The Vivid Potential of Black: Hierarchy-Disrupting Sculptures by Allana Clarke at Zander Galerie

What happens when art borrows its raw material from the most unexpected place—the rituals of the beauty industry? Trinidad-American artist Allana Clarke’s exhibition “When,” opening at Zander Galerie in Cologne, offers precisely this kind of interrogation that melts genre and cultural boundaries. Through ten new sculpture-paintings and a large-format triptych, Clarke challenges the hierarchy of traditional art forms and deeply explores the concept of Black identity in both aesthetic and political dimensions.

The unconventional and central material of Clarke’s works is black hair bonding glue. The artist pours this material layer upon layer onto canvas, forcefully pushing the viscous mass back and forth over the fabric. This process causes the outer layer of the material to harden, forming a leather-like relief. The resulting surface is sometimes smooth and glossy, sometimes rough and fractured; it recalls topographic or organic structures, nerve fibers, or scar tissue. These are metaphorical traces of both fragility and resistance.

Black Modernism and the Power of the Invisible

The artist seeks to overcome the traditional perception in art history of the color black as a sign of negation. Clarke’s abstract sculptures reject this entrenched interpretation attributed to black, revealing the ever-changing and boundless potential of Blackness.

Clarke’s practice is in dialogue with the Black Modernism cultural movement represented by figures such as abstract expressionist Norman Lewis, who used subtle shadows and soft tonalities in his works, and photographer Roy DeCarava. In the artist’s hands, the glue becomes a contemporary form of sfumato where shapes blur and boundaries dissolve.

The use of glue is not merely an aesthetic choice but is also linked to women’s beauty rituals and the expectations of conforming to traditional norms. Clarke’s work encourages viewers to rethink concepts of beauty, value, and femininity, and to acknowledge the complexity of Afro-diasporic realities.

Career and Legacy

Born in 1987 in Trinidad and currently living in Detroit, Clarke has received prestigious awards such as the Kresge Arts Fellowship and has exhibited at significant venues including Palais de Tokyo and the Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art. This exhibition represents the artist’s effort to formulate non-hierarchical new structures that reveal the connections between her artistic practices.

Artist: Allana Clarke (Trinidad-American)

Exhibition Title: When

Venue: Zander Galerie, Cologne

Dates: Continues until 16 January 2026