DNA: DAVID SHELTON GALLERY

Robert Hodge's latest body of work, titled DNA, is a showcase of the history and culture of African American history that is intertwined into the fabric of this country’s DNA. And while African American contributions to the culture are not the complete story of America, they are an undeniable foundation upon which this country was built. Based on extensive research Hodge’s work will help to bring forth the rich African American culture and history that is often hidden in the American story. DNA pulls from the story of Henrietta Lacks who was a black tobacco farmer from southern Virginia who got cervical cancer when she was 30. A doctor at Johns Hopkins took a piece of her tumor without telling her and sent it down the hall to scientists who had been trying to grow tissues in culture for decades without success. No one knows why, but her cells never died. The work examines Lacks, as well as other key figures from the civil rights era, pop culture, music, and Hodge’s personal life and how those people help shape the current art, music, the fashion world, as well as the artist himself.