BLACKQUETRY

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​​Blackquetry​

A solo exhibition by Milton Mizell

by Donnamarie Baptiste

Blackquetry asks what does it mean to make portraits feel both ancient and current? What do portraits become when they are recreated through craft? In this exhibition Milton Mizell reshapes a traditional art 

form into a contemporary visual language. Across these eight monumental works a genre often treated as straightforward likeness is reimagined as more layered and more deliberately constructed. Here portraiture functions not merely as representation, but as an engineered form of witness and storytelling.

Mizell’s marquetry portraits begin in digital design, where laser and CNC technology help map the image into cuttable sections. Yet the images only come to life through meticulous handwork. Carefully selected wood veneers, natural, bleached, and dyed by the artist, are layered so that the wood’s grain, the dyes, and the precise cuts work together. Hours of painstaking assembly follow, with layers carefully taped in place before they are pressed together and then very carefully sanded to level the marquetry. Step by step, the face comes into view. In this approach, the works expand what portraiture can do, resulting in a portrait that feels like a mosaic, built from layers that suggest both time and memory.

Marquetry itself has deep historical roots, tracing back to early decorative arts in which artisans created pictures by applying thin slices of wood veneers onto a surface. Over time, it became a respected craft, 

valued for producing intricate scenes and highly detailed patterns and for the patience it demands. Mizell’s work carries that legacy, but it also moves it into the present. Each portrait feels immediate, emerging from the artist’s lived experience and shaped by the communities that inspired him. Identity, in this exhibition, is not treated as something copied from the outside. It is built, grain by grain, cut by cut, until the face appears. Different veneers, varied tones, and careful alignments allow the material itself to carry narrative weight. The symmetry of the wood’s grain behaves as a kind of painting, as the dye becomes part of the structure rather than a surface effect.

The work in Blackquetry matters because it slows viewers down, encouraging them to see how images are constructed. It highlights how patience, precision, and labor shape the final work, and how the veneer holds form as textures shift across the surface. In a cultural moment where images circulate quickly and narratives around Blackness are continuously both celebrated and condemned, these works insist on attention. What asks to be viewed are not only the faces, but the architecture around them. Notice the behavior of the grains, how the layers speak, and the way the veneer acts as both canvas and paint. Craft becomes poetry, and witnessing becomes participation, transforming portraiture into something the viewer does not simply observe, but actively joins.

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