A chat with Mike Graves on First Friday
When I stopped into the group exhibition Kings & Queens: Beyond What Happened So Far, at Gallery 924 at the Arts Council on Feb. 3, I spotted Mike Graves, who has two paintings in the exhibition.
At that very moment a connected event, The Reveal, was taking place in The Cabaret, adjacent to Gallery 924, featuring performances by both current and alumni Art & Soul artists. Both were part of the kickoff for the 27th annual Art & Soul, marking Black History Month in Indianapolis.
Graves’ two paintings on display, titled "The Black Star Liner" and "#justice4herman3rd,” speak to that history.
“Black Star Liner” depicts a steamship from said company, founded in 1919 with the intent of providing transatlantic travel for people of African descent.
"#justice4herman3rd” is named after Herman Whitfield III, who died in April, 2022 after being confronted by IMPD officers in his home. (Whitfield’s family had called the police because Whitfield was having a mental health episode.) The painting depicts a piano, recalling the fact that Whitfield was a gifted musician. After Graves displayed a similar painting at the BUTTER Art Fair in September 2022, organized by the artist services and programming organization GANGGANG, he donated it to Whitfield’s parents.
Graves is not only a prolific painter—one who often works collaboratively—but also an in-demand DJ. He is part of the membership arts organization Bridge Collective, and he manages First Friday and other arts activities at the Murphy Arts Center in Fountain Square.
Since it’s been more than ten years since I last interviewed Graves, resulting in a NUVO cover story, I figured it was a good time for an update.
GROSSMAN: Tell me about the composition process for your two paintings here.
GRAVES: Both are collage and acrylic on canvas. The process was my normal process. I research the subject, then find the appropriate sheet music. In this case both were songs by Nina Simone that spoke to the struggle of people of African descent in America. The cookie palette I chose was red, black, and green. Which are the colors of the flag of the African National Congress. Red, for the blood. Black for the man. Green for the land.
GROSSMAN: What’s going on at the Murphy Arts Center?
GRAVES: First Fridays are going strong. We just started doing third Saturdays. Third Saturdays are different from First Fridays because Third Saturdays are just studios and tenants in the building opening up. They're more like an old school First Friday. So it's a little bit less traffic because we've just gotten it started. But it's more about the tenants in the Murphy than it is the community at large. A lot of people in the arts scene have been talking about how we need something more than First Friday. We need to expand.... It's hard because we're all competing for First Friday. Everybody's open on First Friday, you can never get to it all. Bridge Collective has opened a gallery there, City Natives. We do feature artists mainly, one artist shows. This month we have a group show. We're having fun with that. Right now we're just open on First Fridays and third Saturday and by appointment.
GROSSMAN: And you have an exhibition coming up like for Valentine's Day, right?
GRAVES: Yeah, the Amorous, our yearly erotic art show. This year we have a fashion show to go along with it on Saturday night, so that'd be real fun.
GROSSMAN: So what's your position there right now?
GRAVES: Oh, I'm still managing.
GROSSMAN: Do you have a title?
GRAVES: You know, they keep trying to call me the curator and I don't curate. I think that's one of the positive things because curation is juried and First Fridays are part of the community and you hit me up on the website and sign up. I’ll let you show. It's no high falutin'. No judging. So you get people who have their first show, and you get established artists who just have never done the Murphy before and they've always wanted to be in the community. So it's good. We have nine artists, four vendors every month, it always changes and it's super good for the community because it's not juried. Just sign up and you're in. Let's go. Give everyone a chance.
GROSSMAN: You're involved with GANGGANG?
GRAVES: Associated. Yeah, totally. I've known Mali [Simone Jeffers] since she was at the Arts Council. And so she's one of the people in this town that believed in me and helped me get started.
GROSSMAN: What do you think GangGang has done for Indianapolis, aside from supporting We the Culture, the current exhibition by the Eighteen Art Collective at Newfields?
GRAVES: I've been around for a while. I was around back when Primary Colours was still throwing big shows downtown. I was here for the whole Oranje thing, when Oranje was the big turnout for shows. That crowd, that need, is still there and when Oranje went away, and when Primary Colours went away, there was a vacuum as far as like, really big, ostentatious art shows. We have a lot of galleries and stuff like that but nobody was throwing something at the size that Oranje used to be, no one was doing Art vs. Art that Primary Colours used to put on and I think they have totally filled that niche. They put on that higher level of a show. They go for big, big numbers and they back it up by having quality artwork. and I think the real like silver lining to it is that they're giving a lot of people—primarily Black people and Black artists—and not just Indianapolis artists, but giving a lot of artists—who deserve it—those opportunities.
GROSSMAN: You are talking about the BUTTER Art Fair specifically?
GRAVES: Yeah.
GROSSMAN: What’s changed since we last talked in depth in 2012?
GRAVES: The advent of technology and Instagram. There's just a lot of new artists out there. It's not even the same new generation. It's a new wave because it's people of all generations out there that we just haven't heard from before. Thanks to Instagram and thanks to Facebook. Thanks to a lot of money that's been put into the city for the arts. We've got all these little spots popping up down the street and there's all these little galleries all over town.
