Latest News in Black Art features updates and developments in the world of art and related culture
Oliver Lee Jackson. | Photo by Weston Wells
AWARDS & HONORS
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation announced painter, sculptor, printmaker, and educator Oliver Lee Jackson is the recipient of the foundation’s Lee Krasner Award recognizing a lifetime of artistic achievement. Based in Oakland, Calif., Jackson makes abstract works grounded in figuration. The foundation revealed the news along with awards to 93 artists and nonprofit organizations totaling $2,657,400 made during its July 2022 to June 2023 grant cycle. (7/20) | More
PUBLIC ART
After four years, the New York City Public Design Commission unanimously approved designs for a monument to Shirley Chisholm in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. The concept by Amanda Williams and Olalekan Jeyifous presents an open metalwork image of Chisholm intertwined with the U.S. Capitol. Reduced in scale from their original proposal, the sculpture will now stand 32-feet high. In a statement, the artists said: “This trailblazing woman was not diminutive and this monument reflects how Chisholm’s collaborative ideals were larger than herself.” (7/17) | New York Times
Diamond Stingily’s “spare, emotive vignettes hinge on the commemorative power of objects.” Shown, Detail of “dead Daughter,” 2021. |nstallation view, Greene Naftali, New York, 2023. | © Diamond Stingily, Collection of Kunstmuseum Lichtenstein, Vaduz
REPRESENTATION
New York gallery Greene Naftali now represents visual artist and writer Diamond Stingily. She expresses herself through sculpture, installation, video, and text. The gallery said the artist “is drawn to readymade materials as a spur to both introspection and collective experience. The items she favors carry distinct class markers and a firm sense of place, often rooted in local architectures that delimit spaces of safety as well as exclusion.” Stingily’s first exhibition with Greene Naftali opens in November. She lives and works in New York. (7/18) | More
APPOINTMENTS
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and The Amistad Center for Art & Culture in Hartford, Conn., announced the appointment of Bethani Blake as programs manager for the African Diaspora. The position is funded by The Amistad Center, which is housed within the museum. The newly created role serves both institutions. Previously, Blake was a curatorial intern at the Wexner Center for the Arts and a cultural arts associate at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Performing and Cultural Arts Complex, both in Columbus, Ohio. (7/17) | More
Artists featured in Nigeria exhibition at 60th Venice Biennale in 2024. Clockwise, from top left, Precious Okoyomon, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Yinka Shonibare, Ndidi Dike, Abraham Oghobase, Fatimah Tuggar, Onyeka Igwe, and Tunji Adeniyi-Jones. | All photos courtesy MOWAA
BIENNIALS
After presenting its first-ever exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2017, Nigeria announced plans to participate in the international exhibition for a second time in 2024. The Nigerian Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale (April 20-Nov. 24, 2024) is commissioned by the Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki and organized by the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) in Benin City, Nigeria. Titled and themed “Nigeria Imaginary,” the exhibition is curated by Aindrea Emelife, MOWAA curator of modern and contemporary art and will feature eight artists: Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Ndidi Dike, Onyeka Igwe, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Abraham Oghobase, Precious Okoyomon, Yinka Shonibare, and Fatimah Tuggar. Following Venice, an expanded version of the Venice exhibition will be on view at MOWAA in 2025. (7/21) | More
Lot 1: ERNIE BARNES, “Holding Court,” 1986 (acrylic on canvas), Estimate $80,000-$120,000. | © Estate of Ernie Barnes, Courtesy Joopiter
AUCTIONS
Sisters Isha Price, Venus Williams, and Serena Williams are teaming up with Joopiter, the digital-first auction platform launched by Pharrell Williams, on a sale to benefit The Yetunde Price Resource Center. Four works by Ernie Barnes (1938-2009) are being sold. Acquired from the artist’s estate the two paintings (“Holding Court,” 1986, and “Mentors,” 2008) and two drawings (“Saxophone Study #1,” 1993, and “Study for Brother to Brother,” 1994) have never been displayed publicly. Named in honor of their late sister who was murdered in 2003, The Yetunde Price Resource Center in Compton, Calif., provides community, programming and support for families and individuals affected by trauma, violence, and systemic oppression. Bidding on the Barnes lots opened today and concludes Aug. 1. (7/24) | More
MORE NEWS
President Biden is establishing the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, encompassing three sites: Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago, Ill.; Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner, Miss.; and Graball Landing on the banks of the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi. The designation will be made on July 25 on what would have been Till’s 82nd birthday. Several organizations and partners were instrumental in bringing about the multi-state recognition, including the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, which has invested in preservation of the sites and, with support from the Mellon Foundation, is providing $5 million to restore Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, where Till’s funeral was held. (7/23) | New York Times
OPPORTUNITIES
The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of Visual Arts & Culture of African Americans & the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park, is accepting applications for an assistant director of exhibitions and programs position. The closing date is Aug. 25, 2023. | More
CT
FIND MORE about Oliver Lee Jackson on his website
FIND MORE about the Museum of West African Art and the repatriation of Nigeria’s Benin Bronzes at The Art Newspaper
