BETWEEN THE DEVIL & DEEP BLUES by Mieyoshi Ragernoir

Portal 27: I'M COMING OUT! celebrates an exit and entrance to a pathway of self-discovery through portraitures of human connections and rooms. Portals have revealed their presence through patterns of human mirrors,  numerology, and color sensations on the journey to the 27th portal. Mieyoshi illuminates the radiance of the community of artists she has met in the past three years. Each figure’s portrait is an opening portal on the exhibition's "The Wall of Mirrors'” area.

 

Portals are invisible bridges or physical rooms into the next space of time. Ragernoir’s favorite rooms are sacred and intimate spaces, particularly the home and dining room. These are the areas where she’s shared her best laughs and feelings with the people portrayed. Glowing around each human “mirror’s” portrait is vibrant and colorful auras. These are the community of people who have arrived as reflective keys to the mirrored doors which led to Ragernoir’s self-discovery in Portal 27.

Mieyoshi Ragernoir is a painter, art educator, and installation artist from Harlem, NY, currently based and living in Detroit, Michigan. She received her BFA in Painting from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, in 2019, then her MFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2022. Mieyoshi creates celebratory paintings archiving the connections between her community, predominantly portraits highlighting the radiance and joy of Black femininity. She’s been mentored by and worked as a studio apprentice for a few prominent artists, including Detroit native painter Mario Moore. 

Ragernoir’s artworks have traveled across galleries in Michigan, including the N’namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Galerie Camille, Reyes & Finn, Playground Detroit, and more. Additionally, she works as a teaching artist. She has taught at the Charles E. Wright Museum of African American History for an ancestry workshop, and summer program for the “To Whom Much Is Given” exhibition with the museum curated by Malika Pryor.