Kim Dacres: Lost on a Two Way Street
Current exhibition
Works
Press
Press release
Charles Moffett is pleased to present Lost on a Two Way Street, a solo exhibition of new works by Kim Dacres, a first-generation American sculptor of Jamaican descent, who lives in Harlem and works in the Bronx. An expansion upon Dacres’ 2025 body of work, Crossroads Like This, this exhibition marks the artist’s second solo show with the gallery. Maximizing the conceptual and formal possibilities of her signature material of reclaimed tires, Dacres’ new busts and wall-mounted sculptures probe the extreme range of emotions experienced over the last 18 months in the United States, an evocation of what it feels like to live through, and to strive for a state of peace amid, the relentless assault on universal rights to life and liberty.
Dacres uses rubber and metal from recycled tires to create her sculptures. While drawn initially to the material for its uniquely accessible, forgiving, and malleable nature, the artist mines its metaphorical resonances with her own personal experience and the broader cycle of injustice and oppression inflicted upon America’s Black and Brown people and marginalized communities of all kinds. Often in the form of the classical bust (historically reserved for male figures of ultimate, if not even immortal, authority), Dacres’ sculptures pay homage to the energy and presence of the people, particularly the Black and Brown women, that forge the diversity, elegance, and vibrancy of uptown urban life. One recognizes this celebration in works such as Spoke Flat Bun with Cheekbones (2026) and Baby Liberty Bun (2026). Showcasing the complexity and symmetry of the bun hairstyle, the sculptures build upon Dacres’ ongoing exploration of the natural hairstyles across her community, exalting the tremendous care invested in self-presentation and examining the symbolic weight of hairstyles’ ties to gender identity, self-authorship, and personal pride.
For this exhibition, Dacres created a new series of honorifics to Harlem in the form of wall-mounted “medallions”. Titled “Forget Me Nots” after the classic 1982 song by Patrice Rushen, the series includes both rectangular sculptures as well as oval pieces in a shape reminiscent of a hand mirror or Victorian cameos. A number of the “medallions” feature elaborate rubber buns and braiding — some braids tightly contained within the borders of the medallion and others bursting out. The emphasis on the subjects’ buns and braiding underscores the extreme efforts required to “keep up” appearances in the harshest of environments — an acknowledgment of the vital role played by Dacres’ community in uplifting her spirit and maintaining her mental health.
Black music plays an instrumental part in Dacres’ process as she embarks upon a new body of work. The artist begins her day in the studio with music; over the last year or so, specifically with classic love songs as a way to break free from the heaviness of the world. Through joy and solace, the expansive genre empowers her to not only cope but to discover ways to channel the intense emotions felt during this time, from passion to apathy, elation to yearning, despair to hope, grief to rejuvenation. The impact of music on her work is most manifest in a new series of sculptural busts installed on custom stained oak plinths. Each piece draws its name from lines in the artist’s favorite love song, “As” by Stevie Wonder, which uses metaphors to describe love turned on its head, love’s power to flip the world upside down, to move us beyond the limits of time and space. Dacres translates these metaphors into sculptural busts representing futuristic idols, imagined figures with the powers to lead us through the compounding crises of the present — whether environmental disaster elicited in Until the ocean covers every mountain high (2026), or attacks on gender fluidity in The rainbow burns the stars out in the sky (2026). Both of those sculptures also feature the recent introduction of the symbolic presence of color into Dacres' practice. While the brilliant blue of Until the ocean covers every mountain high evokes the icy hue of water, the reddish-brown that appears in The rainbow burns the stars out in the sky, as well as in several other works throughout the show, connects her sculptures to the physical earth, blurring the lines between us and ancestors past and future.
Dacres explicitly references the political in another new series of wall-mounted sculptures, titled “Flaggish”. The three flag works respond to New Yorker staff writer Jelani Cobb’s lecture “The Half Life of Freedom: Race and Justice in America Today”, in which Cobb raises the idea that citizenship for certain individuals is counterfeit or contingent, far from inherent as constitutionally guaranteed. The flag sculptures beg the questions of how people are expected to survive when they must tirelessly fight for the consistent recognition and protection of the rights that their citizenship is supposed to guarantee, how to maintain your humanity in the face of such assault, and how our various individual interests inevitably find themselves intertwined. Some oriented on the vertical, with anonymous black and brown faces in the place of the stars, and the stripes fraying apart at the seams, Dacres’ flags flash in distress and cry out to helpless void — their condition betraying the truth of a symbol that has long failed to live up to its promise.
Kim Dacres (b. 1986, New York, New York; lives and works between Harlem and the Bronx, New York.; MS CUNY Lehman College, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, 2010; BA Williams College, Political Science, Art Studio, and Africana Studies 2008.) Dacres’s work has been exhibited around the world, including recent solo exhibitions at Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery in Paris, France (2025), The Chateau Fontainbleu in Fontainbleu, France (2025), Charles Moffett in New York, NY (2023), and Gavlak Gallery in Los Angeles, CA (2020) and Palm Beach, FL (2021). Recent major two-person and group exhibitions include Between Distance and Desire: African Diasporic Perspectives presented at The Soloviev Foundation Gallery in New York, NY (2025); The Space We Exist In curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah and presented at Heather Gaudio Fine Art in Greenwich, CT (2024-2025); Surrealism and Us: Caribbean and African Diasporic Artists Since 1940 presented at Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (2024); Part 1 of Bronx Calling: The Sixth AIM Biennial presented at The Bronx Museum (2024); The Hardest Love We Carry with Melissa Joseph presented by Charles Moffett at Art Basel Miami Beach 2024; We Insist Upon Ourselves in Perpetuity Throughout the Universe with April Bey presented at UTA Artist Space, Atlanta, GA (2024); and Black American Portraits at Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA (2023) and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (2021), among others. Dacres is the recipient of the Bronx Recognizes Its Own (BRIO) Grant in 2023 and the Artadia New York Award Grant (2022). The artist’s first site-specific and permanent outdoor sculptural installation, in partnership with Artbridge at the historic Harlem River Houses, is anticipated to be unveiled in summer 2026.
