Platform: Skye Volmar | Gabrielle Banks

Split Ends is shorthand for conversations surrounding isolation, performativity, and the relationship between girlhood and womanhood. The show, named for the artists’ portrayal of hair, depicts different hair types and hair practices as they relate to various perceptions of Black women. Such perceptions include neat vs. raggedy, girly vs. grown, tame vs. unruly, curly vs. kinky, and good vs. bad. These styles, their complexity, versatility, and/or lack thereof, speak to racist, colorist and gendered expectations regarding the role of Black women as caretakers, educators, and fetish objects. 

Often, work created by Black artists is categorized as inaccessible. At best, this “inaccessibility” looks and feels like seclusion, and at worst it is exclusion. By sharing this platform, Volmar and Banks provide the audience, and each other, with greater insight and understanding of lived Black experience. The two have a common goal: to see each other and/or to feel seen. In this case, self-portraits are a way for the artists to see themselves, especially when no one else is looking. Ultimately, this show is an exchange that lends itself towards continued self-preservation, growth, and healing.

10% of proceeds from all Platform exhibitions are donated to a charity of the artist's choosing. Skye Volmar & Gabrielle Banks have chosen to support the Loveland Foundation Therapy Fund. With the barriers affecting access to treatment by members of diverse ethnic and racial groups, the Loveland Therapy Fund provides financial assistance to Black women and girls seeking therapy nationally.

Skye Volmar (b. New Jersey) holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Volmar is a recipient of the Florence Leif Award, grants from the Kyoto Fund and the Center for Reconciliation. She was a 2019 OxBow School of Art and Artist Residency fellow and would have been a 2020 resident of Vermont Studio Center (if not for COVID-19 cancellations). Recent Exhibitions include Deli Gallery’s flower, child , Kohn Gallery’s Myselves, and Zurcher Gallery’s benefit exhibition We Must Begin Wherever We Are. Recent press includes Art in America, Artsy, Harper’s Bazaar, Whitewall, Artnews, and Paper Magazine.

Gabrielle Banks (b. Nassau, The Bahamas) attended the Slade School of Fine Art Studio Program and holds a BFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design . Banks is a 2020 finalist for the MacColl Johnson Fellowship, recipient of the Becky Westcott Memorial Painting Award, and 2019/2020 Vermont Studio Center resident. Her work has been presented at Donaldson Gallery, RISD Museum’s Gelman Gallery, Sotheby’s New York, the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, United States Embassy Ambassador Residence of the Bahamas, and more. Recent press includes Hyperallergic, The Nassau Guardian, and The Tribune.