Wine & Crabs, by Cassandra Gillens

Wine and Crabs, by Cassandra Gillens, acrylic on canvas, 48″ x 36″

Cassandra Gillens’s colorful figurative paintings, depicting Black subjects in a silhouetted style, celebrate the traditions of the American South. Born and raised in Boston, Gillens’s work is inspired by childhood memories of visiting her family in South Carolina. She relocated to the Low Country as an adult. Gillens’s acrylic paintings envision stories told to her by her grandmother and feature Gullah subjects in elegant vintage ensembles—including patterned clothes and traditional headdresses—engaged in leisure and domestic activities. Her work is represented in collections including the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture and the Franklin G. Burroughs–Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum.