Born and raised in Pasadena, California, visionary author Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006) transformed Southern California into a backdrop for stories that fundamentally reshaped the genre of Speculative Fiction and what would later become Afrofuturism. Her explorations of power, race, gender, and survival continue to serve as a vital blueprint for contemporary artists across various disciplines. Opening on what would be Butler’s 80th year, Dream Mask: The Light and Dark Legacies of Octavia E. Butler honors Butler’s enduring legacy, bringing together work from Black Kirby and other artists that are actively in dialogue with and expand upon Butler’s motifs, stories, and characters.

Black Kirby is the collaborative duo Stacey Robinson, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design and Illustration, University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign, and John Jennings, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies, UCR. Utilizing the notion of an alter-ego as a symbolic allegory for DuBoisian “double consciousness” theory, Black Kirby functions as a rhetorical tool by sampling and remixing comic legend Jack Kirby’s bold forms and energetic ideas combined with themes centered around Afrofuturism, social justice, representation, magical realism, and using the culture of Hip Hop as a methodology for creating visual communication. Black Kirby frequently uses the medium and visual vernacular of comics as a conceptual crossroads to examine identity as a socialized concept through bricolage, pastiche, oppositional juxtapositions, and deconstruction. Black Kirby works to destabilize various ideas of “Blackness” in order to promote a broader spectrum of Black subjectivity.

Dream Mask is Black Kirby’s sixth project for UCR ARTS. Previous projects include Luke Cage: Hero for Higher (2018), Reflection Eternal: The Candyman Illustrated Syllabus (2019), Ebon: Fear of a Black Planet (2022), Black Kirby X: Ten Years of Remix and Revolution (2022), and Whatever Happened to Dyno-Woman: The Alternative History of an Afrofuturist Icon (2024).

Dream Mask: The Light and Dark Legacies of Octavia E. Butler is curated by Black Kirby (John Jennings and Stacey A. Robinson). The exhibition is supported by the Earth Seed Foundation and by the City of Riverside. UCR ARTS is part of the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at UCR.

Image courtesy of John Jennings