Latest News in Black Art features updates and developments in the world of art and related culture
Lorraine O’Grady. | Photo by Lelanie Foster, Courtesy the artist and Mariane Ibrahim gallery
REPRESENTATION
Lorraine O’Grady (above) has joined Mariane Ibrahim gallery. A New York-based conceptual artist, O’Grady employs the theory of both/and as a framework for institutional and cultural critique. Working across writing, photography, curating, installation, and video, she is best known for her landmark performance of Mlle Bourgeoise Noire (1980-83), which she is revisiting with a new body of work, currently in development. Mariane Ibrahim is a Black woman-owned gallery with locations in Chicago, Paris, and Mexico City. O’Grady’s first presentation with the Mariane Ibrahim is planned for April 2024 in Chicago. (9/7) | More
APPOINTMENTS
Gabi Ngcobo (left) was appointed director of Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam, Netherlands, effective January 2024. An internationally recognized curator, Ngcobo has been serving since 2021 as curatorial director of the Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. In 2018, she curated the 10th edition of the Berlin Biennale and was a co-curator of the 32nd São Paulo Biennial. (8/22) | More
The Mellon Foundation in New York announced the election of Dr. Melissa Gilliam and Gaurav Kapadiato to its board of trustees. Gilliam is executive vice president and provost at Ohio State University. A physician, scholar, and researcher, she was previously assistant provost at the University of Chicago, where she served as a professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and pediatrics. The founder of the investment firm XN, Kapadiato is also a vice president of the board at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Both appointments to Mellon’s board are effective immediately. (9/11) | More
IMAGE: Above left, Gabi Ngcobo. | Photo: Javett-UP, Courtesy Kunstinstituut Melly
GALLERIES
Based in Cape Town, Southern Guild is expanding to Los Angeles. The gallery said it is the first South African gallery to establish a permanent location in the United States. Co-founded by Trevyn and Terry McGowan, Souther Guild was established in 2008 and represents artists from several African nations. The gallery’s inaugural exhibitions in Los Angeles will feature “Mother Tongues,” a group show of key gallery artists, and a solo presentation of South African sculptor Zizipho Poswa, who works in ceramics. Poswa’s work was featured recently in a group show at Mariane Ibrahim in Chicago. (9/5) | More
Mariane Ibrahim gallery inaugurated its first bookstore at its Mexico City location. The shop opened Aug. 19 and features titles on artists from the African diaspora, contemporary art, art criticism and history, photography, architecture, and gender and race studies, as well the gallery’s own publications. Mariane Ibrahim is a Black woman-owned gallery with spaces in Chicago, Paris, and Mexico City. (9/1) | More
Armory Show Pommery Prize Winner: BARTHÉLÉMY TOGUO, “Urban Requiem,” 2015 (ladders, wooden stamps, stamp imprints). | Photo by Kunning Huang
AWARDS & HONORS
Barthélémy Toguo was among those recognized with prizes at the latest Armory Show (Sept. 8-10). The Cameroon-born, multidisciplinary artist won the annual Pommery Prize ($25,000) for his presentation of “Urban Requiem” (2015) with Galerie Lelong. Toguo explores concepts of belonging and exile. Urban Requiem presents wood busts on a series of ladders with slogans from recent protests and national movements, including #MeToo to #BlackLivesMatter, carved in the flat bases, rendering each sculpture a functioning a stamp. The Pommery Prize recognizes an outstanding large-scale installation in the Platform section of The Armory Show. Toguo splits his time between Paris, France, and Bandjoun, Cameroon. (9/9) | More
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York is welcoming a new cohort of Scholars in Residence this month. The 2023-24 scholars are C. Ondine Chavoya, Anne Anlin Cheng, and Sherrilyn Ifill. For 10 years, Ifill was president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Since she stepped down in 2022, she has been a senior fellow at the Ford Foundation and is currently a visiting professor at Harvard Law School. Ifill is working on a book titled “Is This America?” Next year she will join Howard University Law School as the inaugural Vernon E. Jordan Distinguished Professor in Civil Rights and establish the 14th Amendment Center for Law &
Democracy. Funded by the Ford Foundation, MoMA’s one-year scholars program provides an opportunity for thought leaders and makers to conduct independent research that brings new insight and perspectives to modern and contemporary art. (9/7) | More
Carlos Martiel (right) received the inaugural Maestro Dobel Latinx Art Prize from Maestro Dobel® Tequila in partnership with El Museo del Barrio in New York. The $50,000 award includes a spring 2024 presentation in the museum’s Room 110 multidisciplinary space. Patrick Charpenel, executive director of El Museo said: “Martiel’s work beautifully explores the complexity and nuance of racism and racialization, gender, immigration, and the legacy of colonialism in the Americas.” Born in Havana, Cuba, Martiel lives and works in New York. He was honored at the museum’s gala on Sept. 7, along with artist Coco Fusco, who was recognized for Excellence in the Arts and Juan Beckmann for Outstanding Patron of the Arts. (9/7) | PR Newswire
IMAGE: Above right, Carlos Martiel. | Courtesy Maestro Dobel Latinx Art Prize
After its inaugural event in 2021, the BLKOUT Walls Mural Festival has returned to Detroit from Sept. 7-17, 2023. The Black-led festival is sponsored by the Kresge Foundation, Detroit City Walls, Detroit Arts and Culture and Entrepreneurship, Vans and the Knight Foundation. | Photo courtesy BLKOUT Walls Mural Festival
PUBLIC ART
The BLKOUT Walls Mural Festival is underway in the North End of Detroit, through Sept. 17. Free and open to the public, the festival is about “amplifying BIPOC voices and stories” and “beautifying underutilized spaces” with new art installations with ambitions to also encourage neighborhood walkability and boost tourism. First launched by Sydney G. James, Thomas “Detour” Evans, and Max Sansing in 2021, the Black-led event features live mural painting, block party on Saturday, Sept. 16, pop-up exhibitions, and artist talks and panel discussions. | More
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