Otto Neals: Watercolors
September 20 to November 4, 2023

Press Release

Otto Neals: Watercolors 

From September 20 to November 11, 2023, the Wilmer Jennings Gallery at Kenkeleba presents OTTO NEALS: WATERCOLORS, an exhibition of a visionary voice in African American arts and culture. On view are forty-five paintings and represent the first exhibition highlighting his expertise the watercolor medium.

Otto Neals was born in Lake City, South Carolina in 1930. At age four, his family moved north and settled in Brooklyn, where he continues to reside. Neals began painting as a young child, studied commercial art at George Westinghouse Vocational High School, and later took courses at the Brooklyn Museum Art School. Over the course of his career, he was lead illustrator at the Brooklyn General Post Office managing projects in Brooklyn, Staten Island and Long Island.

A believer in art community and dedicated to supporting and sustaining Black art and culture, Neals has said: My talent as an artist comes directly from my ancestors. I am merely a receiver, an instrument for receiving some of the energies that permeate our entire universe and I give thanks for having been chosen to absorb those artistic forces. He is celebrated for consistently creating opportunities for his contemporaries. He was a founding member of the Weusi Artist Collective; and co-founder of Nyumba Ya Sanaa Gallery in Harlem. He has been active in the Brooklyn Fulton Art Fair. He was instrumental in supporting institutions, such as Dorsey’s Fine Art Gallery in Brooklyn and the Bob Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. Neals made Black art accessible.

Neals is equally known for his figurative representations on canvas and in three-dimensional form. His portraiture is absolutely personal and yet devoid sentimentality. Many portraits capture enduring images of style and society, as in the grace and movement of the woman swaying along the road in Back from the Sea, the confident expression in the eyes of The Professor, the joy in the bold, purposeful gait of St. Helena Strut. He records women at different stages of life: Veiled Young Beauty who is surrounded with a beautiful aura. Neals captures the stately dignity of older men, such as Geechee Elder and Afrocentric Statement.

Landscape paintings can be important signals of culture. Neals paints outside and also in the studio, within the genre of theplein-air painting. His landscapes painted out of doors are skillful observations of the city, such as Dumbo (Brooklyn Bridge) and At the Battery. Some are almost abstract, as in The Old Tree and Stump at Penn Center. The breeze is seen in works such as The Road to Scotts Head Beach and Dominican Scene. His technical proficiency is demonstrated in representations such as Hunting Island Scene with its color changes, angular treatment of the land with expansive shallow water leading up to the dense forest.

Neals finds a constant source of inspiration and motivation in his global community. He is inspired by world music. On the Horn, Drummer in the Park and White Stripe Blues are located in Brooklyn, the South or the West Indies. His masterful brush work and attention to detail are evident in At the Soufre and Boat and Shack at Thibaud.

Neals has had a prolific career as a painter, sculptor, and printmaker. In June 2015 Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation presented a 50-year retrospective of his sculpture. Otto Neals has exhibited widely, including the Columbia Museum of Art, Howard University, the Huntsville Museum of Art, The Ghana National Museum, The Library of Congress and The Smithsonian Institution.

He received the New York City Art Commission's Award for Excellence in Design for “Peter's Chair”, a bronze tribute inspired by Ezra Jack Keats’ children's book. His public sculpture commissions include ten bronze plaques for the Harlem Walk of Fame; a 20-foot mural in Kings County Hospital; a bronze sculpture for the Brooklyn Children’s Center; a bronze rendering of the late Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton for the City University of New York.

Gallery Hours:  Wednesday to Saturday, 11 am to 6 pm
Location:  219 East Second Street at Avenue B

Kenkeleba programs are funded in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the Ruth Foundation and many generous friends.

Installation Photos : Max C. Lee
Invitation Design : Calo Rios
Symposium : Rodriguez Calero