Dacres uses rubber and metal from recycled tires to create her sculptures. While drawn initially to the material for its uniquely accessible, forgiving, and malleable nature, the artist mines its metaphorical resonances with her own personal experience and the broader cycle of injustice and oppression inflicted upon America’s Black and Brown people and marginalized communities of all kinds. Often in the form of the classical bust (historically reserved for male figures of ultimate, if not even immortal, authority), Dacres’ sculptures pay homage to the energy and presence of the people, particularly the Black and Brown women, that forge the diversity, elegance, and vibrancy of uptown urban life. One recognizes this celebration in works such as Spoke Flat Bun with Cheekbones (2026) and Baby Liberty Bun (2026). Showcasing the complexity and symmetry of the bun hairstyle, the sculptures build upon Dacres’ ongoing exploration of the natural hairstyles across her community, exalting the tremendous care invested in self-presentation and examining the symbolic weight of hairstyles’ ties to gender identity, self-authorship, and personal pride.
For this exhibition, Dacres created a new series of honorifics to Harlem in the form of wall-mounted “medallions”. Titled “Forget Me Nots” after the classic 1982 song by Patrice Rushen, the series includes both rectangular sculptures as well as oval pieces in a shape reminiscent of a hand mirror or Victorian cameos. A number of the “medallions” feature elaborate rubber buns and braiding — some braids tightly contained within the borders of the medallion and others bursting out. The emphasis on the subjects’ buns and braiding underscores the extreme efforts required to “keep up” appearances in the harshest of environments — an acknowledgment of the vital role played by Dacres’ community in uplifting her spirit and maintaining her mental health.
Black music plays an instrumental part in Dacres’ process as she embarks upon a new body of work. The artist begins her day in the studio with music; over the last year or so, specifically with classic love songs as a way to break free from the heaviness of the world. Through joy and solace, the expansive genre empowers her to not only cope but to discover ways to channel the intense emotions felt during this time, from passion to apathy, elation to yearning, despair to hope, grief to rejuvenation. The impact of music on her work is most manifest in a new series of sculptural busts installed on custom stained oak plinths. Each piece draws its name from lines in the artist’s favorite love song, “As” by Stevie Wonder, which uses metaphors to describe love turned on its head, love’s power to flip the world upside down, to move us beyond the limits of time and space. Dacres translates these metaphors into sculptural busts representing futuristic idols, imagined figures with the powers to lead us through the compounding crises of the present — whether environmental disaster elicited in Until the ocean covers every mountain high (2026), or attacks on gender fluidity in The rainbow burns the stars out in the sky (2026). Both of those sculptures also feature the recent introduction of the symbolic presence of color into Dacres' practice. While the brilliant blue of Until the ocean covers every mountain high evokes the icy hue of water, the reddish-brown that appears in The rainbow burns the stars out in the sky, as well as in several other works throughout the show, connects her sculptures to the physical earth, blurring the lines between us and ancestors past and future.
Dacres explicitly references the political in another new series of wall-mounted sculptures, titled “Flaggish”. The three flag works respond to New Yorker staff writer Jelani Cobb’s lecture “The Half Life of Freedom: Race and Justice in America Today”, in which Cobb raises the idea that citizenship for certain individuals is counterfeit or contingent, far from inherent as constitutionally guaranteed. The flag sculptures beg the questions of how people are expected to survive when they must tirelessly fight for the consistent recognition and protection of the rights that their citizenship is supposed to guarantee, how to maintain your humanity in the face of such assault, and how our various individual interests inevitably find themselves intertwined. Some oriented on the vertical, with anonymous black and brown faces in the place of the stars, and the stripes fraying apart at the seams, Dacres’ flags flash in distress and cry out to helpless void — their condition betraying the truth of a symbol that has long failed to live up to its promise.
Kim Dacres (b. 1986, New York, New York; lives and works between Harlem and the Bronx, New York.; MS CUNY Lehman College, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, 2010; BA Williams College, Political Science, Art Studio, and Africana Studies 2008.) Dacres’s work has been exhibited around the world, including recent solo exhibitions at Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery in Paris, France (2025), The Chateau Fontainbleu in Fontainbleu, France (2025), Charles Moffett in New York, NY (2023), and Gavlak Gallery in Los Angeles, CA (2020) and Palm Beach, FL (2021). Recent major two-person and group exhibitions include Between Distance and Desire: African Diasporic Perspectives presented at The Soloviev Foundation Gallery in New York, NY (2025); The Space We Exist In curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah and presented at Heather Gaudio Fine Art in Greenwich, CT (2024-2025); Surrealism and Us: Caribbean and African Diasporic Artists Since 1940 presented at Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (2024); Part 1 of Bronx Calling: The Sixth AIM Biennial presented at The Bronx Museum (2024); The Hardest Love We Carry with Melissa Joseph presented by Charles Moffett at Art Basel Miami Beach 2024; We Insist Upon Ourselves in Perpetuity Throughout the Universe with April Bey presented at UTA Artist Space, Atlanta, GA (2024); and Black American Portraits at Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA (2023) and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (2021), among others. Dacres is the recipient of the Bronx Recognizes Its Own (BRIO) Grant in 2023 and the Artadia New York Award Grant (2022). The artist’s first site-specific and permanent outdoor sculptural installation, in partnership with Artbridge at the historic Harlem River Houses, is anticipated to be unveiled in summer 2026.
