Project aims to document legacy of Altadena in wake of LA wildfires, Lubaina Himid will represent UK at Venice Biennale, photography curator Oluremi C. Onabanjo won Vilcek Prize, Anne Collins Smith is chief curator at New Orleans Museum of Art, Sandra Jackson-Dumont stepping down at Lucas Museum, and more
Rashid Johnson was honored at the Norton Museum of Art’s annual gala. The artist spoke briefly, thanking his family and quoting Audre Lorde, Zora Neale Huston, and his mother. Johnson said art is “the vehicle I can always use to share my joy, my truth, my pain, and my philosophy.” | Video by Norton Museum of Art
GALAS | Feb. 1: The Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Fla., honored Rashid Johnson at its 49th annual gala. The event benefitted programming across the museum’s curatorial, learning, and community engagement departments. It was the first time the gala paid tribute to an artist. The occasion also celebrated the group exhibition “Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing.” On view at the museum through March 9, the show features Johnson’s “If It Ain’t Ruff” (2012), a mixed-media work composed of mirrored tile, black soap, and wax on loan from collector Beth Rudin DeWoody. Next year, the museum said it was adding two works by Johnson to its collection: “There I Go” (2022), from his series of Bruise Paintings, and “Stacked Heads” (2020), a large-scale cast bronze sculpture. | More
AWARDS & HONORS | Feb. 3: New York artist Malcolm Peacock won the 2024 Young Artist Prize presented by Cultured Magazine in partnership with MZ Wallace. Peacock was selected for the $30,000 juried prize from the magazine’s annual Young Artists list of 30 artists. | Cultured
ACQUISITIONS | Feb. 3: Chicago collectors Dr. Anita Blanchard and Marty Nesbitt donated a major abstract painting by globally renowned, Ethiopian American artist Julie Mehretu to the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art in Cape Town, South Africa. The American Friends of Zietz MOCAA announced the acquisition. | More
2025 Vilcek Prize Winner Oluremi C. Onabanjo. Photo by Lelanie Foster, Courtesy Vilcek Foundation
AWARDS & HONORS | Feb. 3: The Vilcek Foundation‘s annual prizes recognize immigrant contributions in the United states and excellence in the arts and sciences. The 2025 prizes honored curatorial work for the first time. Oluremi C. Onabanjo, curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, received the 2025 Vilcek Prize in Curatorial Work, which includes $100,000. Onabanjo is UK-born of Nigerian heritage. | More
ART FAIRS | Feb. 4: Expo Chicago announced new details about the 2025 edition of the art fair (April 24-27), including the addition of Lauren Haynes, head curator of Governors Island Arts in New York. Haynes is leading a new Expo Chicago initiative called Contrast. Located within the main Galleries section of the art fair, Contrast will include presentations by Gray gallery, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, The Melrose Gallery, and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery. | More
APPOINTMENTS | Feb. 4: Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) announced five new members of its board of directors including scholar and curator Tiffany E. Barber. LACE is an artist founded nonprofit exhibition space established in 1978. | More
ART x CULTURE | Feb. 9: For the first time, the National Football League commissioned an artist outside of the organization to create its Super Bowl logo and theme art. Tahj Williams, the artist and celebrated member of New Orleans Black masking culture who goes by “Queen Tahj,” created the official art of Super Bowl LIX working with hand-sewn beadwork. | Culture Type
AWARDS & HONORS | Feb. 10: The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation announced its 2024 Biennial Grants. The $20,000 unrestricted awards went to 20 artists, including David Alekhuogie, Olalekan Jeyifous, David McGee, Felandus Thames, and Ato Ribeiro. The grant program is administered in partnership with the National Academy of Design. | More
APPOINTMENTS | Feb. 11: Anne Collins Smith was appointed chief curator at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA). A newly created role. Smith is the first Black person to head NOMA’s curatorial department. She previously served as director of the Xavier University of Louisiana Art Gallery. | Culture Type
Painter Jordan Casteel joined Thaddeus Ropac, where she will have her first full-scale solo show with the gallery in Paris in 2026. | Video by Thaddeus Ropac
REPRESENTATION | Feb. 12: Denver, Colo.-born, New York-based Jordan Casteel joined the international gallery Thaddeus Ropac. The representation is in collaboration with the artist’s longtime gallery, Casey Kaplan in New York. In April, Jordan will show new paintings at Thaddeus Ropac in London. In 2026, the gallery is dedicating a full-scale solo exhibition to Jordan at its location in Paris, France. | More
ACQUISITIONS | Feb. 12: The Denver Art Museum (DAM) announced 875 additions to its collection across 10 curatorial departments. The acquisitions were made between Oct. 1, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2024, through gifts and purchases. “Pink Astilbe” (2021) by Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo was among the works brought into the department of Contemporary and Modern Art. The painting was featured in the recent DAM exhibition “Amoako Boafo: Soul of Black Folks” and was the inaugural acquisition funded through the museum’s Black Arts Collective. | More
