April Bey

Bahamian American, living in Los Angeles

Colonial Day Sale: What Are You Gonna Do, If You Like a Woman and Your Mama No Like Am?, 2021

Vinyl print

Courtesy of the artist

Reclaiming the visual languages of corporate advertising and high fashion, Bey uses the billboard format to create a provocative commentary on Black identity and its relationship to capitalism. This work is a part of a larger body of speculative ephemera from Atlantica, a fictional planet of the artist’s creation that pays homage to African and African diaspora culture. The image depicts an elegant Black woman promoting the fictitious brand Colonial Swag, the reigning luxury brand of Atlantica. The model’s surreal headpiece is composed of distorted images appropriated from the real Black hair product brand Royal Crown. Installed within an outdoor mall, Colonial Day Sale... offers a critique of the hyper-luxury context that the artwork is situated within.

Apri Bey received an M.F.A. in Painting at California State University, Northridge and a B.F.A. in Drawing from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Her work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions at Liquid Courage Gallery, Nassau, Bahamas; Coagula Curatorial, Los Angeles; Band of Vices Gallery, West Adams; and UPFOR Gallery, Portland. Her work is in the permanent collections of the California African American Museum, Los Angeles; The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas; The Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk; Fullerton College Art Gallery; and the Museum of Art and History, Lancaster.