Whitey On The Moon

Born in the midwest and currently living in San Francisco, CA,  Malachi Arthur is a 26 year old painter specializing in discovering meaning and narrative behind the images we see throughout our lives. A student of composition, paint application, use of color, and brush handling, Malachi seeks to balance the classical tenets of skill building and making as a process with finding his subjective voice and ever changing approach to expression. As an artist who split his upbringing between Omaha, NE and California, Malachi is interested in the recurring motifs within Black American life and investigates the unique societal context that Black people exist within. Interested in the iconography of the world around him and the meanings behind them, he seeks to prioritize the unpacking of questions and the reflection that comes with them over static, closed-ended answers.  His work seeks to encourage these questions in the viewer.  Leaving his hometown of Sacramento after high school, Malachi studied Environmental Studies with an emphasis in Community Organizing gaining a BA from Cal Poly Humboldt in 2022. This helped inform his perspective on the world, giving him insight on the dynamics of power, privilege, and socioeconomic dynamics pertaining to race, gender, and class in America. Having worked on murals, commissions and a few shows, Malachi continues to build the foundation of his career around honest investigation of the world around him. He now resides in the Bay Area and is completing his Masters in Fine Art at Academy of Art University. 

I am primarily an oil painter committed to the investigation of the world around me through visual motifs. Primarily focused on metaphors surrounding cultural phenomena centered on the Black experience, I am passionate about asking “why” and highlighting juxtaposition as often as possible. A lot of my process hinges on the idea of exploration with much of my work starting as generalized observations that eventually layer in complexity as the work develops. I acknowledge my subjective perspective as an active participant in the world around me and hope that in engaging with my work audiences explore how the work’s themes are present in their experiences as well. Curiosity is the motor that drives much of my creative process with many of the themes present in pieces developing after sitting with a piece for extended periods of time. My work features allusions to literature, sports, recurring imagery within the Black community, and music. I urge the viewer to interrogate their own beliefs and the aspects that led to their formation. I acknowledge the lineage of Black artists before me and seek to continue that conversation. 

Dama Gallery is pleased to present Before the Fall, a group exhibition featuring artists working across photography, painting, collage, portraiture, landscape, abstraction, and geometric form. This exhibition examines the fragile interdependence between nature, humanity, and the systems we construct to survive within it.

Before the Fall reflects on a collective sense of suspension, an awareness that balance is never guaranteed and that harmony, once disrupted, can unravel quickly. The works in the exhibition explore moments of connection and fracture, where ecosystems, civilizations, and individuals intersect. Rather than presenting collapse as spectacle, the exhibition lingers in the tension that precedes it: the quiet instability, the warning signs, the unresolved questions.

Through varied visual languages and materials, the artists address the relationship between people and place, structure and vulnerability. Landscapes become psychological terrain; portraits suggest shared responsibility; abstract and geometric forms echo systems both natural and man-made. Together, these works create a layered narrative that underscores how deeply entwined all life remains.

While conceptually rigorous, Before the Fall is grounded in accessibility. The exhibition invites viewers to recognize themselves within the work; to reflect on stewardship, coexistence, and the consequences of imbalance. It asks not only what may be lost, but what might still be preserved through awareness and care.