Dallas artist has spent decades creating art and mentoring emerging artists
By Angela Piazza
Dallas Morning News
https://www.dallasnews.com/
A white canvas stretches out in front of Frank Frazier. He gives a bottle of shoe polish a shake and begins to draw. Slowly, a crowd of protesters holding up signs begins to take form.
“I’m a Black artist, and I say that strongly because I want my children, who are the future, to know that I exist, and I want other children to know that we Black artists exist here in Dallas,” Frazier, 83, says.
A gold ring flashes on Frazier’s ink-stained left hand as he fills in a Sankofa – an African symbol resembling a bird with its head turned back. The Sankofa represents looking at the past to straighten out your future, Frazier says.
This piece, for UNT Dallas College of Law, is part of Frazier’s “Shoe Polish Collection,” which he began around 2010 and features India ink, black shoe polish, marker and fabric on canvas. The black polish holds as much significance as the scenes he creates.
Multiple pieces in the collection depict upside-down American flags, signifying a country in distress, and law enforcement brutality toward people of color. Frazier’s work is as bold and unapologetic as the man who created it.
From illustrations of doo-wap musicians to African ancestors to slave ships, Frazier’s art highlights the wide range of Black history.
It’s been displayed in homes, museums and galleries across the country and recently a show in Puerto Rico. Notable locations include fine art shows hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington D.C., the Stella Jones Art Gallery in New Orleans, an exhibition in the African American Museum of Dallas and in TV and in films including Eddie Murphy’s Coming to America.
But creating and showcasing this work has been a challenge for Frazier. He was uninvited from an art show in Cottonwood, Texas, after other artists were offended by his work in the late 2000s.
“They said, ‘You got a Black president. Why are you doing all this mean radical stuff?’ And I just looked at them, and I said, ‘Because I can,’” Frazier says with tears in his eyes.
Originally from Harlem, New York, Frazier moved to Dallas in 1978 after serving in the Vietnam War, he says.
He worked for the city’s sanitation department, digging up broken sewer lines, and eventually became an art teacher at Paul Quinn College in Oak Cliff.
He held his first art show at RedBird Mall more than 20 years ago.
Now, his annual Southwest Black Art Show, which is usually held in the African American Museum at Fair Park, features more than 20 fine art exhibitors.
In the late ‘70s through the ‘90s, he and his wife, Judy, opened several art galleries in Dallas, including one called Visions in Black. That gallery closed after rent became too expensive.
Frazier still operates a small gallery from his home, but has repurposed Visions in Black for an artist collective.
The collective allows artists under Frazier’s tutelage to pool their resources and showcase their work around the country. It’s one of the ways Frazier empowers young artists by teaching them the business side of art.
African American Museum of Dallas curator and artist, Lakeem Wilson, 34, is a part of the collective.
Wilson says Frazier teaches artists to “take control of their own destinies” by selling directly to buyers instead of having to use gallery space or do business through an art dealer.
“Visions in Black is Frank Frazier’s lineage,” Wilson says. “He’s never looking for us to pay him back. He just wants us to pay it forward.”
Wilson carries on his mentor’s legacy through his work at the museum.
Over the summer, he taught high school and college students how to handle archive artwork. In February, the museum will host a national art competition for established and emerging artists called the Carroll Harris Simms National Black Art Competition and Exhibition.
Frazier also opened doors for Seidah Williams, who began as his assistant about 20 years ago and Mark Crow, who credits Frazier for steering him away from gangs.
After catching her doodling on a box filled with his unframed artwork at an art show, Frazier encouraged Williams, 42, to create six pieces on canvas and display them at their next show. She now sells her work next to his.
Frazier took Crow under his wing when he was 16 years old. He showed the now 59-year-old how to be a positive role model in his community.
Crow, Wilson and Williams are three of more than 10 artists in Visions in Black. However, Williams says Frazier has drawn countless other artists into his sphere over the years.
In June, collective artists sold work from temporary walls set up throughout the first, second and basement levels of Frazier’s home.
Art collectors, other artists, family members and neighbors packed into his purple house in Oak Cliff. Dallas R&B and neo-soul singer Erykah Badu was a surprise visitor.
Toward the end of the evening, a large crowd gathered on the first floor around Frazier, who has restricted mobility, to swap stories with the man who brought them together and enjoy cake for Judy and Williams’ combined birthday celebration.
“If you have been in his life or have been around him … or heard anything from him, then you’re blessed,” Crow says. “People like that don’t come around that often.”
This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.
Visual Journalist
Angela Piazza is a Visual Journalist for the Dallas Morning News.
