"NOG Emerges" 2021 Copyright 2021 Turtel Onli

"NOG Emerges" 2021 Copyright 2021 Turtel Onli
Inspired by "NOG" being the Future-Primitif face of the blockbuster group exhibition at the change making, trend setting Museum of Contemporary Art, Summer / Fall 2021 called "Chicago Comics: 1960 Until Now", curated by Dan Nadel. . NOG was mural sized on the MCA's outer wall near the door to its Museum Store which featured NOG merchandise in the form of a Tote Bag, post cards, a ever-cool NOG Sketch Book, plus autographed copies of "Tales From The Rhyhthmic Zone", the Graphic Novel that includes expanded versions of the original NOG stories. So Rhythmistic! All artwork on this blog by Prof. Onli is Copyright 2023 Turtel Onli , and other dates. All Rights Protected & not to be remixed, rebooted or used commercially without a signed agreement with Prof. Onli.

Sunday, May 24, 2020




On Rhythmistic Art

The art of Turtel Onli is African Centered. Many who have seen it appear to be confused by it. The culture conscious African Americans find it unacceptable because it does not bespeak the “traditional” Africa that they have come to know and love.  The middle-class find it difficult to accept because it is too African and not like what they have been told is “good art.  The Rhythm & Blues...... Hip-Hoppin’ Black Americans do not know about him or his work.


As I stated earlier, his work is African-Centered. He has termed his style Rhythmism.  He coined the term in 1974 and rightly so.  The paintings, wearable art, Graphic Novels. illustrations and performances he creates are alive with RHYTHM.  His work is demonstrative in its force.  The colors appear to dance before you.  The eyes, the lips, the styles of hair pull you, cajole you, take you in, 




The colors are bright, vibrant, steamy as they vaporize into a thin layer of white heat and back the vibrantly charged colors.  The colors dare you to laugh, to play, to join in the high energy of life.  Life on a higher plane. Life in a new Africa, a futuristic Africa with a neo-tradition that does not deny itself but digs down into itself to bare yet a new fruit for the future.  This future fruit, a Rhythmistic one, is an universal fruit to embellish the entire fabric of humanity.



Universal is mentioned because the reference to Onli’s work being African Centered and not generally accepted in that community is due to its power and influence being misunderstood.  There is another community into which Onli has yet to be accepted and that is the White Art Community.





 Onli is representative of a new age, a forward-thinking age. An age that has a vision of an Africanization of the future by an Africa that is viable in the world scheme of things.  And a world unified by its universal values.




The disparities between Blacks and Whites and specifically between White and Black males stumbles blindly over into the Art World.  The continuance of this practice inhibits the flow of contributions by Black artists, creating voids of sterility.  This disparity curtails the universals that we as a culture look for in the world of innovative artists like Onli. 




The works of artists like Turtel Onli must be reviewed because their universals will rhythmically pull at the ancestral memories that continue to make us human.  We can no longer afford the limitations of Euro-Centric Art as the only contemporary modernistic approach to unleash the potential power of Art.  Onli and his Rhythmistic movement give the art critics, patrons, and makers the opportunity to expand their concept of the universal.

1990: Marcia Hicks, PhD.


Sunday, May 17, 2020





 Rhythmistic Heroes masked up for your wellness efforts. 
Putting a healthier future in your "Afro"!