Cbrooks Gallery marks one year with a show built entirely on Black
Cbrooks Gallery celebrated its first anniversary with an exhibition titled "Playlist", featuring 35 works by 26 artists, all inspired by Black music and running through August 22. The post Cbrooks Gallery marks one year with a show built entirely on Black appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.
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Cbrooks Gallery celebrated its first anniversary this month with an exhibition that turns the gallery’s walls into a playlist, bringing together 35 works by 26 artists, all centered on the sounds that have shaped Black culture.
Gallery founder Courtney Brooks opened the space on June 12, 2025, and chose Black Music Month to mark the milestone. The result is “Playlist,” a show encompassing the wide work of and genres of Black music; made with photography, mixed media, collage, and painting, each piece tied to a song, genre, or artist that inspired it.
“Music is my love language, and it’s a dedication to that,” Brooks said. “I wanted to share artists whose work expressed that in all different forms.”
Brooks included her own piece, “Breakin,” in the show, though she said she typically holds her work back. The piece, created in 2022, was first featured in Art Beats + Lyrics, the traveling art exhibition founded by Jamaal Barber. Brooks made it as a tribute to 50 years of hip-hop and to her lifelong love of breakdancing.
“I always wanted to be a fly girl, so dancing has always been like my special place in my heart,” Brooks said. “I found it would be a great piece to display in the show, and I realized there are no dancing pieces, so I was just like, okay, if it’s ready.”
The exhibition moves across genres, from blues and gospel to reggae and go-go. A piece by Michael Johnson depicts a young Michael Jackson made up of record vinyl, while Brooks contributed a second abstract work inspired by Maze and Frankie Beverly’s “Before I Let Go.”
“It’s just what music is and how music inspires us to create,” Brooks said. “It’s not necessarily just about the particular artist itself, but what that melody, what that tone, what that beat may bring to you when you’re creating.”
Among the artists in the show is Faif Quinn, whose digital photograph explores R&B as an outlet for emotional release. In an artist statement, Quinn described R&B as a vessel for “the catharsis of expressing this chaotic life,” tracing the genre’s blend of melancholy and joy as a reflection of Black American experience.
“This digital photograph displays that natural inner chaos against a gradient of melancholy, or blueness, much like the musical genre of its namesake,” Quinn said. “My hope is that it contributes a visual that dares to articulate that turmoil that R&B often contemplates.”
“Playlist” is Cbrooks Gallery’s sixth exhibition since opening and runs through Aug. 22. Brooks said the gallery has additional programming planned for July tied to the show.
Reflecting on the gallery’s first year, Brooks said she sees it as a gathering place as much as an exhibition space, one built to introduce new collectors to art while showcasing established and emerging talent side by side.
“I always curate my shows where we have established artists, up-and-coming artists, emerging,” Brooks said. “We’re always just trying to create more engagement and opportunities to learn and educate people about the artists and the work itself.”
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