IN NEW YORK CITY, Jack Shainman Gallery announced its exclusive representation of the Estate of Faith Ringgold and the Anyone Can Fly Foundation. Faith Ringgold (1930-2024) was a profound and pivotal figure in the New York art world. Her art offered sharp commentary on America’s ills and her activism led to historic change and opportunities for fellow artists. Best known for her powerful political paintings and narrative story quilts, Ringgold expressed herself in an array of other mediums, including political posters, soft sculpture, and performance.
Jack Shainman plans to present a solo exhibition of Ringgold in November at the gallery’s new Tribeca location. The representation news comes one year after the passing of Ringgold. The influential artist, activist, author, and educator died April 13, 2024, at the age of 93. Previously, Ringgold was represented by ACA Galleries in New York, dating back to 1995.
Faith Ringgold (1930-2024). | Photo by Meron Menghistab, Courtesy Anyone Can Fly Foundation and Jack Shainman Gallery
“It is an absolute privilege to be able to represent the Estate of Faith Ringgold and the Anyone Can Fly Foundation, and to do our part in helping to further cement the legacy of an artist who played such a significant role in shaping the culture of American art,” Gallery Founder Jack Shainman said in the representation announcement.
“Faith Ringgold’s work touches on themes that continue to be relevant to our current social and political climates, perhaps more so now than they have since their creation, and I could not be more proud to have the opportunity to continue to give her and her work a platform.”
BORN IN HARLEM N.Y., Ringgold lived and worked in Englewood, N.J. She earned B.S. and M.A. degrees in visual art from the City College of New York, in 1955 and 1959. Subsequently, she taught at several institutions, including the New York Public Schools, Pratt Institute, and the University of California, San Diego (1984-2002), where she retired as a professor emerita.
In the late 1960s and 70s, Ringgold fought to be seen and heard and for representation of Black artists and women artists in New York City museums in terms of acquisitions and exhibitions. She picketed and protested bringing about contemporary and generational change, creating opportunities for many artists, including herself.
In terms of her own artistic path, Ringgold challenged institutions and art history. Her work viewed society through an unvarnished lens, exploring American racism, the cultures of Harlem and Paris, the multifaceted lives of women, and her own biography.
Throughout her more than six-decade career, Ringgold’s work was featured in a variety of solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums. She received her greatest recognition from major institutions in her later years with key museum acquisitions; representation in landmark group shows (“Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power,” “We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85,” and “Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today”); and lavishly illustrated publications with scholarly essays.
Ringgold was also the subject of a series retrospectives and expansive solo shows presented at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.; Serpentine Galleries in London; Glenstone Museum in Potomac, Md.; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; de Young Museum in San Francisco, Calif.; and New Museum in New York, N.Y., among other institutions.
In 1999, Ringgold founded the Anyone Can Fly Foundation. The foundation honors and promotes artists of the African Diaspora and introduces audiences of all ages to African American master artists. Her multifaceted practice also included publishing more than 20 children’s books.
“It is an absolute privilege to be able to represent the Estate of Faith Ringgold and the Anyone Can Fly Foundation, and to do our part in helping to further cement the legacy of an artist who played such a significant role in shaping the culture of American art.” — Gallery Founder Jack Shainman
THE ROSTER at Jack Shainman features an international slate of 39 artists. The gallery has a longstanding reputation for working with a racially and geographically diverse group of artists “who engage in the social and cultural issues of their time.” This foundational aspect of the gallery is particularly attractive to Michele Wallace, Ringgold’s daughter and a scholar of the artist’s work.
Nearly half the artists the gallery works with are Black, including El Anatsui, Kerry James Marshall, Nina Chanel Abney, Nick Cave, Meleko Mokgosi, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, the Estates of Barkley L. Hendricks and Gordon Parks, as well as Diedrick Brackens and Hank Willis Thomas, both of whom have been particularly inspired by Ringgold. In the announcement, Wallace said:
“Faith Ringgold’s life and work has been the source of inspiration, hope and guidance for so many, whether that be in the arts or the world of organizing and activism. Jack Shainman Gallery’s long history of supporting Black American artists, while also helping to grow the institutional awareness and embrace of their work, aligns with Faith’s efforts and the mission of the Anyone Can Fly Foundation. We could not have imagined finding better partners to help us deepen the legacy of Faith Ringgold.” CT
FIND MORE about Faith Ringgold on Instagram
FIND MORE about Faith Ringgold via a memorial tribute and obituary on Culture Type
BOOKSHELF
“Faith Ringgold: American People” was published on the occasion of the New Museum exhibition of the same name. The volume examines the entire career of Faith Ringgold. Another recent volume, “Faith Ringgold: Politics/Power,” showcases the artist’s most potent and profound political works. “Faith Ringgold” is published to document the survey exhibition at Glenstone Museum in Potomac, Md. The volume is an updated and expanded version of the catalog published in 2020 to accompany the show’s presentation at Serpentine Galleries in London. In 2018, the Museum of Modern Art published “Faith Ringgold: Die,” a book dedicated to “American People Series #20: Die,” Ringgold’s monumental 1967 painting now in the museum’s collection. Ringgold’s early activism is documented in Susan E. Cahan’s book, “Mounting Frustration: The Art Museum in the Age of Black Power.” For children, “The Met Faith Ringgold: Narrating the World in Pattern and Color (What the Artist Saw),” is published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Children’s books authored and illustrated by Ringgold include “Tar Beach,” “Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky,” and “Harlem Renaissance Party,” among many others.
