Aaron Coleman’s studio practice comprises an amalgam of processes to create works that address how mundane and seemingly anodyne artifacts embody the complex and pervasive history of race/racism and class/classicism in the United States. Found objects and materials are juxtaposed with contrary or jarring images releasing uncomfortable truths and suppressed stories that are both personal and political. His creative production is grounded in a critical analysis of authoritarian systems of information, control, and power, focusing on how religion, science and anthropology contribute to and sustain race and class-based oppression.

In the series of wall mounted and floor based sculptural assemblages under the moniker “Sentinels”, Coleman uses a grounding of large, extricated sections of basketball courts harvested from defunct recreation centers from a once thriving black cultural and business community in central Indianapolis, his hometown. Atop the gym floor foundation, Coleman uses other found objects from abandoned houses and derelict buildings in central Indianapolis to make structures that are deeply informed by the long African tradition of mask making. These eight foot high “sentinels” surround viewers in a manner that is both protective and menacing. They are keepers of a collective history and harbingers of an uncertain present.