Listen. Can you hear it?

Can you hear the sound of children laughing, jumping rope and playing hopscotch? That is what I heard when I stood still in the gallery and viewed Clayton Singleton’s work. There is something to be said for the feelings of childhood and memories of school; they are all very powerful, as are several of Clayton Singleton’s new works at the SoNo Galleries in South Norfolk.

Clayton’s cause is one of equity; equality. Equality in race, equality in education, equality in our minds and most importantly in the way we see ourselves. His work is predominantly paintings with the exception of six small rectangular stoneware works that resemble different types of children’s seats and two other sculptural installation pieces, which are placed in the middle of the floor.

The painting Race, Equity, Equality definitely feeds the eye and mind with layer upon layer of painterly images and brushstrokes. The composition is well thought out and executed with an architectural under painting of an old school house, asymmetrically placed in the background with multiple, expressively painted schoolhouse desks arranged in angled rows. The top layer of the painting, as if icing on the cake has “text” in graphite that expounds upon the crisis in education.

Clayton’s work resembles that of Kehinde Wiley in the way that the African-American male is seen as a symbol in our country. The similarity is also in the way the foreground and background become almost separate images hovering over top of one another, one being more about symbols and the other with decorative elements glazed over the surface.

I will say I much prefer the direction Clayton is moving towards now; from the stylized figure with heavy outlines, to more painterly imagery and symbolic references with contemporary undertones.

His new work begs the question that the public has been asking for years: how do we get children to learn?

Clayton Singleton: Recent Works will be on view through January 10. Portlock Galleries at Sono are located at 3815 Bainbridge Boulevard in Chesapeake. Click here to visit portlockgalleries.com.