Latest News in Black Art features news updates and developments in the world of art and related culture
Guyana-born British painter Frank Bowling won the 2022 Wolfgang Hahn Prize. | Photo by Sacha Bowling
Awards & Honors
MUSEUM LUDWIG IN COLOGNE, GERMANY, awarded the 2022 Wolfgang Hahn Prize to Guyana-born British painter Frank Bowling. The prize includes a solo exhibition at Museum Ludwig, accompanying catalog, and a maximum of approximately $116,000 to fund the purchase of the artist’s work for the museum’s collection. Zoé Whitley, director of Chisenhale Gallery in London, served on the jury that selected Bowling. He will receive the award at a ceremony held next year on Nov. 15. Kerry James Marshall (2014) and Betye Saar (2020) are among previous winners of the prize. | Artforum
Hans Hofman Professor of Modern Art Kellie Jones is the new chair of the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University. | Photo by Michael Divito, Courtesy Columbia University
Appointments
Columbia University appointed Kellie Jones (above) chair of the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies. Jones has been on faculty at Columbia since 2006. A curator and art historian, she is the Hans Hofman Professor of Modern Art in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia. A 2016 MacArthur Fellow, Jones authored “South of Pico: African American Artists in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s” and “EyeMinded: Living and Writing Contemporary Art.” She also curated “Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980” at the Hammer Museum and co-curated “Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the 1960s” at the Brooklyn Museum, among other exhibitions.
Earlier this month, Anita Bateman (above right) joined the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, as associate curator of modern and contemporary art. Bateman previously served as a Mellon curatorial fellow at RISD Museum in Providence, R.I., and holds a Ph.D., in art history and visual culture from Duke University in Durham, N.C.
Taking on a key role at one of the top two auction houses in the world, Deidrea Miller (below) is the new head of communications, for Christie’s Americas. Serving as a member of Christie’s Americas Executive Committee, Miller will be based in New York and oversee strategic communications for North, Central, and South America. She joins Christie’s from Brunswick Arts in New York, where she served as a director, advising art institutions and luxury brands. Previously, Miller was deputy communications director for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
IMAGE: Above right, Curator Anita Bateman. | Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Deidrea Miller is head of communications at Christie’s Americas. | Courtesy Christie’s
Bard College
The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard) is staging a landmark scholarly conference (Nov. 4-6). Reshaping the Field: Arts of the African Diasporas on Display will explore pioneering Black art exhibitions in the United States and the UK and consider how exhibition making over the past century has shaped our understanding of Black art and artists. The keynote speakers are Bridget Cooks on “Art, Museums, and the Fear of a Black Planet,” and Monique Renee Scott on “Museums and the Anthropological Myth-Making of Africa.” Presenters also include Richard Powell, Cheryl Finley, Julie McGee, Kobena Mercer, Serubiri Moses, Jamaal B. Sheats, Marlene Smith, Lucy Steeds, and Brittany Webb. The virtual conference is organized by Bard Professor and CCS Luma Scholar Nana Adusei-Poku. Registration is free.
CCS Bard Galleries is staging a special exhibition on the occasion of the virtual conference Reshaping the Field: Arts of the African Diasporas. Curated by Serubiri Moses, “The Open Work: An Exhibition History of Elvira Dyangani Ose” (Nov. 4-14, 2021 ) examines the work of Elvira Dyangani Ose, who was recently appointed director of Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA). The Spanish-born curator is the first Black person to lead the museum.
Bard Graduate Center and Bard College announced the joint appointment of Drew Thompson as associate professor of visual culture and Black studies. Previously, Thompson was an associate professor of contemporary art history and visual culture in the School of Image Arts at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. His starts at Bard at Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., in January 2022.
“Ancient Wonders of the World” by Kadir Nelson covers the November 2021 issue of National Geographic magazine.
Magazines
Los Angeles artist Kadir Nelson illustrated the November 2021 issue of National Geographic with an expansive image of the world’s wonders. The magazine explores 200 years of rich history and treasures highlighted in the new book “Lost Cities, Ancient Tombs: 100 Discoveries That Changed the World.” Speaking about how he created a cohesive cover image that illustrates the human story, Nelson said it was like putting together a big puzzle or like a film with a series of images and moments strung together.
More News
JJ and Anthony Curis, owners of the Detroit art gallery Library Street Collective, plan to open a new cultural arts complex in a now-empty church in the city’s East Village neighborhood. The couple is reinventing Good Shepherd Catholic Church. The building will house two new galleries, artist McArthur Binion‘s Modern Ancient Brown Foundation, a mini branch of arts educator Asmaa Walton‘s Black Art Library, a bed-and-breakfast, and a cafe. Currently called The Shepherd, the complex is expected to open in 2023 with a retrospective of Charles McGee, the Detroit artist who died in February at age 96. | New York Times
One of William Edmondson‘s “Martha and Mary” sculptures sat gathering moss on a porch in Saint Louis, Mo., for decades. After a keen observer spotted it, Brian Donnelly, the artist known as KAWS purchased the work. Now a promised gift to the American Folk Art Museum in New York, the work will be featured in “Multitudes,” the museum’s 60th anniversary exhibition, opening in January. | New York Times
Opportunities
The A.I.R. Fellowship Program has issued an open call for underrepresented and emerging women and non-binary artists in New York City. Six artists will be awarded yearlong fellowships giving each an opportunity to develop and present an exhibition at A.I.R. Gallery (Winter/Spring 2023). Applications open Aug. 30-Nov. 15, 2021. | More Info
New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) announced The Incubator for Arts and Culture Leaders of Color in the Tri-State Area 2022. The free program provides leadership training and community support for BIPOC leaders in New Jersey, Connecticut, and New York State (outside New York City). Up to 18 arts administrators will be selected for the opportunity, which runs from January to June 2022. Application deadline is Dec. 6, 2021. | More Info
The NYU Division of Libraries is hiring a Librarian for Research Services at the Institute of Fine Arts Library, a tenure-track position in New York, N.Y. | More Info
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