NKA presents “An-Sisters,” an immersive solo exhibition by Elisheba Israel Mrozik that will be on view through November 5, 2022, featuring mixed media, sculpture, and installations. “An-Sisters” is a survey of works, with each series centered in the reclamation of visual identity at the intersection of the African diaspora and womanhood. NKA Art Gallery is located at 915 Buchanan St., adjacent to Slim N Husky’s.
Mrozik says this exhibition is, for her, a kind of cultural inheritance for the modern Black artist, willed to her through ancestral energy that, like all energy, cannot be created nor destroyed, only transformed and shifted. Reimagining traditional folklores through realism, science fiction, and fantasy, Elisheba challenges not only the “white gaze” but the interior gaze of her own community, in order to express Blackness on an artistic spectrum beyond its sometimes assumed monolithic margins.
“Stepping into the NKA gallery, you are greeted by a riot of jazzy bold yellows, and purples, along with cool blues, and somber bronzes hung against mortar brick,” says independent curator Michael Ewing. “Selected works tower over you, transporting the viewer into mythical-like scenes, while other delicate sculptures of textiles and organic materials become visual spiritual portals of interaction to lineages of the matriarchal sanctum.”
Elisheba Israel Mrozik is a Fine Artist and International Award Winning Tattooist. She graduated from Memphis College of Art in 2006 with a BFA in Computer Arts. After moving to Nashville in 2007, she began to work full-time as a freelance artist in graphic design, anime, and fine art. Elisheba was a part of Nashville Black Artists Renaissance and has shown at Columbia State, The Ha Factory, Boheme Collectif, Corvidae Gallery, the Frist Art Museum, and other venues.
Elisheba was a New York Comic Con artist in 2010 and has created live murals at events with the Goo Goo Dolls in Buffalo, NY. Additionally, Elisheba has also been in various music videos and commercials like Old Dominion, Budweiser, and Yelawolf.
In late 2010, she became interested in tattooing after viewing work by some world-renowned artists. In 2011, Elisheba started tattooing and opened One Drop Ink Tattoo Parlour and Gallery in Nashville. In 2019, she moved the shop to its current location next to historic Fisk University and it serves as her current fine art and tattoo studio. One Drop Ink is home to 5 professional artists, 2 piercers, and front-of-house staff.
One Drop Ink is an active member of the community sponsoring charitable events, teaching classes, and supporting schools and other community building endeavors. The shop is also one of the founding members of the Jefferson Street Art Crawl and North Nashville Arts Coalition (NORF).
Elisheba specializes in realism, watercolor, and illustrative realism. Her goals are to travel the world and create art with her family. She prides herself on working diligently to create art and art spaces for disenfranchised people, being a loving mother and devoted wife, every day.
Visit https://www.queenbeeink.com for more about Elisheba and the “An-Sisters” exhibition.
