September marked the start of the fall exhibition season, the death of artist Valerie Maynard, and announcements of several six-figure artist prizes
LIVES | Valerie Maynard (1937-2022) was subject of focused survey at Baltimore Museum of Art (2020-21) and keynote speaker and honorary degree recipient at Maryland Institute College of Art’s 2021 commencement. | Photo via MICA
MAGAZINES | September: Sculptor and printmaker Valerie Maynard welcomed Baltimore magazine into her art-filled home for in-depth profile. | Baltimore Magazine
< MAGAZINES | September: Video still from Arthur Jafa‘s “AGHDRA” (2021) featured on cover of September issue of Artforum. Inside, Olamiju Fajemisin reviews “Arthur Jafa: Live Evil,” artist’s expansive exhibition at Luma Foundation in Arles, France (through Oct. 31). | Artforum
REPRESENTATION | Sept. 1: Sean Kelly Gallery in New York announces representation of Ethiopian-born, Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary artist Awol Erizku. Announcement states in part: “Bridging the visual and cultural gap between African and Black American cultures, Erizku’s work rejects Eurocentric notions of art and beauty in favor of building his singular Afrocentric aesthetic, something he refers to as ‘Afro-esotericism.'” | More
APPOINTMENTS | Sept. 1: Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth announces trio of new curatorial appointments, including María Elena Ortiz who began serving as curator on Aug. 1. Ortiz joined Texas museum from Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), where she also held role of curator. | More
LIVES | Sept. 1: Curator Ijeoma Uche-Okeke (1972-2022) dies in Johannesburg, South Africa. She was CEO of the Asele Institute in Nimo, Anambra state, Nigeria. Housing important collection of contemporary African art, institute was founded in 1958 by her father, master artist and scholar Uche Okeke (1933-2016). | Contemporary And
Ebony G. Patterson’s “expansive practice addresses visibility and invisibility, through explorations of class, race, gender, youth culture, pageantry and acts of violence in context of ‘postcolonial’ spaces.” | Photo by Frank Ishman
APPOINTMENTS | Sept. 2: Prospect New Orleans names Ebony G. Patterson (above) as Susan Brennan Co-Artistic Director of Prospect.6, which opens fall 2024. Patterson, who splits her time between Chicago, Ill., and Kingston, Jamaica, is first artist ever appointed to role. She will collaborate with Miranda Lash, Ellen Bruss Senior Curator at Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. | More
APPOINTMENTS | Sept. 6: National Urban League announces curator and public historian Jennifer Scott will serve as founding executive director of new Urban Civil Rights Museum in New York City, expected to open late 2024/early 2025. | More
APPOINTMENTS | Sept. 6: Appointment of Paul A. Rogers as Gerry Grout Director of Education and Engagement at Phoenix Art Museum announced, effective Oct. 3. Rogers has been serving as curator of public programs and education at Museum of Art and Design at Miami Dade College in Florida. He held previous roles at International Center of Photography in New York and Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, Mich. | More
AWARDS & HONORS | Sept. 7: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum announces 2022 National Design Award winners, including Felecia Davis in Digital Design category. Davis is “a designer and researcher working to reimagine how people might use textiles in their daily lives and in architecture through computational textiles.” | More
APPOINTMENTS | Sept. 8: Makayla Bailey promoted from development director to co-director of Rhizome, digital arts organization housed at New Museum in New York. 
A curator and writer, Bailey previously held roles at MoMA, LAXART, and Studio Museum in Harlem. | More
AUCTIONS > | Sept. 9: “Solid Rock Congregation,” 1993 painting by Ernie Barnes (1938-2009), commissioned by singer Margaret Bell, sells at auction for more than $1.6 million (fees included), more than twice high estimate, at Bonham’s New York. | Artnet News
MAGAZINES | Sept. 13: Vanity Fair profiles LeBron James in October issue, with extensive photo shoot of NBA icon and his family at home in Los Angeles. “Dinner by Aunty Nicole” (2020), a large mixed-media oil painting by Kareem-Anthony Ferreira, sets the scene in dining room. | Vanity Fair
Gideon Appah’s “dreamlike and enigmatic paintings, drawings, and mixed media works often explore Ghanaian history and popular culture.” | Portrait of Gideon Appah © Gideon Appah
REPRESENTATION | Sept. 15: Pace Gallery announces representation of Ghanaian painter Gideon Appah (above). First solo exhibition with gallery slated for spring 2023 in London. | More
MAGAZINES > | Sept. 18: Men’s Fashion issue of T: New York Times Style Magazine asks “What Does It Mean to Be a Young, Black Queer Artist Right Now?” Project features 24 artists, including Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Miles Greenberg, Hugh Hayden, Eric N. Mack, Adam Pendleton, D’Angelo Lovell Williams, and playwright Jeremy O. Harris, with photographs and video by Shikeith, and conversation conducted by Emil Wilbekin about experiences of artists and their practices. | T Magazine
AWARDS & HONORS | Sept. 19: Pew Center for Arts & Heritage announces $9.5 million in awards supporting 30 Philadelphia organizations and 12 artist fellowships, with Adebunmi Gbadebo, Jesse Krimes, James Maurelle, and Odili Donald Odita, among recipients. | More
LIVES | Sept. 19: Sculptor and printmaker Valerie Maynard dies at age 85 in Baltimore, Md. Her work “explored the complexity, but also the humanity, of Black identity while tackling racism in the civil rights and apartheid eras and beyond.” | New York Times