Danielle Mckinney in her studio, 2024. | Photo by Pierre Le Hors
AWARDS & HONORS | Feb. 12: Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., announced the selection of Danielle McKinney as its 2025 Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence. Jersey City, N.J.-based McKinney paints “pensive and cinematic” portraits of women.” The residency will conclude with a solo show at The Rose. Opening Aug. 20, “Danielle Mckinney: Tell me More” will be the first solo museum exhibition of the artist in the United States. | More
ART FAIRS | Feb. 17: Zoé Whitley will curate the 2025 Focus Exhibition at Art Toronto (Oct. 23-26), creating a thematic section based on artworks from participating galleries in Canada’s Art Fair. In December, London-based Whitley announced she was stepping down as director of Chisenhale Gallery, effective March 2025. The U.S.-born curator and writer served on the jury for the 2024 Sobey Art Award, which is considered Canada’s top contemporary art prize; edited the recent volume “Barkley L. Hendricks: Solid!”; and co-curated the international traveling exhibition “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power.” | ArtDaily
ART x CULTURE: Feb. 18: Mickalene Thomas designed a custom wrap for a McLaren Artura GT4 race car. The commission was announced by Driven Artists Racing Team (DART Car), a female-led motorsport team newly launched by entrepreneur Zoë Barry, art advisor Spring McManus, and race car driver Aurora Straus. The race car was unveiled at the Classic Car Club Manhattan and will race for the first time at the end of March in Sonoma, Calif. | Culture Type
APPOINTMENTS | Feb. 18: The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass., announced three new board of trustees members: Ines Aslan, Tyrone M. Fripp, and Namrata Tripathi. Fripp of Litchfield, Conn., is the founder of Talent Ascent, a coaching and Human Resources consulting practice, and a senior human resources business partner at Liberty Bank. | More
Land Memories: Voices of Altadena was envisioned to preserve the collective memories of the historically Black community and artistic enclave. | Video by Frieze
PROJECTS | Feb. 19: In Los Angeles, the Eaton fire swept through Altadena destroying more than 9,000 buildings in January. For generations, the historically Black community has been home to and connected with many artists, including Betye Saar, Doyle Lane (1923-2002), John Outterbridge (1933-2020), Charles White (1918-1979), and writer Octavia Butler (1947-2006), among others. In response to the tragedy, the Black Trustee Alliance for Art Museums and Frieze partnered on Land Memories: Voices of Altadena, a documentation project dedicated to preserving the collective memories of the unique enclave through oral histories and visual storytelling. | More
NEWS | Feb. 20: “Why Did It Take a Fire for the World to Learn of Altadena’s Black Arts Legacy?”: Ian White, Kenturah Davis, Solomon Salim Moore, and others share their experiences, talk about the impact of the fire, and the legacy of the neighborhood. | New York Times
ACQUISITIONS | Feb. 20: Works by Edgar Arceneaux (“Skinning the Mirror (Summer 1),” 2025) and Shaniqwa Jarvis (“Slowly, Surely,” 2025) were acquired by MAC3, the collective of Los Angeles museums—Hammer Museum, LACMA, and MOCA—established by Jarl and Pamela Mohn. Launched at Frieze Los Angeles 2025, the new MAC3 acquisition fund acquired the two works with $75,000 donated by the Mohns and Frieze. | More
EDGAR ARCENEAUX, “Skinning the Mirror (Winter 9),” 2025 (acrylic paint, silver nitrate, glass on canvas in custom frame, 45.72 x 60.96 x 3.81 cm). | Courtesy the artist and Dreamsong
ACQUISITIONS | Feb. 21: “Skinning the Mirror (Winter 9)” (2025) by Edgar Arceneaux was acquired by the Santa Monica Art Bank. The annual acquisition fund is awarded to a Los Angeles-based artist at Frieze Los Angeles. Arceneaux’s work was presented by Dreamsong gallery in the Focus section of the art fair. | More
TALKS & LECTURES | Feb. 21: The Driskell Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, announced Kellie Jones will deliver the David C. Driskell Lecture on April 3. A curator and author, Jones is Hans Hofmann Professor of Modern Art in the Department of Art History & Archaeology and a professor in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University. She will discuss “Suzanne Jackson: Ecologies of Abstraction.” The program is part of Howard University’s The 35th Annual James A. Porter Colloquium on African American Arts and Art of the African Diaspora. | More
AWARDS & HONORS | Feb. 22: Los Angeles filmmaker Ja’Lisa Arnold won the 2025 Deutsche Bank Frieze Los Angeles Film Award at Frieze Los Angeles. She was recognized for “Grief Cannot Exist Without Joy,” which is about a young musician mourning the death of his brother. | More
BIENNIALS | Feb. 24: The British Council in London announced artist and educator Lubaina Himid (right) will represent the UK at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026. A pioneer in the British Black Arts Movement, Himid won the Turner Prize in 2017. Photo © Adama Jalloh. | Culture Type
AWARDS & HONORS | Feb. 25: The International Center of Photography (ICP) announced recipients of the 41st Annual Infinity Awards, including South African photographer Lebohang Kganye who is being honored with the Contemporary Photography & New Media award. The Annual Infinity Awards Gala will be held in New York at Tisch Skylights at The Shed on April 1, 2025. | More
