This post will be updated with the latest news in Black art throughout the week
PRECIOUS OKOYOMON, Installation view of “A Drop of Sun Under The Earth,” at the LUMA Westbau, Zurich, 2019. | Courtesy the artist, the LUMA Westbau, and Quinn Harrelson / Current Projects. Photo by Nelly Rodriguez
Feb. 27, 2021
Baltimore Museum of Art Announces Funding for Diversity & Inclusion
Three donors are supporting some of the Baltimore Museum of Art’s key priorities, including diversity measures, extended opening hours, and wage increases. The museum announced $1.46 million in gifts, with the majority of the funds ($1 million) provided by philanthropist and Art + Practice co-founder Eileen Harris Norton to finance diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion efforts. The gifts were announced in the wake of the museum’s thwarted plans to sell off three paintings by Andy Warhol, Clyfford Still and Brice Marden, with expectations to raise about $55 million. | The Art Newspaper
Ledger Signed by Martin Luther King Jr. Garners $130,000+ at Auction
Jailed in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr., received a bevy of correspondence. He signed for each letter in a logbook that sold at Hake’s Auctions on Feb. 24 for $130,909, including fees. The minimum bid was $10,000 and 28 bidders vied for the lot. The result is an auction record for King’s signature, according to Hake’s. | Hyperallergic
Feb. 26, 2021
2021 Frieze Artist Award Winner Selected
New York-based artist Precious Okoyomon has won the 2021 Frieze Artist Award. With support from the Luma Foundation, the Brooklyn-based artist and poet will present a newly commissioned performance-activated installation at Frieze New York, which is happening at The Shed, May 5-9, 2021. | Frieze
2021 Foster Prize Recipients Announced
Artists Marlon Forrester, Dell Marie Hamilton, and Eben Haines are recipients of the 2021 James and Audrey Foster Prize from the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston. The prize recognizes Boston area artists. Organized by Jeffrey De Blois, ICA assistant curator and publications manager, the museum’s Foster Prize exhibition opens Aug. 25, 2021.
Artist Honor Titus. | Photo by Kingsley Ifill
Feb. 25, 2021
Honor Titus Joins Timothy Taylor
With locations in London and New York, Timothy Taylor Gallery now represents Honor Titus. A self-taught, Los Angeles-based artist, his timeless paintings are “simultaneously journalistic and utopic, depicting public and private rituals of intimacy and leisure.” Titus had his first solo show at Henry Taylor’s in January 2020. In October, Timothy Taylor is dedicating its Frieze London booth to a solo show of Titus’s paintings. “Honor Titus: For Heaven’s Sake,” the artist’s first solo show in New York is currently on view at Timothy Taylor, through March 27.
Feb. 24, 2021
Brian Robinson Joins Guggenheim Board
Investment banker Brian Robinson was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. A partner at Goldman Sachs, Robinson is head of Prime Brokerage Sales, Americas. | Photo Courtesy Guggenheim
Bust of York Appears in Portland, Ore.
A monument to York, a Black member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, mysteriously appeared on Saturday in Mount Tabor, a Portland, Ore., public park. The work was installed on the pedestal where a statue of Harvey Scott once stood, before it was pulled down last fall. A longtime editor of the Oregonian (1865-1910), Scott was a conservative who opposed women’s suffrage. Produced by an anonymous artist, the large bust of York (who was enslaved by Clark) will likely remain in place. | Oregon Live
Monumental Work by Rashid Johnson Installed at Brookfield Place
In New York, a monumental public art installation by Rashid Johnson graces the atrium of Brookfield Place at 200 Liberty Street. Originally called One World Financial Center, the office building features luxury retail and dining. Continuing his Anxious Men series, “Untitled Broken Crowd” is Johnson’s largest work to date. Composed of ceramic tiles, the work measures 14 x 33 feet. | Interior Design
Feb. 23, 2021
Louisville Art Museum Plans Breonna Taylor Exhibition
Reflecting on the life and death of Breonna Taylor, and the protests that followed her killing by police, “Promise, Witness, Remembrance” opens in April 7 at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Ky. The exhibition is guest curated by Allison Glenn, with close consultation from an advisory group, including artists Theaster Gates, Amy Sherald, and Hank Willis Thomas, and engagement with the community through a steering community composed of local experts. “A museum like ours should never live in isolation from what’s going on in the city,” Stephen Reily, director of the Speed said. “The killing of Breonna Taylor and the year of protests changed the course of our city. At the Speed, because we believe that great art and artists can help the city, we were hungry… to find a way to address it.” | artnet News
Feb. 22, 2021
CAAM Names Cameron Shaw Executive Director
Cameron Shaw is the new executive director of the California African American Museum (CAAM). Today, the museum’s board voted to elevate Shaw, who has been serving as deputy director and chief curator of the Los Angeles museum, since September 2019. She is succeeding George O. Davis, who is retiring after leading the museum since 2015.
“We are delighted that Cameron Shaw has agreed to lead the Museum into the future, continuing CAAM’s remarkable trajectory. She has admirably navigated CAAM’s closure due to COVID-19, all the while strategizing and fundraising for several exciting initiatives to come once Los Angeles museums are allowed to reopen,” Board President Todd Hawkins said in a statement.
Before joining CAAM, Shaw was the executive director of New Orleans-based Pelican Bomb, a nonprofit contemporary art organization that presented exhibitions, public programs, and arts journalism. A Los Angeles native, she earned a B.A., in the history of art from Yale University.
In a statement, Shaw said she was “honored and excited” to be named executive director of CAAM. She added: “Against the current backdrop of a global pandemic, racial inequality, and the changing needs of museum audiences, it is clear that there continues to be an urgent need for cultural organizations that center, contextualize, and support African American contributions and experiences. CAAM has long been that critical space in Los Angeles, and I look forward to meeting this moment by presenting new scholarship and innovative public experiences through which all visitors can see Black art, history, and culture valued and reflected.” | Photo by Matt Sayles
Seven New Trustees Appointed to Aperture Board
The Aperture Foundation announced seven appointments to its board of trustees, including Kwame Samori Brathwaite, Lyle Ashton Harris, Colette Veasey-Cullors, and Deborah Willis. They officially join the board in April. Bringing an array of expertise, the new members share “a longstanding commitment to the medium of photography.”
