Charlie James Gallery is pleased to present Hug the sky for it, an exhibition of paintings by Oakland-based artist Esteban Raheem Abdul Raheem Samayoa, his first with the gallery. Samayoa works in several different modes, most prominently with airbrush on canvas, and across media achieves a hauntingly expressive greyscale palette. His works speak to his own Guatemalan and Mexican heritage, his Oakland community, and his Islamic faith; Samayoa taps into the visual power of muralism and the narrative potency of dreams, yet retains the intimacy of memory or whispered prayer. His compositions are layered with meaning, all held within a kind of dreamspace that emphasizes the beauty and power of community. The title of the exhibition comes from the chorus of a 1998 DMX song, which warns the listener that one has to be willing to give everything to the hustle.

Two of the largest works in the exhibition exemplify the artist’s signature compositional dream-logic, weaving symbols and icons with elemental, cosmic imagery. Both Share My World and Funk the World serve as introductions to the Samayoa’s personal pantheon of saints, martyrs, and familiars, welcoming the viewer to his particular cosmic storytelling. Do you see me now? Or shall I become much greater offers a much more personal tale. One of several self-portraits in the exhibition, here the artist depicts himself as a child with his father in a domestic interior. The child, however, is not fully realized, but rather appears as an outline containing a swirling cloud of portraits and symbols, as if his inner psyche has been revealed. The artist’s mother sits at his heart, along with figures from the history of rap and Motown, a snarling pitbull, and a madly grinning cartoon. Together these provide an image of defiant resilience, of misunderstood figures judged on appearances, and of intergenerational trauma and healing.

Two smaller airbrush works, Self portrait and A Change Within, investigate how power is gained and wielded within a community. The latter features a close-cropped image of Michael Corleone’s furrowed Esteban Raheem Abdul Raheem Samayoa, Share my World, Airbrush on canvas, 60 x 84 inches, 2025 brow from the climactic baptism scene from The Godfather, in which Michael steps into his power as the new Don at the great cost to his own soul. This is paired with a self-portrait of the artist as a young adult, sporting a grill and cheesing for the camera. With this pair, Samayoa ruminates on the ways in which one can show up for the community. Reflecting on his younger self prompts consideration of the temporal and spiritual space between past and present and the transformation that space allows – how one can grow to be a positive force rather than succumbing to the ruining power won through violence.

Samayoa also explores the power that systems hold over us. Enjoy life forever juxtaposes collaged lotto scratchers with advertisements for bible study, above the artist’s own injunction: “don’t stop praying / playing”. This piece plumbs the sense of hope – and often frustration – that comes from both gambling and religion. The found objects emphasize how both systems are deeply integrated into communities, both in West Adams, Massachusetts, where this was made while Samayoa was in residence at Mass MoCA, and in his hometown of Oakland. Elsewhere, Samayoa calls upon American flag symbolism and fragments of 19th century color theory to question the extent of racial progress in this country. Yet there is also hope – in the legacies of the icons included in the large airbrush paintings, and in the ideas of revolutionary figures such as Assata Shakur, represented here in a small printed portrait. This work is framed in a soil-like texture, which hearkens back to the artist’s childhood spent working in landscaping alongside his father. Samayoa weaves himself throughout this body of work, visually building upon a foundation of memory, community, and resilience.