NEWS | Sept. 20: Director/CEO Sandra Jackson-Dumont announces opening of Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles has been pushed to 2025. Originally slated to open in 2021 and then 2023, museum’s growing collection includes artworks by Ernie Barnes, Robert Colescott, Jacob Lawrence, Kerry James Marshall, and Kadir Nelson. | Los Angeles Times
AWARDS & HONORS | Sept. 20: Los Angeles-based artist Lauren Halsey is inaugural recipient of Hästens Art Support Fund. Swedish premium bed company is donating portion of sales through end of 2022 to support fabrication of Halsey’s roof garden commission at Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (April 17-Oct. 22, 2023). | More
Artist Senga Nengudi is 2023 Nasher Sculpture Prize Laureate. | Photo by Ron Pollard, Courtesy Nasher Sculpture Center
AWARDS & HONORS | Sept. 21: Senga Nengudi (above) wins 2023 Nasher Sculpture Prize. Sculptor and performance artist’s “five-decade-long career has mined everyday materials to explore concepts of ritual, femininity, Blackness and the fragility of the body.” She is first Black woman to receive honor, which includes $100,00 cash prize, exhibition, and public programming at Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas, in March and April. | New York Times
< COMICS | Sept. 22: Smithsonian American Art Museum releases second set of comics celebrating women artists, published in collaboration with student-illustrators from Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Fla. “Drawn to Art: Ten Tales of Inspiring Women Artists” includes Sonya Clark, Loïs Mailou Jones, Nellie Mae Rowe, and Augusta Savage (illustrated by Oliver Stevenson). The first set featured Edmonia Lewis, Alma Thomas, and Mickalene Thomas. | More
AWARDS & HONORS | Sept. 22: Interdisciplinary artist Ralph Lemon receives 2022 Bucksbaum Award. He is selected for $100,000 prize from among 63 artists and collectives that participated in Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept. | Artforum
AWARDS & HONORS | Sept. 22: National Academy of Design announces 17 U.S. artists and architects have been elected National Academicians in class of 2022, including Edgar Arceneaux, Radcliffe Bailey, J. Yolande Daniels, Leonardo Drew, Rick Lowe, Arthur Simms, and Nari Ward. | More
From left, 2022 Heinz Award recipients Cauleen Smith and vanessa l. german. | Photo by Joshua Franzos, Courtesy Heinz Family Foundation
AWARDS & HONORS | Sept. 22: Artists Cauleen Smith and vanessa l. german (above) named recipients of 2022 Heinz Awards, recognizing leadership in arts, economy, and environment. Each honoree receives unrestricted cash prize of $250,000. | More
NEWS | Sept. 23: Austin, Texas-based artist Deborah Roberts, known for figurative collage paintings symbolizing complex experiences of Black girls and boys, sues Birmingham, Ala.-based artist Lynthia Edwards, Richard Beavers Gallery in Brooklyn, and owner Richard Beavers for “willful copyright infringement.” | ARTnews
NEWS | Sept. 23: Hugo Boss Prize is no more. Established in 1996 at Guggenheim Museum, last three recipients of $100,000 biannual prize, which included solo exhibition at museum, were women of color: Anicka Yi (2016); Simone Leigh (2018), first Black person to win prize; and Deana Lawson (2020), first photographer selected for honor. | ARTnews
< AWARDS & HONORS | Sept. 24: LaToya Ruby Frazier wins 2022 Carnegie Prize at 58th Carnegie International art exhibition at Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pa. She is recognized for photo installation “More Than Conquerors: A Monument for Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland.” | More
AUCTION | Sept. 26: Christie’s launches new department dedicated to sneakers, streetwear, and collectibles called Department X. | More
APPOINTMENTS | Sept. 28: Everette Taylor announced as CEO of Kickstarter. He previously served as chief marketing officer of Artsy. | More
From left, 2024 Whitney Biennial Co-Curators Meg Onli and Chrissie Iles. | Photo by Bryan Derballa, Courtesy Whitney Museum
APPOINTMENTS | Sept. 29: Meg Onli and Chrissie Iles (above) named co-curators of 2024 Whitney Biennial. Onli, who most recently served as co-director of the Underground Museum in Los Angeles and co-curated the retrospective “Ulysses Jenkins: Without Your Interpretation” is collaborating with Iles, veteran Whitney curator who has focused on film and video. | New York Times
The [Whitney] museum’s director, Adam D. Weinberg, said he was struck by the fact that Iles’s and Onli’s “chemistry is great,” in part because they represent different “generational viewpoints.” Iles is in her 60s, and Onli in her 30s.
APPOINTMENTS | Sept. 30: Aperture announces addition of Toronto art collector Dr. Kenneth Montague to board of trustees, effective Sept. 15. Montague is founder of Wedge Collection, focus of book and current touring exhibition “As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic.” | More
NEWS | Sept. 30: President Biden signs proclamation re-establishing President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. (During previous administration, all members resigned in August 2017.) Biden also issues proclamation declaring October National Arts And Humanities Month. | Washington Post
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IMAGE: Above, Sept. 24: Installation view of LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER, “More than Conquerors: A Monument for the Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland,” 2021-22, Carnegie Museum of Art, 2022. Photo by Sean Eaton
On occasion of Arthur Jafa’s work gracing cover of September issue of Artforum, editor-in-chief David Velasco conducted an interview with artist about his practice. | Video by Artforum
