KCC to exhibit portraits by Battle Creek native Jamari Taylor in September and October

Jamari Taylor's art exhibit on display in the DeVries Gallery.

Kellogg Community College this fall will exhibit nearly 20 mixed-media portraits drawn and painted by Battle Creek native Jamari Taylor.

Taylor’s solo exhibition, “The 4 L’s,” opened Monday, Sept. 9, and will run through Thursday, Oct. 17, in the Davidson Visual and Performing Arts Center’s Eleanor R. and Robert A. DeVries Gallery, on campus at 450 North Ave. in Battle Creek.

The exhibit is free and open to the public during regular gallery hours, which are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays and 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays.

An opening reception with the artist – also free and open to the public – will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 13, in the gallery.

In her portraits, Taylor seeks to portray her subjects’ character, power and strengths by making connections “through the essence of one’s beauty and inner soul,” she says in her artist’s statement.

Through her exhibit at KCC, Taylor aspires to take viewers on her artistic journey living through the four L’s: learn, listen, love and live.

The images depict “challenging, powerful and beautiful experiences” that are meant to convey her deep emotional relationship to art, her statement says.

Taylor, currently of Grand Rapids, was born in Battle Creek and is a graduate of Battle Creek Central High School. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art with an emphasis in Illustration from Grand Valley State University and runs her own art/art therapy business, Jaylei Art, which is based in Battle Creek.

Taylor has created more than two dozen murals in and around south central Michigan – including multiple murals as part of Battle Creek’s Color the Creek mural festival – and her wood-panel mural “Tell Us We Matter” is a part of GVSU’s permanent art collection.

For more information about Taylor or her work, visit jayleiart.com.

For more information about the exhibit or other KCC arts events and initiatives, contact KCC’s Arts and Communication Office at 269-965-4126.

For more news about Kellogg Community College, view our latest press releases online at https://daily.kellogg.edu/category/news-releases.