SALEM — Walking into Nikesha Breeze’s installation Black Archive at the A.N. Bush Gallery in Bush Barn Art Center is captivating. It is an immersion of mind and soul. A large portrait faces the entrance to the gallery. The piece so entirely dominates the room that it is nearly impossible to look away.
As you walk toward the piece you are struck by the execution. The shading is a nearly monochrome rendering of the subject.
The painting Anonymous African American Man with Child: 1855 is oil on canvas, and is set in a large cold-cast bronze hand-sculpted frame that centers the subjects in a kingly fashion and speaks of old-world privilege and prestige…