Gemynii
DJ
Gemynii is sound curator, event producer, and visual artist based in Durham, NC and spins a wide range of music selections with the intent of raising and celebrating the divine feminine energy. Since the summer of 2016 she has diligently risen through the ranks of the NC party scene at a time when female DJs and promoters were few. In just a few years, her skills and growing reputation had already landed her numerous booking in the Raleigh/Durham area, as well as a steady flow of gigs in cities like Atlanta, LA, New York, & Baltimore.
Gemynii is a sound curator and self taught visual artist who creates paintings that center faces and figures of people of color with a focus on black femmes. Her work is heavily influenced by social justice issues, black culture, and representation of bodies of color within a white supremacist capitalist society through the lense of a fat black queer femme. She currently lives and creates in Durham, NC, where she recently finished her first art residency with the Durham Art Guild.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Growing up, my education and experience with the art world was very whitewashed. Every important painter and image never seemed to look anything like me. Later as an adult when I discovered my love for painting, I was immediately drawn to creating images that I could relate to. My work has always been centered on Blackness. The images I create are about empowering, celebrating, and uplifting people of color through visual representation. My work is often a response to past and present social justice issues, body positive representation, and current culture. I also aim to show the beauty of women with bellies, people with scars, darker skin, big lips and noses, unprocessed hair, unshaved legs and arms, queer bodies, and to the revolutionary act of self love. My work demonstrates the significance of narrating our own stories and asserting the ways that we want to be represented. I mainly use acrylic when painting my subjects and never sketch anything out beforehand. I free-style every painting using layering of shapes and shadows to create a likeness to the photos I base them from. This kind of process reminds me daily of how even our mistakes or “imperfections” make us into the beautiful creations we are as human beings. I never seek perfection in my work, nor do I feel like they are ever truly finished.
