Bio
John Lister, III was born in Shreveport, LA in 1985 on July 8th. Lister spent a majority of his life between Maryland and Louisiana. He claims his first stint at creating, was at a very young age with his food, i.e. oatmeal. The child would take his toddler hands and draw abstractly in the overturned bowl remnants of oatmeal. Upon seeing this, his educator of a grandmother Ella D. Douglas, whom he affectionately named "Grants." Grants then thought it be wise to introduce crayons and coloring books to the young child.
By time he was 4 years old, he grasped and understood the female figure and male figure via Jet magazines comic books, and from watching sports, which he often would recreate as doodles. While playing and having a short football career due to surgery to lengthen his limb, Lister discovered "Grey's Anatomy." The book which was given to him to read and study to keep from bothering the nurses on duty at the hospital while recovering. This can be seen in his works of art dealing with his femur and gives an explanation for the usage medical themes. It wasn't until college however at Morgan State University where he decided to become serious about creating, learning and producing art work.
Artist's Statement
rt is historical as it is personal. To be a black artist is to literally be a visual Griot. Every piece created tells a story about a moment in time which will be apart of history and the story of the present time. To further explain, the works produced will always deal with history; be it large or small. Certain themes will showcase heroism, kingship, fertility, religions of antiquity of West Afrika and those found in the Afrikan Diaspora.
Thus these pieces of visual art will always show blacks prior to 1619 and to 2020 and 2021. To clarify what could be seen before 1619, "The Vodou Child" will visually recreate the great kings of Afrika: King Hannibal of Carthage.
-RELIGION: There are pieces with depictions of great Vodoun Gods and Goddesses: Erzulie Dantor, Baron Samedi and Maman Brigitte.
-FERTILITY: Usage of Afrikan fertility dolls for reference pictures which can be seen in certain works.
-KINGSHIP: Viewers can see the crown, from which is the artist's initials: "JL3". Every crown produced is the artist' way of letting the viewer know and understand that Blacks at one point in time before slavery, were within an established society where we had government, power, wealth and culture. This is done to facilitate healthy imagery of self-esteem in the artist's works.
-HEROISM: Comic books, superheroes, some of the creative hobbies the artist grew up reading and drawing copying and recreating Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's The Black Panther. The artist believes that even though the creators were White, the character helped give the young black child positive imagery in a dominated white society of a fictional Black king set in Afrika.
Lastly, the artist was traditionally trained at Morgan State University and graduated with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts (BFA) from Bowie State University. Since the artist is traditional, he does have major influences in his works with certain movements and key artists.
n the "The Vodou Child" you experience cubism, primitivism, and abstract expressionism. The artists which influenced the artist current works in this exhibition are Picasso, Basquiat, Twombly, Klimt, Rauschenberg, Matisse and Lichenstein. These combined help the artist create a new genre which is to be called, "Post-Neo Expressionism."