Hakim Callwood is back for ‘Revenge’

It’s been years since Hakim Callwood staged a solo exhibition of his work – a public leave of absence the artist attributed to factors that ranged from a growing disillusionment with the fine arts world to a series of personal losses that for a time pushed him toward other forms of expression for release, including stand-up comedy and music, with Callwood releasing his debut rap album in June 2024 under the name Garlic Jr. 

“[Painting] used to be what I did to express myself and get out of bad times, and now sometimes it kind of depresses me because the visual art can remind me of those rougher times,” Callwood told Matter News last year.

Taking a step back from painting then has proven beneficial, enabling Callwood to detangle his craft from his sense of identity, which had too long existed as one and the same. “I mean, my art name is my regular name,” continued Callwood, who early on branded himself on his website as Hakim’s Art N Stuff. “I didn’t leave any room for separation, and it was like every decision was a reflection on my brand … and on me [as a person]. … In stepping away, I started to see myself as a more well-rounded man, I think, and I really got to learn about myself and my emotions in a way that I don’t think that I could have if that art shield had still been up.”

While many aspects of Callwood’s visual practice remain familiar in his return – he’s still drawn toward painting the human form and most often in vivid colors – his mindset has radically shifted. Gone is what he described as “the grindset” attitude of his earlier years, replaced with an understanding that work needn’t be a relentless hustle, which he described as one silver lining to emerge from the early pandemic. “We saw behind the curtain ‘Wizard of Oz’-style,” he said. “You’re told you have to work and do this or that, or else society will crumble, and you’ll be homeless and living on the streets. And then for multiple years, none of us lived that way, and we got to see firsthand that all of that shit is a construct, and it’s not necessarily true.”

In compiling work for his comeback exhibition, dubbed “Revenge” and kicking off with an opening reception at Sonny’s Barbershop & Art Gallery (880 Sullivant Ave.) beginning at 7 p.m. on Saturday, June 7, Callwood adopted a retrospective approach, displaying some pieces that date back nearly a decade alongside paintings completed as recently as this week. The idea, he said, is to both retrace his journey and to shovel soil on any of the bitterness that might have accumulated in that first go-round, whether motivated by external forces or internal demons.

“You experience prejudice in the art world as a Black man with locks and tattoos. … And I had to deal with that in a lot of ways that I was ignorant of at that time,” said Callwood, who joked that his friend, the rapper OG Vern, would remind him in those moments, “You know, we do live in Christopher Columbus, Ohio.” “And so, it’s revenge against them. But it’s also revenge against the self-doubt I nearly let cripple me. It’s revenge against bad weather, because it always rains when I throw an event. I’m getting revenge on anything and everything – even things you can’t necessarily take revenge on.” (Fortunately for these opposing forces, the artist defines revenge, in this context, as moving forward while living his best life.)

While he has landed in a good place, it hasn’t always been an easy path back. Callwood recalled how death seemed to hover around him in recent years, a stretch of time in which a half-dozen people with whom he was close passed away, leading him to drown himself in guilt, depression, and alcohol, as he explained it. “I was just in this cycle where I was making everything worse for myself,” the artist continued. “But I was blessed to have a strong support system. And I just tried to do a little bit better, day by day, until I was able to pull myself out of it.”

In the time since, Callwood said the freedom and joy he experienced when he first started making art has returned, buoyed by a new sense of ambition. 

“I mean, I’m just super lame and cliche now, man, where it’s all about love. My goal is to make as many people happy with my work as I can. And not ‘happy’ as in satisfied with my technical skills. I’m not worried about that; I’m good at what I do,” said Callwood, who then pivoted to the question that continues to linger, which is what he hopes for himself moving forward again with art. “I think I’m still just trying to find myself. I was talking to my therapist, and she asked me to tell her my idea of success. And we’ve gone multiple sessions, and I’ve been thinking about this for weeks, and I still don’t know. So, maybe I’ll find out with this show.”