South Jersey Artist Feature: Kimisha Turner
South Jersey Cultural Alliance is thrilled to highlight interdisciplinary artist Kimisha Turner. Turner’s work ranges between many mediums including painting, photography, and sculpture that use semi-precious materials. Turner is based in South Jersey after relocating from Seattle where she exhibited at the Seattle Museum of Art, Wa Na Wari, and more. Turner received the 2023 New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship. Her practice is committed to quality, diversity, community, history, and cultural pride.
Can you tell us about your practice?
Turner: My art practice is the culmination of the love of mark-making, the exploration of individual experience and authentic expression, and the process of intentional manifestation. I just love making work. It makes me feel good and I know that when you do what makes you feel good, you are on the right track in the fulfillment of your existence. I know that as an artist, I can’t NOT make work. I go crazy and get stressed out when I am not doing so. I am sure most artists can relate to that.
The human experience is fascinating and as artists, we get the privilege to interpret it and put it back out there for ourselves and the masses. That we each have these unique facets that mold who we are and ultimately help us create and shape our loves gives me a lot to work with conceptually. I believe that art can heal our past and current situations. Look at how it helped during COVID. It was an asset.
I like to help open new perspectives with my viewers because I feel like empathy is a very important ingredient in healing. Art reflects us, of the times, and of how we navigate life in the future. So, it’s my job to present concepts that will spark reflection and empowerment because that is what I need in my life as well. I make work for my own mental health but also because it’s the best way I can provide service and value to others. This is why I create work for galleries, silly work for collectors and host art making parties for those that want to tap into their own creativity. It’s all important and all has its place.
Pieces of Me, Mixed media, 2020. Image courtesy of the artist.
Can you talk about your process, especially how your concepts evolve through each medium?
Turner: I love working with and all types of mediums. Mosaics, murals, performance, paintings, carvings, sculpture...you name it, I am fascinated by it and want to incorporate it somehow into my practice. Typically, I will come up with an idea that I want to explore, and then I will decide what medium will best convey that concept. If it’s a medium I haven’t used or tried before, I will study and practice to make sure it can be done successfully.
My most recent body of work explores ancestral acknowledgment and authenticity. In order to convey specific aspects of each piece I determine the best way to do so through materials. For example, I used blue blinking LED/neon lights for a sculpture that says, “Black Enough?” because when blinking it’s like I am hitting myself over and over with that question. The word Black blinking in the color blue represents me feeling “black and blue” over beating myself up in finding where I fit within the black community. For a few other pieces, I’ve taken my ancestors’ ashes and grown sugar crystals with them on my and my son’s hair to create other sculptures. Doing so creates different levels of meaning with each piece. The growing of crystals with ashes represents grief that is tough and sad, then creating something beautiful with it. Watching the transformation of the ashes and sugar turn to crystals is a metaphor for change and growth I wanted to infuse in the pieces so that the process is also part of the concept, not just the result of the work. So, it’s safe to say the concept heavily influences how I choose to convey it.
Ancestral Reclamation, Mixed media, 2021. Image courtesy of the artist.
How has South Jersey impacted your visual art practice?
Turner: I just see so much opportunity here! I am new to the South Jersey area, I moved from Seattle a little over a year ago. However, I used to visit this area every summer growing up during my formative years to stay with family. I have lovely memories here and I am so glad that I can experience this area with my son full time now. It is so much more diverse here and the history of the area is so fascinating. I love that I can easily travel to multiple states in one day if I wanted to. I feel more connected to myself here. This all influences my art and creativity. There is a bigger need for art, to cover buildings, walls and sidewalks where I live, and that just gets me more excited about the opportunities that are here for artists. I have also received a warm welcome from the arts community so far which has made a huge difference in settling in. Being fortunate enough to be selected as an NJSCA Fellow this year and getting to do this interview has really empowered me to keep building on my career here. I am so excited to see where this leads and proves that following my gut instinct to move my family here was the best decision personally and professionally.
Treasures Unknown, Mixed media, 2020. Image courtesy of the artist.
Check out more of Kimisha Turner’s work on her website and follow her on Instagram!