1275 Minnesota St /
Anglim / Trimble Gallery
Anglim/Trimble is pleased to announce Rigo 23: February 31st with the Angola-3.
February 31st with the Angola-3 invites the audience into the remarkable friendship and collaboration between an island-born Portuguese artist and three men born in the United States’ South whose entire lives were shaped by the structures systemic racism built. In the eyes of mainstream America, Rigo is white; Robert, Herman, and Albert are Black. One was raised in a privileged environment; the three others survived and overcame the most oppressive environment imaginable.
Rigo 23’s new exhibition draws upon his 22-year involvement with the three formerly incarcerated individuals in Louisiana State Prison, commonly known as the Angola-3.
The Angola-3 were subjected to the longest-known solitary confinement incarceration in the world, 114 years combined: Albert Woodfox - 44 years, Herman Wallace - 41 years, and Robert King - 29 1/2 years. They spent a minimum of 23 hours alone inside a 6 x 9 x 12-foot cell each and every day. While in prison, they organized to improve living conditions and prevent sexual assault, becoming a target for reprisals by the prison administration. They co-founded a prison chapter of the Black Panther Party at Angola. After their release, King and Woodfox both authored books; Woodfox’s Solitary was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
The exhibition's title, February 31st, calls upon something very easy to imagine but extremely hard to transform into a standard. February, which is shorter than all other months, has been declared Black History Month in the United States. The artist proposes an alternative calendar that situates his experience with the Angola-3.
The immersive exhibition gathers evidence of a process that has taken place across a vast geography, varied venues, and situations, as well as works shown for the first time. Drawing, silkscreen, photography, correspondence, zines, and ephemera are combined with interventions directly on the gallery walls to chronicle this evolving relationship between individuals living across an existential abyss. Included in the exhibition will be preparatory drawings and renderings of Pebbles in a Pond and A Noble Cause, large-scale tile mosaics Rigo created in collaboration with the Angola 3 at Making Waves Academy in Richmond, CA. The quote at the bottom of A Noble Cause is by Albert Woodfox.
Today, Rigo 23 is working with Robert King, the sole surviving member of the Angola- 3, to launch a cultural center in the historical Black neighborhood of Algiers in New Orleans. It will host the Angola-3 archives and function as a community center to continue the work and preserve the legacy of these outstanding freedom fighters.
Rigo 23 received his BFA from San Francisco Art Institute and his MFA from Stanford University. His work has been featured in solo exhibitions nationally and internationally, including Brazil, China, India, and Chile. He has received numerous awards including the Public Choice Award, Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture; a Eureka Fellowship, Fleishhacker Foundation; the Biennial Award, The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, New York, NY, and the SECA Art Award, SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA. His work is in the collections of Berkeley Art Museum, di Rosa Preserve, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, De Young Museum, and SF MOMA.
Rigo 23 is currently working on a public art commission with LA Metro, designing a large-scale tile mosaic for the concourse of the upcoming Wilshire/Rodeo Station, slated to open to the public in 2025. He was also recently awarded a commission from the San Francisco Arts Commission to be featured in the upcoming Mission Creek Park Extension. Unflagging Presence - The California Grizzlies of Mission Creek is a sculptural tribute to the original wildlife present within the area known today as Mission Creek Park. Rigo 23 lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.