CURRENTLY ON VIEW IN LOS ANGELES, five galleries are presenting solo exhibitions of highly regarded African American artists working in a variety of mediums and styles, including portraiture, abstraction, and sculpture. The presentations include the first West Coast exhibition of Amy Sherald, Stanley Whitney’s first full-scale exhibition in Los Angeles, and Brenna Youngblood’s first solo show with Roberts Projects since joining the gallery earlier this year. Exhibitions devoted to Sherald, Youngblood, and Fred Eversley debut today:
FRED EVERSLEY, Untitled (parabolic lens), (1974) 2020, cast polyester, 19 1/2 x 19 5/8 x 5 7/8 inches (49.5 x 49.8 x 14.9 cm) | Photo by Jeff McLane, Courtesy David Kordansky Gallery
Fred Eversley: Recent Sculpture @ David Kordansky Gallery | March 20-May 1, 2021
With an engineering background in the aerospace industry, Fred Eversley first developed the methods and tools necessary to produce his Parabolic Lens sculptures in the late 1960s. Over the years, he has refined the process for producing the cast polyester works and explored a spectrum of possibilities in terms of color, transparency and luminosity. After living in Venice, Calif., for five decades, Eversley moved back East. He currently lives and works in New York, where he made the works on view over the last two years.
AMY SHERALD, A bucket full of treasures (Papa gave me sunshine to put in my pockets…),” (oil on canvas, 54 x 43 x 2 1/2 inches). | © Amy Sherald, Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Joseph Hyde
Amy Sherald: The Great American Fact @ Hauser & Wirth Gallery, Los Angeles, Calif. | March 20-June 6, 2021
The highly regarded portraits of Amy Sherald are American totems. Her paintings of anonymous individuals represent the larger Black experience—myriad and possessed with joy and complexity. Sherald has traditionally focuses on single subjects. For her first-ever West Coast exhibition, she is presenting five new paintings, both individual and group portraits. The show’s title derives from “A Voice From the South by a Black Woman of the South,” the 1892 book by Anna Julia Cooper. The gallery exhibition is accompanied by an engaging and in depth online presentation.
BRENNA YOUNGBLOOD, “Out the Blue,” 2021 (mixed media on canvas, 60 x 72 inches / 152.4 x 182.9 cm). | © Brenna Youngblood. Courtesy the artist and Roberts Projects
Brenna Youngblood: the LIGHT and the DARK @ Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, Calif. | March 20-May 15, 2021
After joining Roberts Projects in January, Brenna Youngblood is presenting her first solo exhibition with the gallery. The Los Angeles-based artist expresses herself through abstraction and often integrates found objects and materials into her paintings. Her latest works feature a pair of leather loafers, a black-and-white striped sweater, part of a no parking at risk of towing sign, and countless buttons. A dozen new mixed-media collages on canvas and board are on view, highly personal works made in response to the overwhelming events of the past year—social isolation in the wake of a global pandemic and a powerful movement for racial justice in the aftermath of too many Black people being killed by police.
STANLEY WHITNEY, “How Black is That Blue,” 2020 (oil on linen, 96 × 96 inches / 244 × 244 cm). | © Stanley Whitney. Courtesy the artist and Matthew Marks Gallery
Stanley Whitney: How Black is That Blue @ Matthew Marks Gallery, Los Angeles | Feb. 13-May 8, 2021
Stanley Whitney is showing 11 paintings produced in 2020 in his first full-scale exhibition in Los Angeles. (In 2015, he had a focused presentation at Team (bungalow) gallery, a beach bungalow space that is now permanently closed.) Complex explorations of color and composition, Whitney’s paintings are based on a grid of stacked squares.He never has a pre-planned strategy about what colors will be used or in what order they will show up on the canvas. The method by which the result is determined has its roots in African American musical traditions—jazz improvisation and a sort of call-and-response in which each color choice informs the next. The show is on view at both Matthew Marks locations in Los Angeles (1062 North Orange Grove and 7818 Santa Monica Boulevard) and is accompanied by a dynamic and informative online presentation.
ASUKA ANASTACIA OGAWA, “Untitled,” 2021 (acrylic on canvas). | © Asuka Anastacia Ogawa, Courtesy the artist and Blum & Poe
Asuka Anastacia Ogawa @ Blum & Poe, Los Angeles | March 23 – May 1, 2021
After her debut exhibition with Blum & Poe gallery last year in Tokyo, Asuka Anastacia Ogawa is opening a show of new large-scale figurative paintings in Los Angeles this week. Describing the works, the gallery said they feature “children engaged in reverie and play, in scenes that are both autobiographical and dream-spun. With large almond-shaped eyes, these subjects look out of the canvas with mysterious radiance and wisdom.” Ogawa, who is of Japanese and Afro-Brazilian descent, splits her time between Los Angeles and New York. CT
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