“30 Years of Reflection”
New Works and Selected Paintings by Charly Palmer
Artist Talk: Saturday, August 1, 2026, 4 pm
Broadcast via Instagram Live Stream
Exhibition: July 5 through August 28, 2026
For thirty years, Stella Jones Gallery has championed artists whose work preserves, expands, and reimagines the stories of the African diaspora. As the gallery celebrates its 30th anniversary, it marks this milestone with an artist whose career has likewise been dedicated to documenting the richness, complexity, resilience, and humanity of Black life.
30 Years of Reflection brings together new paintings alongside selected works spanning Charly Palmer's distinguished career. While many of the works were created in recent years, together they reveal the remarkable consistency of an artist whose vision has remained rooted in honoring Black experience while continually evolving through form, color, perspective, and thematic phases.
Often described as a modern griot, Palmer creates paintings that bear witness to history while celebrating the beauty found in everyday life. His portraits, historical narratives, and scenes of family, childhood, spirituality, and community affirm that ordinary moments are as worthy of remembrance as the defining events that shape our collective memory. Throughout his career, Palmer has returned to enduring questions: What came before? What truth must be told?
His visual language has become one of the most recognizable in contemporary American art. From the iconic TIME magazine cover, America Must Change, created during the national reckoning of 2020, to the United States Postal Service's Black Heritage stamp honoring Judge Constance Baker Motley, to the cover art for John Legend's Grammy Award-winning album Bigger Love, Palmer has created images that have entered America's cultural consciousness.
The exhibition introduces a new body of work inspired in part by Imani Perry's Black in Blues. In these paintings, Palmer reflects on the symbolism of indigo and the color blue within the Black experience, using color as a meditation on memory, inheritance, resilience, and transformation. Rather than departing from the themes that have defined his career, these works deepen an ongoing exploration of how history continues to shape identity across generations.
As Stella Jones Gallery celebrates its 30th anniversary, 30 Years of Reflection honors not only the evolution of Charly Palmer's artistic vision, but also a three-decade partnership dedicated to advancing the stories, voices, and enduring legacy of the African diaspora.
_______________________________________________________________________
For thirty years, Stella Jones Gallery has played a crucial role in highlighting the historical importance of Black Art. The gallery's commitment to fostering diversity in the downtown New Orleans area has garnered recognition, including being named one of the top 20 art galleries by The American Art Awards in 2025.
CONTACT:
stellajonesgallery@gmail.com | 504-568-9050
