Calligraphy of Dreams

Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA

07/10/2021 - 10/24/2021

Master draftsman, Roland Ayers (1932–2014) was born in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia and trained at the Philadelphia College Art (now the University of the Arts). His unique style and iconography responded to the social and political climate of his time, while he also made reference to the broader canons of art history. Ayers’ free-flowing compositions— heavily influenced by the improvisational nature of jazz—merged dreams, memories, and the landscapes of Philadelphia into fantastical images. Through his meditative artistic practice, he explored his own unconscious, which he visualized through nature, architecture, and the body. This exhibition offers a thirty-year survey of Ayers’ progression toward his most noted medium, intricate drawings of ink on paper.