AWARDS & HONORS | Feb. 25: The Studio Museum in Harlem announced eight participants in its 2025 Arts Leadership Praxis. The sixth-month program is for museum professionals of color and “those deeply invested in Black cultural production” who are about five to seven years into their careers. An array of opportunities for growth through mentorship and experiences are provided, such as studio visits with notable artists; three-day, in-person workshops; and a research trip to Chicago. The selected participants are: Kendyll Gross (Newcomb Art Museum, Tulane University, New Orleans, La.); Naiomy Guerrero (Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture); Taylor Jasper (Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minn.); Dhyandra Lawson (Los Angeles County Museum of Art); David Lisbon (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York); Devin Malone (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco); Ade Omotosho (Dallas Museum of Art); and Antoinette Roberts (Baltimore Museum of Art). The praxis is one of a series of programs the museum has developed “with the goal of addressing the challenges of professional advancement in arts institutions.” | More
APPOINTMENTS | Feb. 26: In a statement from married co-founders George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, the forthcoming Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles announced Sandra Jackson-Dumont is stepping down as director and CEO, effective April 1. According to the statement, her decision was based on the role being divided into two positions. Going forward, Lucas will be in charge of content direction, and Jim Gianopulos, former chairman and CEO of 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures, is interim CEO. Jackson-Dumont joined the Lucas Museum in 2019. She previously served as chair of education at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A filmmaker and philanthropist, Lucas created the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, and Hobson is co-chief executive of the Ariel Investments. The Lucas Museum has a reported budget of $1 billion for construction, collections, and its endowment. The 300,000-square-foot museum is being built in Exposition Park. After multiple delays, it is expected to open in 2026. | More
AWARDS & HONORS | Feb. 26: Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colo., announced artist Titus Kaphar is the recipient of the 2025 International Artist Award. Kaphar will be recognized this summer during Ranch Week (July 7-12) with a series of programming, including a screening of his recent film “Exhibiting Forgiveness,” conversations with the artist and actor André Holland, and other activities. | More
APPOINTMENTS | Feb. 26: In Chicago, the Virgil Abloh foundation is expanding and announced the appointment of Dana Loatman (right) as inaugural executive director. The foundation was created by Sharon Abloh in 2021 after her husband, designer Virgil Abloh died. The nonprofit organization’s mission is to “advocate for greater equality and inclusion across creative industries and to support programs that meaningfully uplift communities of color.” Loatman previously served as chief of staff for external affairs at the Obama Foundation. Photo: Ashley Mia. | More
BIENNIALS | Feb. 26: Allison Glenn will curate the fourth edition of the Toronto Biennial of Art, which runs from September to December 2026. A New York-based writer and curator, Glenn serves as artistic director of The Shepherd, an arts campus in Detroit. | More
Shaunté Gates joined Marc Straus Gallery in New York, where he will have a solo exhibition in January 2026. | Courtesy the artist
REPRESENTATION | Feb. 27: In New York, Marc Straus Gallery announced its representation of Shaunté Gates (b. 1979). The artist, who lives and works in Washington, D.C., will continue to work with his existing galleries, Sperone Westwater and Zidoun Bossuyt. Gates was awarded a Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Grant in 2022 and was among 25 artists featured in “Men of Change: Power.Triumph. Truth,” the Smithsonian traveling exhibition that toured the nation from 2019 to 2023. “Poppies & Parachutes III: We Should Be Flying by Now” (Nov. 16, 2024-Jan. 5, 2025), his first solo exhibition in Paris, France, was recently presented at Zidoun Bossuyt. “Shaunté Gates: This is Not a Test” is currently on view at Ruth C. Norton Gallery in Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech, through March 30. The exhibition is “a survey of mixed-media paintings and densely layered works that combine photography, painting, collage, and found materials, resulting in surreal, dreamlike compositions that merge portraiture, landscape, and architecture.” In January 2026, Marc Straus will present its first solo exhibition of Gates. | More
NEWS | Feb. 27: Trump Administration executive orders, funding cuts, and policy changes are directly impacting the arts. Federally funded exhibitions featuring Black and LGBTQ+ artists have been canceled, National Endowment for the Arts grant guidelines have been modified, and leadership at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has been upended, among other shakeups. | Artnet News
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