me.”

 

 

Teiko is an emerging artist who shows an infectious passion for making and sharing art that touches on profound human experiences. His August show at AS220 is a chance to see the fruits of his creativity and to support one of the state’s emerging talents.

 

Learn more about Teiko’s artwork at www.embellishitall.com and follow his ongoing studio work on his Instagram via @handi_401

 

To learn more about visiting the Resident Gallery, visit www.as220.org, or contact Gallery Director Neal Walsh at [email protected].