One of the first things you note about Indianapolis artist MakWolf’s striking assemblages is the visual contradiction. These works are beautiful and meticulously constructed, but their arrangement and materials evoke struggle and forced conformance. At the center of each piece is an African-inspired mask, a symbol MakWolf says invokes ancestral memory and becoming. 

“Individuation: The Blackening,” hanging in the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre’s Michael O’Brien Gallery through October, is MakWolf’s first solo exhibition. He has shared wall space with other artists, notably a collaborative piece with well-known local artist Anthony Radford in the exhibit “Voyagers: From Darkness to Light II” (up through Oct. 26 at Gallery 317 Inc., a Black-owned nonprofit gallery on the Eastside) and Radford’s “Royal Brush Take-Over” that was displayed at the Cultural Centre in August. 

Makwolf, 34, transforms reclaimed materials, found objects, and laser-cut wood into elaborate works of art about Black life and ancestral memory. His artwork evokes themes from transatlantic slave trade, the Middle Passage, Black artistry, and Black music, to African spirituality and more. The reused materials speak to the ingenuity of using what you have on hand — old items become new and are given a new purpose, a reminder of how endemic Black poverty can affect a life.

MakWolf isn’t just collecting random materials, though. He uses order and repetition juxtaposed with destruction as a way to talk about power and struggle. There is a remarkable tension between control and chaos in MakWolf’s work. Carefully arranged objects and precisely repeated geometric forms coexist with splintered wood and jagged edges. Conflict becomes a visual language.

Graphic and confrontational, “Black Power War Mask” uses a circular center and radiating arrows that suggest a target, shield, face, or even sun, leaving the viewer to make their own conclusions. The arrows create an optical pull, repeatedly drawing the eye between the center and perimeter. Its limited palette of black with touches of red and orange is particularly effective. 

“Brothers of the Black Struggle” is considerably more physically aggressive. Where “Black Power War Mask” uses controlled geometry, this piece embraces chaos. Hundreds of pieces of blackened wood create something resembling mid-explosion, That contrast is powerful. The face is calm and almost expressionless, while everything surrounding it appears violent and unstable. The viewer therefore has a visual focal point amid tremendous material turbulence.

What’s particularly interesting across the entire exhibit the movement between order and disorder. “African War Mask” is highly ordered mathematically radial arrows; “Brothers of the Black Struggle” shrugs off that order to free the mask inside.

The term “Individuation” comes from psychologist Carl Jung who coined the word to describe the lifelong psychological process of integrating the conscious mind with the personal and collective unconscious to achieve inner wholeness and self-realization. MakWolf credits the process as part of the journey that brought him to “speak” through art using his most authentic voice. MakWolf creates what he calls “portals” into other times, places, and ideologies through what he considers the sacred process of artmaking.

Fun facts: MakWolf uses the moniker Young Preach when acting as a hip-hop producer and beatmaker. You can hear his 8-track solo instrumental/producer project dedicated to his hometown titled “GOATLADIPO” on his website. In his formative years, MakWolf was fascinated with skyscrapers, which eventually translated into a BS degree in architecture. And finally, MakWolf is a jewelry designer. You can follow him on Instagram (@makwolf_theruler), at STA Worldwide’s Etsy store (https://staworldwide.etsy.com), and Linktree (https://linktr.ee/staworldwide; https://linktr.ee/makwolf317).

“Individuation” can be viewed Tuesday thru Friday from noon until 6 p.m. and whenever the Phoenix has a public event: www.phoenixtheatre.org.