Terry Lynn is a visual storyteller, revealing how place, history, and race are intertwined. His stories emerge not only from his subjects and the scenes he develops but also from the infectious energy of his brushstrokes, gestures, and geometries. His aesthetic vocabulary of temporal slips, which illuminate the parallels of our past and our present, takes many forms. While printmaking, installation, collage, sculpture, and public art are employed to depict his narratives, his practice is rooted in his skills as a painter.
The figurative dissolves into abstract forms, a sentiment that carries over from his paintings into his mixed media and sculptural works. Amidst the layering and excavation of material, expressive and gestural brushstrokes fuse together naturalistic earth tones with vibrant saturations of color, teetering between the realms of fine art and graffiti at times. The scenes become dream-like, blurring the perception of reality through the evocations of nostalgia or perhaps a sense of contemporary uncertainty. The amalgamation of imagery is compounded by his use of patterns, geometries, and ornamentations, adding subtle allusions to historical or cultural facets of African American life.
The mixture of materials, forms, and styles weaves together the past and the present. Lynn channels his own journey, the stories of his family, and the experiences of his community to unveil the hidden histories of the Black experience, with an emphasis on life in the South. Often referring back to his Memphis home, he shares the connection between environment, culture, and identity. Imbued with an essence of social critique, Terry’s work asks us to reflect on our own preconceptions, keeping in mind the strides we have made towards social justice and how far we have to go. Whether it be through his landscapes, portraits of prominent figures, or scenes of the everyday, his work amplifies the unsung voices of African American communities, neighborhoods, and individuals that resonate with a ruminative energy of authenticity.
