Taken from the artist’s page, “Kim Dacres is a visual artist of Jamaican descent living and working in New York. She uses found tires and rubber to consider the texture of experiences unique to Black People, women, and queer folks.” Daria Simone Harper reviews Dacres’s work for Hyperallergic, writing that “the artist, who uses scavenged auto parts, is concerned not just with materials but with what they reveal about the worlds they inhabit.” Here are excerpts; see full review and photos of the artist’s recent work at Hyperallergic.
For Kim Dacres, every Tuesday morning unfolds in the same way. Each week, the native New Yorker and West Harlem resident journeys through her beloved neighborhood, scavenging for the materials that form the bedrock of her artistic practice: tires and bicycle parts. Last month, I joined the artist for what she calls “Tire Tuesday,” a ritual of collecting rubber that she transforms into busts and sculptures in tribute to her community. At our first stop, Bolt Bike Shop on Frederick Douglass Boulevard, we were greeted by Marcelo and Nelson, two shopkeepers whom the artist has developed a bond with since she began collecting there in 2021.
As Dacres excitedly received her weekly haul of found rubber, I watched the wheels of her brain begin to turn. Visits like these, which the artist began making in 2017, are as integral to her process as the time she spends working in her Harlem studio. Dacres’s current exhibition at Charles Moffett, Lost on a Two Way Street, exemplifies her distinct method of transforming her choice material into striking commentary on the United States’ongoing oppression of marginalized groups, particularly women and queer and immigrant communities.Through 18 sculptures and wall-based works made of rubber, valves, and other repurposed bike parts,the show expands on Dacres’s 2025 body of work, Crossroads Like This, which deals with the difficult emotions arising from violence, human rights abuses, and struggles for global liberation. [. . .]
The artist’s new series of wall-based works, titled Forget Me Nots (all works 2026) after Patrice Rushen’s 1982 classic song, illustrates this commitment to honoring her community members. These oval- and square-shaped works, which feature intricate braiding and a reddish-brown coating that deviates from Dacres’s typical all-black palette, nod to the crucial role that Dacres’s social bonds play in maintaining her mental health. Each medallion is culled from a memory of an individual that Dacres has seen while walking through her neighborhood, and for one reason or another, brought her joy. Titles like “Top Bun with Two Chains” (2026) represent the nicknames Dacres assigned to recall her mental snapshots, or “forget me nots.” [. . .]
For full article, see https://hyperallergic.com/kim-dacres-sculpts-resilience-in-rubber/?ref=daily-newsletter
For more on Kim Dacres, see https://www.kimdacres.com/#:~:text=Enter
[Photos by Antony Artis, all photos courtesy the artist and Charles Moffett gallery.]
Taken from the artist’s page, “Kim Dacres is a visual artist of Jamaican descent living and working in New York. She uses found tires and rubber to consider the texture of experiences unique to Black People, women, and queer folks.” Daria Simone Harper reviews Dacres’s work for Hyperallergic, writing that “the artist, who uses scavenged auto