Indigo Prayers:
A Creation Story

The Michael C. Carlos Museum presents Indigo Prayers: A Creation Story, an exhibition displaying a series of paintings by local Atlanta artist, Charmaine Minniefield, inspired by her time in the Gambia, West Africa searching for her grandmother's ancestral lines. The resulting body of work builds on an ongoing exploration of the Ring Shout, a full-bodied rhythmic prayer that was performed by her ancestors during enslavement as a way to secretly preserve their African identity. Minniefield’s work explores indigenous pigments like indigo, crushed oyster shells, and mahogany bark as evidence of cultural preservation through time and across the Middle Passage.