HAILE KING RUBIE: SPEAKING COLORS Exhibition to Open New Gallery in Harlem

An exhibition of works by Haile King Rubie, a 26-year-old Harlem artist with Down Syndrome, will inaugurate the Clara Francis Gallery, a new Harlem art spot, July 27 to August 17, 2016. The exhibition, "Haile King Rubie: Speaking Colors," is primarily drawn from Rubie's "art waves" of 2013 and 2015 and features contemplations of his otherwise inaccessible inner world. The new gallery space, located at 2070 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd., is a welcome addition to Harlem's art district.

Haile King Rubie, an artist living with some developmental limitations, uses art to express feelings that are otherwise difficult for him to communicate. He attended The Learning Tree Preparatory School as a child where his affinity for music, dance, and the arts were nurtured. For the past ten years, he has been exploring ideas of his family, African and Caribbean cultures, dance, and music through acrylic abstractions and by paintings on found objects such as bottles. He received formal artistic training at The Art Students League of New York, The Harlem School of the Arts (HSA), and with two private mentors. Haitian-born artist Carl Thelemaque developed a special bond with him, helping him to take artistic risks and experiment with other media. Jamaican-born artist Ronaldo Davidson experimented with watercolors with him.

Haile's purity of expression has impressed viewers since the beginning. Most people who discover his works are surprised to learn that he was born with Down Syndrome. "Nothing you read or see will really fall into place until you put a face on the name of this artist and the artwork," writes painter Carl Thelemaque.

This exhibition was planned after a birthday celebration and art reception for Haile was held last month. The function was a gathering of supporters of the artist, who urged the artist's father, Bernard Rubie, to mount a solo exhibition for the painter. Bernard had just presented a highly successful dinner theater production of "Sugar Ray," a play by Lawrence Holder, performed by Reginald L. Wilson and directed by Woodie King Jr., at his New Harlem Besame Restaurant, 2070 Adam Clayton Blvd., from February through April, 2016.

To curate this inaugural exhibition, Bernard tapped Julia Slaff, a Greenwich Village painter who has been Curator of the Case Gallery at Skidmore College, an education intern at the Morris-Jumel Mansion, and an employee of Sitar Arts Center in Washington, DC and the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore.

Haile King Rubie's canvases and works on paper have been exhibited ten times in group shows and have brought him impressive awards and commendations. He has recently pioneered a distinctive style of painted bottles which represent a new direction in his work and which will be seen publicly for the first time in this show.

ABOUT HAILE KING RUBIE

Haile King Rubie, a 26 year-old 'Outsider Artist' born with Down Syndrome, is introverted by nature. Disinclined to verbal expression, he layers the void with vivid colors. Raised in the culturally diverse Harlem community, Rubie was constantly influenced by the traditions of his Costa Rican-born father, his Liberian-born mother, and his Haitian- and Jamaican-born mentors. The integration of color, music and dance with everyday life in his multicultural upbringing inspire the 13 works of Haile King Rubie: Color at Heart. These paintings on paper, selected from Rubie's "art waves" of 2013 and 2015, are contemplations of his otherwise inaccessible inner world.

Individuals with Down Syndrome experience deep emotions that they are able to communicate through visual and performing means, but are otherwise challenged to express. As a child, Rubie was introduced to forms of physical expression through martial arts and drumming training. When he was a teenager, his family paired him with a new artist mentor, the Haitian-born artist Carl Thelemaque, and Haile's exceptional genius for painting emerged and began to flourish.

In the studio, Haile applies vibrant colors with the deftness of a seasoned conductor leading a symphony. He works on four compositions at once, simultaneously abstracting several experiences from his daily life. The works flow together well in his use of unified color palettes. These palettes are often derived from his memories of cultural excursions in the city. For example, the bright colors of yellow and orange feathers from women's West Indian Day Parade costumes are reflected in the jubilant figure in Dancer (2013). In Sax Player (2013), we see the soulful browns, golds, and blues of the Harlem Jazz Festival in the smooth saxophonist. The works are usually complex and built in layers. For example in Untitled 1 (2013), a highlight of the collection, a face with a large nose appears to be superimposed over paintings of one or more people and a pair of tropical birds.

In the works chosen for this show, he layers thoughts on culture, personal value, family, global issues (including the Haitian Earthquake), and music using acrylic paint on paper. All his paintings are signed with a bold "Haile." The works are unique in their ability to express complex introspection so clearly. Because he reaches for no particular style, Haile reaches a high level of creativity. Although he is formally trained, his work contains an enthusiasm that seems to transcend the restraints of self-doubt plaguing some other formally trained artists.

