Clayton Singleton
Clayton Singleton Bio Pic

Exhibitions

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Biography

“You sense what people call passion” when you are around Clayton Singleton. This Virginia resident’s blend of verbal and visual art inspires, motivates and educates. In addition to once being a member of the Hampton Roads National Poetry Slam Team, he has been noted in many publications ranging from The Virginian Pilo Time magazine.

Clayton has created public art, won numerous awards, and produced several solo and group shows including Walking on Paper at ArtWorks gallery, Recent Works: ART INSTALLATION PERFORMANCE at SONO gallery and LOOK BEYOND at d’ART Center @The Selden, which benefited The Autism Society of Tidewater. The Virginia Opera commissioned Clayton to design sets for Porgy and Bess and Freedom’s Journey.   ​Clayton has served as a member of Norfolk's All-City Teaching Team, The d'ART Center Board of Directors and Norfolk Arts Commission.

In addition to helping rewrite Norfolk's art curriculum, he produced solo exhibitions DEFINING BEAUTY at The Sandler Center for the Performing Arts, CULTURAL SHIFT at The James Wise Gallery at Norfolk State University, LOVE OF THE GAME at The Virginia Sports Hall of Fame and Museum and VALEDICTORIAN which consists of paintings, mixed media and video; an extension of the group show Looking Both Ways: Roots in African American Art at the Peninsula Fine Arts Center. Moreover, Singleton exhibited at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, The Chrysler Museum of Art and has co-curated regional group exhibitions such as NOW: African-American Artists in Tidewater. Clayton produced a solo exhibition FUTURE LOVE PARADISE which toured for two years beginning at Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center and ended at his alma mater Virginia Wesleyan University. Most recently, he created and exhibit celebrating the everyday lives of Norfolk's citizens titled NORFOLK REPUBLIC

Statement

My artwork is about our ability to create our own stories. Layering and juxtaposition are central to my treatment of photos, symbols, designs, and texts. I create a belonging layer, then a quilting layer, followed by a flourishing & authentic layer. I create one layer atop the other because we have to accept yesterday.

These layers create a density reflective of circumstances that can’t be removed. As a result, raised paint and layered textures are seen in the top portrait layers and read as tattoos & scarring. I use these abstract roles as factors and forces actively describing and forging selves. The result is a compilation of unintended art events created by the addition, subtraction, leaving, and retrieving necessary to define an individual self.

Revealing emotional subpoenas choreographed by contemporary society, my work echoes opportunities and moments in life urging us forward & continuing to inspire us to define our own beauty through living and creating our own stories.

Man in Hat
Size: 18 x 24
Medium: Acrylic
$ 3,000 USD
Man in Glasses
Size: 18 x 24
Medium: Acrylic
$ 3,000 USD
Man in Paisley Shirt
Size: 18 x 24
Medium: Acrylic
$ 3,000 USD
Man in Herringbone Jacket
Size: 18 x 24
Medium: Acrylic
$ 3,000 USD
Man in Profile
Size: 18 x 24
Medium: Acrylic
$ 3,000 USD
Man on a Mission
Size: 18 x 24
Medium: Acrylic
$ 3,000 USD
Man in Sweater
Size: 18 x 24
Medium: Acrylic
$ 3,000 USD
Man is a Cowboy
Size: 18 x 24
Medium: Acrylic
$ 3,000 USD
Man without Buttons
Size: 18 x 24
Medium: Acrylic
$ 3,000 USD
The Ocean in a Drop
Size: 48 x 48
Medium: Acrylic
$ 12,000 USD
Unapolagetic
Size: 48 x 36
Medium: Acrylic
$ 0 USD
The Dinner Party
Size: 24 x 36
Medium: Acrylic
$ 0 USD
TABBM red background
Size: 18 x 24
Medium: Acrylic
$ 3,000 USD
Raise Up A Child
Size: 60 x 48
Medium: Acrylic
$ 15,000 USD
No Such Thing
Size: 72 x 60
Medium: Acrylic
$ 26,000 USD
Hold Fast to Dreams
Size: 48 x 48
Medium: Acrylic
$ 12,000 USD
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