Satch Hoyt

Satch Hoyt
Say It Loud, 2004
Books, metal staircase, microphone, speakers, sound
Dimensions variable
Courtesy the artist

Satch Hoyt employs various media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, and installation that often incorporates sound. Also an accomplished musician and composer, he foregrounds musicality and aurality in his visual art. Using music as a lens, he investigates issues the ways in which people transform their environments, creatively reusing existing materials.

Hoyt is particularly interested in the African Diaspora and its complex international consequences. With Say It Loud (2004), he explores its cultural and political impact, arranging some 500 books on subjects related to black history in a podium-shaped stack arranged around a stepladder. Accompanying the installation is a recording of the chorus from James Brown’s “Say It Loud! I’m Black and I’m Proud!,” altered to mute the word “black.” Perched atop the stack is a microphone inviting viewers to consider the selective silencing of black voices, and to step up and perform their own concept of pride. Engaging viewers as both participants and collaborators, Hoyt underscores the open-endedness of black identity and empowerment.

Biography
Satch Hoyt has participated in several international residencies, including CCP Foundation in Marrakech, Morocco (1998); Art Omi International, International Artists’ Colony (2002); and Red Mansion Art Foundation in Beijing (2007).  His solo exhibitions include Tale Spinner, Nomad Gallery, Brussels (2011); Rhythm and Rhyme, Galerie Steinek, Vienna (2008); Game, Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris (2006); and Satch Hoyt, Galerie de l’Autre Cote de la Rue, Brussels (1997). Hoyt’s group exhibitions include Newtopia: The State of Human Rights, Kazerne Dossin, Mechelen, Belgium (2012); Thrown Together, Nomad Gallery, Brussels (2012); The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl, Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, NC (2010); The Global Africa Project, Museum of Arts and Design, New York (2010); Rockstone and Bootheel: Contemporary West Indian Art, Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT (2009); Small World, Triple Candie, New York (2009); The Scramble, House of World Cultures, Berlin (2009); The Sickness of the Hunting, Part 1, Musee d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, Nice, France (2008); Black Light White Noise, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2007); For the Love of the Game, Amistad Center for Art and Culture at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT (2007); Equatorial Rhythms, Stenersen Museum, Oslo (2007); Infinite Island, Brooklyn Museum (2007); The Beautiful Game: Contemporary Art and Fútbol, Roebling Hall, New York (2006); Black Panther Rank and File, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2006); Analog, Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, Newcastle, England (2006); Tate Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, England (2004); Open House: Working in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum (2004); Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2003, traveling); The Squared Circle: Boxing in Contemporary Art, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2003); and Body Power / Power Play, Wurttembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany (2002).