MUST-SEE EXHIBITION openings and interesting talks and appearances happening this week in black art:
Through June 21, 2014
Brenna Youngblood at Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
A selection of muted abstracts by Los Angeles-based artist Brenna Youngblood are on view at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. “Loss Prevention” features new and earlier mixed-media works defined by mood-altering hues, collage accents and shaped canvases (shown above). “Often combining paper and acrylic collage with images of everyday objects, Youngblood juxtaposes the figure with the abstract, raising questions of what is familiar versus what is unknown,” the museum states. The exhibition, Youngblood’s first solo museum show in the Midwest, runs from May 9 to June 21, 2014.
1 ½ + (Lessons in Aesthetics & Productivity),” 2014 (oil, oil stick and granite on canvas and linen) by Oscar Murillo | Image via Marianne Goodman Gallery
Through July 8, 2014
Oscar Murillo at Marianne Goodman Gallery | Paris
“We Don’t Work Sundays” is Oscar Murillo’s first solo exhibition in France. The Colombian-born, new art star is presenting paintings, drawings on paper, sculptures and video projections. The concept of the show grew out of a conversation Murillo had with a group of Afro-Colombian, amateur musicians who made their own instruments. The encounter led the artist to contemplate “what people of all cultures make and do in preparation for life outside of employment: the labour they invest in not-working.” The Paris exhibition is on view from May 23 to July 8, 2014. Meanwhile, Murillo is concurrently considering the labor issues at David Zwirner Gallery in New York (through June 14), where he has installed a candy-making operation with real Colombian factory workers manufacturing real candy.
“Five on the Black Hand Side” by LaMont Hamilton | Image via LNC Gallery
May 29, 2014, 5:00-6:00 p.m.
LaMont Hamilton Talk at LNC Gallery | Chicago
Artist LaMont Hamilton joins Felicia Mings for an in-depth discussion about his photography series “Five on the Black Hand Side.” The 40 photographs are a part of “What We All Long For,” a group exhibition curated by Mings at the School of Art Institute of Chicago’s LNC Gallery. Hamilton’s series examines a routine cultural action in his life, the “dap” handshake. The gallery describes his work as an “indexical arrangement of images that traces the gestures and temporal permutations of this historically significant African-American handshake.” The exhibition is on view from May 5 to May 30, 2014.
“Self Portrait: XVI,” 2014 *ink, laser print collage, oil paint stick and Staonal crayon on panel) by McArthur Binion | Image via Kavi Gupta
Through Aug. 2, 2014
McArthur Binion at Kavi Gupta | Chicago
Kavi Gupta Gallery is presenting a solo exhibition of works by McArthur Binion, a Chicago artist and professor at Columbia College who was the first African American to earn an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. “DNA Study” tugs at issues of identity, personal history and self awareness, matters the artist has explored over the past 40 years. According to the gallery, “In his self-portraits, Binion layers photocopies from his address book from the 1970s into collaged tiles, creating geometric fields of abstract color. On close inspection these rhythmic panels divulge the names of ‘Basquiat,’ ‘Mary Boone’ and ‘Meryl Streep’ amongst a host of others: all friends, lovers or casual acquaintances. This document of artists, art-dealers and actresses, a who’s who of the golden age of creative high society in New York, similarly uncovers Binion’s personal history as a disregarded black artist in an overwhelmingly white majority.” “DNA Study” is on view from May 24 to Aug. 2, 2014. Binion is also participating in “When the Stars Begin to Fall: Imagination and the American South,” the group show currently on view at the Studio Museum in Harlem through June 29, 2014.
“This document of artists, art-dealers and actresses, a who’s who of the golden age of creative high society in New York…uncovers [McArthur] Binion’s personal history as a disregarded black artist in an overwhelmingly white majority.” — Kavi Gupta Gallery
Image via Chicago Symphony Orchestra
May 30, 2014 @ 8 p.m.
Theaster Gates and Jason Moran Perform at Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Jazz Pianist Jason Moran is collaborating with artist Theaster Gates on “Looks of a Lot,” a musical work to be performed at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on May 30. The innovative presentation will feature new blues compositions by Moran accompanied by “reimagined stage elements” made by Gates. The performance is part of the CSO’s Speak Truth to Power Festival (May 22-June 8, 2014) which pays tribute Benjamin Britten, Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, three composers who “produced works that stirred nations toward hope and a brighter future” and “believed that the artist should serve society by creating music that would inspire justice and fairness.” CT
TOP IMAGE: “Flourless Bread Slice #1 and #2” by Brenna Youngblood via Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
