Beauty Shop Opera

 ‘Beauty Shop Opera’ is a large-scale mixed-media work depicting the intimate interaction between hairstylist and client within the interior of a black haircare salon,  presenting a glimpse into the cultural identity and vitality these spaces represent within the African American community.

“Beauty Shop Opera” weaves together African-American visual motifs, the political and economic dynamics of Black hair, the culture of the Black beauty shop and its pivotal role as a safe space for Black identity and self-expression, in order to examine the evidence of loss and triumph, to collect the residue of memory, and to explore historical correctives in the present. 

“Beauty Shop Opera” is a visual dialogue in mixed-media that hints at the tragic, the transcendent, the beautiful and the possible, with a life-affirming vitality as uplifting as a fresh hair do.

—Skip Hill Art, Sketchbook Blog