Ain’t no dogs in Heaven: thoughts on a solo exhibition of RAHEEM aBDUL rAHEEM AT pt.2 Gallery.

August 5th marked the opening of “Ain’t No Dogs in Heaven.” A solo exhibition by Raheem Abdul Raheem, formerly Esteban Samayoa. Raheem has been making his mark in the Bay Area and LA art scenes in recent years. However, this was his first Solo exhibition in Oakland in nearly four years.

Raheem has been known for masterful airbrush and charcoal compositions of images from his childhood growing up in Sacramento CA. A pack of vicious dogs, an article of clothing or a photo from his early years are often the focal points of his large contrasting works. Traditional street styles of the 80’s and 90’s seem to have flooded the galleries of San Francisco and Los Angeles in recent years, but Raheem’s work has always felt apart from trend. His paintings go beyond the style and pull one into the moments he is recalling. In observing his work, one can almost smell the smoke of a cigarette lit in 1995 and if you aren’t pulled into a scene from the artist’s memory you are asked to recall your own. the feelings from that time, the feelings from now. The eternal and universal moments that can only be communicated through art.

His work is as much of recalling as it is celebration in A Life Like Ours, a 2020 solo exhibition at the SWIM gallery in San Francisco. The artist invited guests to play dominoes and even decorated the gallery with handmade wooden dominoes like pneumatic devices for gathering after a long Covid curfew. This may have been my first time encountering Raheem’s work, each time since has been a prescient delight.

Ain’t No Dogs in Heaven, was the type of show that announced the Artist’s arrival to a new level and larger stage. It not only emphazised Raheem’s talent but marked major phases of his life as well as loss, a marriage and conversion to Islam. An air of intention and meditation floats through the the three rooms pt.2 provided Raheem for the show. The first room, titled Pops, sees a mastery of the airbrush and charcoal style the artist is known for. Possibly with larger and grander themes calling from beyond the fray. The paintings are cold (as in hard) and they hit you immediately with style in scale. I think back to my youth on the streets and wish I still had my chain and velour Sean John track suit.

The next room Esteban Samayoa, is an about face in style and harkens to the artist’s Guatemalan heritage. Oil and pastels of dark and deep reds color folk ruminations on wood and burlap canvases. Images of shadowed vaqueros and more dogs flank the walls. A focal point may be a glass coffee table held up by a sculpture of what looks like a terracotta hound calling back to black panther tables of the 1970’s mixing Black and Guatemalan culture, the artist draws more connection than any academic paper. Freshly rustic and alive, the room is a liminal space where the homeland communicates with the streets and ultimately reshapes them.

Last, an untitled room housed sculptures and an installation centering the artist’s religious conviction. The Salat series features sculptures of arms in worship draped in Shemagh over cinder blocks backed by glass book shelf holding various books of Islamic, black and indigenous thought. My wife remarked that this type of work was likely hard to sell and made purely to express a new profoundness in his perspective. A gift of communication to the viewer and the completion of the trinity of the artist’s life to date.

Take what you will from these rooms but, definitely take it. Raheem Abdul Raheem has given the city something to be proud of with this show. Given the trajectory of his career, we may not see anything quite like this again.

Ain’t no Dogs in Heaven runs from August 5th until September 9th at pt.2 Gallery at 1523b Webster St, in Oakland.