Sophia Victor Transforms Black Church Traditions Into Art

A graduate of both the School of Visual Arts (BFA) and New York University (MA), Sophia Victor is living out her artistic dreams. The Brooklyn-based visual artist remains in a celebratory mood, weeks after her solo exhibition Ekklesia (pronounced ek-klay-see’-ah). Sophia Victor’s Ekklesia concluded earlier this summer at The Bishop Gallery in Brooklyn. The fine art exhibit was curated by Teddy raShaan reeves, ph.d. of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Inspired by the ancient Greek term ἐκκλησία, later adopted by early Christians, Ekklesia focused on the importance of African American communal spaces. Specifically, church gatherings and their traditions.

Equally uplifted and heartbroken by church communities over the years, Victor’s personal pursuit of finding a church home is heavily portrayed in her latest work.“Since leaving my former church, [I] spent the year as a fly on the wall at different people’s ministries,” Victor shares with MadameNoire. Victor says in that time she observed church communities, worship services, congregation conflicts, and even church departures. She adds, “…I’m the girl from Brooklyn that fell in love with the Lord, gave her life to Christ, and has been figuring it out since.” MadameNoire chatted with Sophia Victor about her recent exhibition, church, faith and beloved artwork.

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MadameNoire: “Eklessia was an exhibit that highlighted Black communal spaces and church traditions. Take us back to the opening reception.”

Sophia Victor: “The opening was a big deal for me because this was my first time making work that was really personal…Church was a place where I found purpose, but this was also a place where I had moments of being taken advantage of…It’s been a journey. But God is my why. He’s the reason why I’ve been an artist for 20 plus years. He gave me a purpose with my work. He wants me to serve people through my work. This show was kind of me putting my why at the forefront.”

MadameNoire: “And there were certain things that I noticed [at the exhibit]. I’m pretty sure other people picked up on it too–those familiar with the Black church; Like the choir robe, church candy, the pew…” 

Sophia Victor: “The candy was for takes [laughs]. And by the end of the show, we had refilled it like three, four, times because people were taking up that church candy. But yeah, I had talked to Teddy, the curator, about my grandmother. She passed away a few years ago, she was the Christian of my house. She was the one who was a believer out of everybody I can think of on both sides of the family. So losing her was really significant. Some of my first experiences in church was with her.  

Easter Sunday every year, and her pocketbook full of peppermints. That’s literally all I can remember about anytime going to church. Even the robe, that was the curator Teddy Rashawn, [he] used to be a youth pastor… And then the bench, the pew, I wanted to do the pew from the get [go]. I didn’t really have a meaning for the pew. But then, once it was done, different people that visited the show all had their own interpretations. Some people felt like the pew was facing the robe, and the robe felt cruel and ghost-like. But then some people felt like the pew felt welcoming…When I think about my meaning for that pew, I just feel like it was a commentary on me.”

MadameNoire: “What’s it like behind the scenes, finding the right gallery to showcase your work?”

Sophia Victor: “The Bishop Gallery, I’ve been with them since 2017. When they met me, I was solely doing activist work, and they’ve kind of [helped] grow me as I’ve grown as an artist. But I know that this body of work was their hardest. [We’re] in a season and era where there’s a lot of Black spirituality in art spaces. There’s a lot of Black spirituality performance pieces. Even people that are into cultic practices,  all of that is being talked about in the art world. It’s open, it’s popular, it’s trending in the art world. 

[But] a lot of people have negative connotations with Christianity and religion. So my mindset is like, ‘okay, this is also where I come from, and you can’t necessarily love my work and then not want to hear about the why behind it.’ So it took a lot. It was a bit of a push concerning the gallery being open. It took some warming up for them to really be on board with the context of the work and what I wanted to say. “

MadameNoire: “It seems like you all [Teddy raShaan reeves ] have a good artist-curator relationship? Very in sync and with one accord. How did you both get connected? “

Sophia Victor: “I met Teddy at the gallery [The Bishop Gallery]. I was invited to be a part of a panel discussion and he was moderating it. I wanted to stay in touch, and we kept trying to meet back up. I gifted him a published book of letters called Correspondence, letters written to me from activists from the Black Panther movement while they were politically incarcerated over the past eight years.”

Working with Teddy as a curator was a huge blessing because I didn’t have to explain my faith. I didn’t have to explain the concept of church. I didn’t have to explain all of the complexities of it. This is someone that kind of grew up in it, right? And so the conversation could start at, ‘how do you want to do this creatively?’, as opposed to me trying to get him to understand the context of what I was coming from. And he’s also a historian, so there’s a whole bunch of stuff he brought up and told me that I didn’t know about…”