THIS SEASON, A VARIETY of magazines feature on their covers some of the most dynamic African American artists (and curator) working today. In addition, the forthcoming issue of the New York Times’s “T” magazine includes Amsterdam-based British artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen on one of six covers for its inaugural The Greats issue celebrating masters in their fields.
Steve McQueen | Photo by Juergen Teller
STEVE MCQUEEN | T Magazine, Oct. 25, 2015 (published Oct. 12 online)
In “The Boundless Artistry of Steve McQueen” by Wyatt Mason, British artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen discusses how he finds the right medium for each of his ideas, including short art films which are the foundation of his practice, feature films (“Twelve Years a Slave”), and television (his forthcoming HBO mini-series “Codes of Conduct”).
Thelma Golden. | Photo by Jeremy Liebman
THELMA GOLDEN | Cultured, Fall 2015
Cultured magazine is highlighting thought leaders, including Studio Museum in Harlem Director and Chief Curator Thelma Golden. In “A New Golden Age,” a Q&A by Tracy Zwick, she talks about being recognized at the neighborhood grocery store and restaurants where people ask her about the museum. Golden says she see artists as “important thinkers” and that art helps us to “not only understand art history, but also to understand cultural history.” The issue also includes a feature on British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare.
Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago. Photo by Tom Harris
THEASTER GATES | Chicago Reader, Oct. 1-7, 2015
After purchasing an abandoned bank from the city of Chicago for $1, artist Theaster Gates has transformed the 17,000 square foot building into the Stony Island Arts Bank, a cultural arts center. In a Chicago Reader article by Kate Sierzputowski, Gates says the bank is now “a ‘laboratory,’ a place where black artists and other individuals can experiment, research, and engage with the history of the south side.”
LORNA SIMPSON “At Large,” 2012 (collage and ink on paper), from Ebony collage series.
LORNA SIMPSON | Book Forum, Sept/Oct/Nov. 2015
Works by conceptual artist and photographer Lorna Simpson featuring vintage images from Ebony magazine cover Bookforum and inside illustrate a review by Gene Seymour of two compelling new books about growing up black in America—Margo Jefferson’s “Negroland”
AYANA V. JACKSON, “Prototype/Phenotype,” 2013 (archival pigment print).
AYANA V. JACKSON | Transition, Issue 118
An image by and featuring photographer Ayana V. Jackson graces the cover of the fall issue of Transition, an intellectual journal published by the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Inside additional photographs by Jackson accompany an excerpt of “We Love You Charlie Freeman,” a forthcoming novel by Kaitlyn Greenidge. The issue also includes work by artists Kenturah Davis, Charles Gaines, Rashid Johnson, Henry Taylor, Elio Rodriguez Valdes and David Willet.
Portrait of Deana Lawson by Henry Taylor.
HENRY TAYLOR | Bomb Magazine, Fall 2015
Painter Henry Taylor‘s portrait of photographer Deana Lawson covers Bomb magazine, which includes an interview between the artists who are friends. In introducing the conversation, Lawson says: “I’ve sat for portraits for Henry in various locations, including the Hudgins’s homes in Harlem and Sag Harbor; Henry’s studio in Los Angeles; and my apartment in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. Henry no longer needs to ask me to sit for him; I now ask him to paint (document) me, because, as a photographer, it is fascinating to experience up-close an artist’s process that is quite different
than mine.”
An interview with Nari Ward conducted by Lee Jaffe also appears in the issue. CT
