Latest News in Black Art features updates and developments in the world of art and related culture
Ralph Lemon, an artist, choreographer, and 2020 MacAarthur Fellow, joined Paula Cooper Gallery. | Photo: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
REPRESENTATION
Paula Cooper Gallery Added Ralph Lemon to Roster
Ralph Lemon (b. 1952), a dancer, choreographer, and multidisciplinary artist known for his performance work, is now represented by Paula Cooper Gallery in New York. Lemon splits his time between Brooklyn, N.Y., and Philadelphia, Pa. His practice is rooted in an expansive interpretation of performance that includes installation, drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, film and video. He founded the Ralph Lemon Dance Company (1985-1995) and authored “The Geography Trilogy” (1997, 2000 and 2004). A seminal publishing project, the three-volume work is a “compendium of performances, writings, scores, drawings, and photographs surveying three continents and addressing history, race, and the power of memory,” according to the artist’s bio. On Nov. 14, “Ceremonies Out of the Air: Ralph Lemon” opens at MoMA PS1 in Queens, N.Y. A major exhibition of the artist, the show features more than 60 works made over the past decade. (10/31) | More
“I’m expanding a constellation of parts: a part about performance, a part about writing, a part about making visual marks, there’s a part that’s just about thinking, a certain kind of philosophy, and there’s the primary part/action that’s about working with other human beings.” – Ralph Lemon
Christiana Ine-Kimba Boyle. | Photo by Grace Rosselli
APPOINTMENTS
Christiana Ine-Kimba Boyle Departs Pace for CANADA
In New York, CANADA gallery welcomed Christiana Ine-Kimba Boyle as partner and co-owner. Since 2021, Boyle has been serving as senior director and global head of online at Pace Gallery. She is rejoining CANADA, an artist-run gallery founded in 1999. Before working at Pace, she was a senior sales director at CANADA from 2019-21. In January, she is presenting a two artist show at the gallery with Denzil Hurley (1949-2021) and Reginald Sylvester (b. 1987). (11/1) | More
MAGAZINES
Ursula Cover Features Amy Sherald Painting
A painting by Amy Sherald graces the cover of Issue 11 of Ursula, the magazine of contemporary culture published by Hauser & Wirth. (Sherald has been represented by the gallery since 2018.) Inside the issue, an essay by Whitney Museum of American Art Curator Rujeko Hockley explores Sherald’s approach to portraiture and journey as an artist. The publication coincides with “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” the first large-scale survey of the artist opening at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on Nov. 16. Hockley co-curated the exhibition, which travels to the Whitney Museum in April and the National Portrait Gallery in fall 2025. (11/2) | Ursula
Ursula, Issue 11: AMY SHERALD, Detail of “Ecclesia (The Meeting of Inheritance and Horizons),” 2024 (oil on canvas). | © Amy Sherald. Photo by Kelvin Bulluck
AWARDS & HONORS
W.E.B. Du Bois Medals Go to Thelma Golden, Spike Lee
The Hutchins Center presented the 2024 W.E.B. Du Bois Medals, Harvard’s highest honor in the field of African and African American studies. The eight medalists included Studio Museum in Harlem Director and Chief Curator Thelma Golden; filmmaker, professor, and collector Spike Lee; civil rights advocate and legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw; and LeVar Burton, an actor, director, and education advocate. Watch the ceremony here (10/1) | More
Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Finalists
The National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., announced the artist list for “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today,” a major exhibition and competition staged every three years at the Smithsonian museum. The juried exhibition will feature 35 portraits (by 36 artists) chosen from more than 3,300 submissions. The selected artists include three prize winners—David Antonio Cruz of New York, N.Y; Kameron Neal of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Jared Soares of Washington, D.C. An artist and designer, Neal’s work spans video, installation, and performance. The order of the prize winners will be announced on May 2, 2025. First prize includes $25,000 and a commission to make a portrait of a living person for the museum’s collection. Amy Sherald is the best known winner of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. In 2017, she became the first woman and first Black person to receive the top prize, which led to her commission to make a portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama. The Outwin 2025 exhibition opens May 3. (10/8) | More
Rachel Scott of Diotima won CFDA’s 2024 American Womenswear Designer of the Year. Actor Da’Vine Joy Randolph announced the award. The other nominees in the category were Marc Jacobs, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez for Proenza Schouler, Thom Browne, and Tory Burch. | Video by CDFA
FASHION
Rachel Scott Wins CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year
The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) held its 2024 CDFA Awards recognizing the best fashion designers of the year, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York on Oct. 28. The top award, American Womenswear Designer of the Year, went to Rachel Scott of Diotima. When she accepted the award, Scott said in part: “I spent so much of my career on design teams that I’m really unaccustomed to this type of recognition. But what it, what it means to me, and the true fact of the matter is, that much of this award is for everyone who has helped me so much to build this. Thank you to my mother for holding down the crochet in Jamaica, the incredible women in Jamaica who make the most beautiful crochet that I’m so honored to bring to the world.” Among the other recipients, Erykah Badu was named Fashion Icon (presented by André 3000) and the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Stephen Burrows by Donna Karan and Todd Oldham. Actor Cynthia Erivo hosted the event. (10/28) | More
GALAS
LACMA Fêted Simone Leigh
On Nov. 2, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) honored artist Simone Leigh and filmmaker Baz Luhrmann at its 13th annual Art+Film Gala. More than 650 guests attended, Charli xcx performed, and the celebration raised $6.4 million (a record for the event) benefitting LACMA’s film programming and overall mission. LACMA and the California African American Museum are currently co-presenting “Simone Leigh,” the first comprehensive survey of the artist, including two decades of work across sculpture, installation, and video. (11/3) | More
American Federation of Arts Honored Derrick Adams
The American Federation of Arts (AFA) honored artist Derrick Adams, collector and philanthropist Beth Rudin DeWoody, and art historian and museum director Sabine Haag at its 2024 Gala and Leadership Awards at Guastavino’s in New York City. Established in 1909, AFA is known for its touring exhibitions. The Oct. 30 event benefitted the nonprofit’s efforts “towards ensuring that museums nationwide can serve as a platform for education, inspiration, and artistic excellence for communities to learn from and enjoy.” Based in Brooklyn, N.Y., Adams is a multidisciplinary artist and community organizer. In 2022, he founded Charm City Cultural Cultivation, a nonprofit in his hometown of Baltimore, Md. Photo by Schaun Champion | More
PUBLIC ART
Inaugural MCA Australia Lawn Commision
British artist Thomas J Price (b. 1981) is the recipient of the inaugural Neil Balnaves Tallawoladah Lawn Commission. The news was announced by the Balnaves Foundation and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA Australia) in Sydney. The sculptural work will be installed on the front lawn of the museum in Spring 2025 and remain on view through Fall 2026. “I’m honoured to be the first recipient of the inaugural Neil Balnaves Tallawoladah Lawn Commission,” Price said in a statement. “Public sculpture has been a vital element of my practice for over two decades, dismantling perceptions of historical figures of power and presenting an alternative that celebrates us all. For me, sculpture is about understanding your environment and your place in space, your connection to others and capacity for empathy. My ambition has always been that these works would bring communities closer together and live in the public realm as silent totems for change.” (10/17) | More
CT
LIVES | Legendary music producer and composer Quincy Jones (1933-2024) died on Nov. 3 at his home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was 91. In the New York Times, his obituary described him as “one of the most powerful forces in American popular music for more than half a century.” In 2018, his daughter Rashida Jones co-directed, “Quincy,” a Netflix documentary film about his life and work. | Video by PBS
