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June 26 through August 22, 2026

Reception: Friday, June 26 - 5 to 8 p.m. 

Gallery Night: July 17 / 18

Hours: Thurs-Sat, noon to 5 p.m. 

 

Portrait Society Gallery (PSG) is excited to present a solo exhibition by Khari Turner, a Milwaukee native who now lives in New York City. This is the first time PSG has presented Turner’s work. The exhibition offers a survey of his paintings and mixed media compositions created over the past two years. 

 

Turner’s work is distinguished by its painterly flow of imagery where the human body is revealed and concealed. By mixing paint with water sourced from oceans and lakes, including his hometown’s Lake Michigan and Milwaukee River, the process folds a tangible sense of place and history into the work. Beneath each surface, Turner incorporates symbolism of the middle passage, the forced maritime journey of millions of enslaved Africans to the Americas as part of the transatlantic trade. Danger, fluidity, survival, and the capabilities of the human spirit to change and transform find visual equivalency in Turner’s expressive paint handling. 

 

In this exhibition, Turner mixes ink, acrylic and charcoal, allowing the materials to chemically react in forming active surfaces of pooled lines and smoky passages. He also recently began to experiment with stained glass, building up parts of the compositions with tesserae. This experimental process creates unexpected shifts of texture and pattern, referencing deeper histories ranging from ancient cultures to church windows. 

 

The title of the exhibition, “My Grandma’s Garden,” comes from Turner’s formative years at his grandparent’s home in Milwaukee. Turner’s grandmother’s house was located on the north side of Milwaukee where many Black families lived due to Milwaukee’s long-standing segregation. Turner’s grandparents owned an in-ground pool, a luxury at the time. The pool became a place of community, of the visualization of resilience, and a reminder that learning to swim wasn’t about luxury but survival. Years later, Turner’s grandparents decided to fill the pool with dirt, to create more space to grow a garden. 

 

Turner spent many years tending this garden where he developed a love of plants, many of which appear in this exhibition. From the loss of the pool to the tending of the garden and vegetables, the artist's memories of his youth visually combine with his signature ocean, lake, river and figurative abstractions to tell a story rich in personal details and broader symbolism. 

 

Many of the flowers, vegetables and fruits in the work have a longstanding influence on the Black community. Watermelon is connected to stereotypes, but is also a deep historic symbol of Black agriculture and an opportunity for Black prosperity through crops. Greens and cabbage are sustainable vegetables, used in many Black cuisines. Poppies are beautiful but also led to the creation of heroin, a drug that devastated multiple communities. Turner puts them in conversation with sunflowers, symbolizing positivity and strength. 

 

“My Grandma’s Garden” is about resilience in the face of a segregated north, the resilience of a grandmother’s attempt to make space for survival in water, and how the loss of something can bring new life to a long history. 

 

 

Bio

Khari Turner earned his MFA at Columbia University, New York, in 2021, and his BFA from Austin Peay State University, Tennessee, in 2019. Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Turner currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. Recent exhibitions include a two-person exhibition at Red Arrow Gallery with Donté Hayes (2023), a two-person exhibition at Philadelphia Magic Gardens with Ashanté Kindle (2022), a solo exhibition in Stockholm, Sweden (2022) with CFHILL Gallery, and a solo exhibition at the Museum of Wisconsin Art (2022). He has participated in benefit auctions such as "Impact: Black AIDS Institute" Artsy Auction and "House of Crowns" through Phillips and Superposition Gallery. Turner has completed residences with AIRIE Residency (FL), Iris Project Residency (CA), and Chautauqua Residency (NY). His work is included in many esteemed private and public collections across the world.