Omo Misha, a Harlem-based curator and artist, wrote in the Huffington Post, "While vestiges of cubism, surrealism, dadaism or abstraction are evident in some of Haile's compositions, the artist isn't reaching toward any particular style. Whether capturing the childhood glee of chasing balloons, the festive spirit of Caribbean carnival, or a fearsome movie character that captivated his imagination, Haile's art is an unadulterated outgrowth of his heart." His unguarded expressiveness has attracted admirers since he was featured in exhibitions of artHARLEM from 2007 to 2009. It is a quality found in works by formative artists throughout history who have created outside the box.

Haile has donated two paintings to the Mount Sinai Hospital Pediatric Heart Center following the heart-reconstruction surgery that saved his life in 2008.

His commissioned painting, "Welcome to Harlem" (2011), was selected from a pool of submissions and etched in steel as part of the permanent installation of 15 works by contemporary Harlem Artists in the Harlem River Park Etched Steel Plaques Project.

Other New York exhibitions include: HOAST/artharlem from 2007-2009; JVC Jazz Festival 2008; The Museum of Natural History 2009; The National DOWNrightART Exhbition, CasaFrela Gallery 2009; Artwalk Harlem 2010; Soapbox Gallery, Brooklyn, 2011; and Hutchins Gallery Exhibition, B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library of the Long Island University, C. W. Post Campus.

His awards include the 2014 FEGS/Haym Salomon People's Choice Art Contest (for Rats, acrylic on paper, 2013). He has received commendations from City Council of NYC; Inner City Broadcasting; Studio Museum of Harlem; Hon. Michael Bloomberg, former Mayor of New York City; Hon. Charles Rangel, United States Congressman; Hon. Bill Perkins, New York State Senator; Hon. Inez Dickens, New York City Council Member; and the late Hon. Percy Sutton, President of the Borough of Manhattan.

His canvas, Balloons (2007), was introduced by Sharon Stone at the National Down Syndrome Foundation's 2011 Spring Luncheon in NYC; the work was presented to author Jagatjoti S. Khalsa as an award for his 2010 book, I'm Down With You: An Inspired Journey.

Haile's art and remarkable story have received media attention in: The Amsterdam News, Village Voice, The Beacon, Caribbean News, Daily News, WABC television news, Fox News and New York 1 News.

ABOUT HAILE'S DECORATED BOTTLES

Typically, Haile warms up for painting with Hip-Hop Music or African Drumming, sometimes in response to music heard outside on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. He uses paint brushes as drumsticks and when no drum is present, employs whatever makes a sound, including discarded bottles from the bar of New Harlem Besame Restaurant. Once, by serendipity, paint fell upon the bottles in an evocative shape and Haile developed a painting from it.

This lucky accident was marred by the fragility of the acrylic paint he used, which scratched off too easily. So in collaboration with his mentor, Carl Thelemaque, he researched and adopted more durable formulas of acrylic enamel for glass. Some of the bottle paintings now have spray paint as base for first coat; after that, they are painted with layers of acrylic-based paints, some with squeeze applicators and some with glitter. Some have a 3D effect.

The images on the bottles are similar in style to his paintings on canvas and paper: layers of mystical expressionism with undefined faces, bursting with themes of spirits and souls. They range in size from five to twelve inches. Being discards from a bar, many of the bottles have long necks. About half are painted on a black background, others are clear or have a beige background.

ABOUT THE CLARA FRANCIS GALLERY

The Clara Francis Gallery occupies a unique and special positioning in Central Harlem's growing gallery district. Bernard Rubie is converting a raw space adjoining his New Harlem Besame Restaurant into a venue for pop-up exhibitions by independent curators, intending it for artwork which could be expressly served by exhibiting in Central Harlem. This will include works by artists who might otherwise not have a place to showcase their work. The raw space may be developed into a versatile event space where people can dine among rotating exhibitions on the gallery's walls. The immediate neighborhood now contains about a dozen galleries. The gallery's block -- Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. between 123rd and 124th Streets -- already contains two other galleries, the Sol Studio and Renaissance Fine Art.

The Gallery is dedicated to the memory of Bernard's mother, Clara Francis (1920-2014), a great beauty and strong matriarch whose four children enjoyed a "completely unconventional and wholly creative upbringing." Born in Costa Rica, she was a seamstress, an artist of textiles, an avid stamp collector and the family's archivist. She moved to New York in 1960 and then brought her family here to join her, having found employment in New York's garment industry. Subsequently she moved to Liberia to be near her sons when they started businesses there, but the family was forced to flee back to the U.S. when Liberia was torn asunder by the coup of Master Sargent Samuel Doe in 1980. "Mami" protected her children like a mama bear shielding her cubs. She is remembered as a woman of great courage and her portrait adorns the menus of Bernard's Harlem Besame Restaurant.