IN MINNEAPOLIS, MINN., the Walker Art Center named Taylor Jasper assistant curator of visual arts. The appointment was announced Jan. 10. A member of a growing team in the Visual Arts department, Jasper’s portfolio will span exhibitions, acquisitions, artist projects, and public programming. She is joining the Walker from The Momentary, a contemporary art...
The Best Black Art Books of 2022 explore the work of El Anatsui, Firelei Báez, Richard Hunt, Marilyn Nance, Henry Taylor, Black potters, Haitian artists, and more TWO NEW BOOKS harken back nearly 50 years exploring profound moments in Black art history. Published on the occasion of a major exhibition at the Museum of...
BLACK CURATORS AND ARTS LEADERS took on key roles at a variety of museums and arts institutions in the second half of 2022. Sean Decatur will be the next president of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), a world-renowned New York institution that welcomes about 5 million visitors a year. Announced early this...
CRITICALLY RECOGNIZED African American artists are introducing their work to wider audiences through accessible products and design objects sold at museums, galleries, and other outlets. Major exhibitions of Faith Ringgold, Henry Taylor, and Nick Cave this year have inspired skateboard decks, hoodies, boxed note cards, and fine china plates. Artist Kehinde Wiley’s online shop...
IN WASHINGTON, D.C., the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) is announcing a new leader today. Tsione Wolde-Michael has been appointed executive director of the committee. Engaging with artists, scholars, and cultural heritage leaders, PCAH strives to center the arts, humanities, and museum and library services in the civic and cultural...
November highlights include Courtney Willis Blair heading White Cube gallery in New York, Alonzo Davis archives go to Driskell Center, first Black board chair at Florida’s Ringling Museum of Art, Mariane Ibrahim gallery opening in Mexico City < APPOINTMENTS | Nov. 4: John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art Foundation in Sarasota, Fla.,...
CELEBRATIONS AND HARD-WON RECOGNITION of Faith Ringgold and her singular practice continue apace. Over the past several years, Ringgold has been celebrated by major international institutions through awards, media profiles, publications, and exhibitions. The latest honor hails from London. Apollo, the international art magazine, announced its annual awards and Ringgold was named Artist of...
Artist Abdulrazaq Awofeso. | Photo by Tegen Kimbley AFTER ESTABLISHING a unique practice that reflects his own biography and also speaks to global issues, Abdulrazaq Awofeso is working with a new gallery. Ed Cross Fine Art in London recently announced its representation of the sculptor and installation artist. Working with discarded and dismantled wood...
IT’S NEARLY UNHEARD OF for a white-owned art gallery to offer a stake in the business to a Black dealer. Courtney Willis Blair was in rare company in January 2021 when she was named partner and senior director at Mitchell-Innes & Nash in New York. Willis Blair is continuing to break new ground in...
OVER THE PAST 25 years, Kenneth Montague has built an expansive photography-based collection that explores Blackness and the Black experience, visualizing what Black life looks like on both sides of the Atlantic. The Wedge Collection features images by Black artists from throughout the diaspora—from Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, Great Britain, South America,...
MAJOR PAINTINGS by Norman Lewis, Sam Gilliam, Charles Alston, Edward Bannister, and Romare Bearden are among the auction highlights at Bonhams in New York this week. The premium works by key figures of 19th and 20th century African American art represent the legacy of a family and a longstanding Black-owned gallery. Featured in the...
NOEL W. ANDERSON, “Patsey,” (stretched tapestry, 83.3/4 x 110 inches / 213 x 279.4 cm). | From the artist’s studio WORKING PRIMARILY WITH ARCHIVAL PHOTOGRAPHS, Noel W. Anderson reproduces images of police brutality, Black masculinity, and Black love on jacquard tapestries. He reinvents and manipulates both the images and the surfaces of the textiles,...
October highlights include chief curator appointment at San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora, recipients of Studio Museum’s Wein Prize, new gallery representation for Lubaina Himid and Deana Lawson Key Jo Lee is joining Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco in newly created chief of curatorial affairs and public programs position...
Neon Museum Visitor Center designed by Paul R. Williams. | Courtesy Neon Museum IN DOWNTOWN LAS VEGAS, the Neon Museum is celebrating 10 years at its current location on Las Vegas Boulevard with a special proclamation from the city. The museum collects, restores, and exhibits iconic neon signs, preserving the legacy and symbols of...
ALMA THOMAS IS RECOGNIZED for her masterful use of color, pattern, and rhythm. With cascading columns of color raining down on a large-scale canvas, “The Eagle Has Landed” (1970-71) is a prominent example of her famed Space paintings. Dominated by vertical planes of blue-toned dabs, the abstract work was inspired by the first moon...
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions RECENT FIGURATIVE PAINTINGS and works on paper by Otis Quaicoe are on view at the Portland Art Museum, the artist’s adopted hometown museum. Born in Ghana, Quaicoe moved to Portland, Ore., in 2017, joining his new wife in the city where she lived and worked....
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions FOR HIS FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION in London and his first solo show with Gagosian gallery, Tyler Mitchell is presenting a new series of transporting photographs of Black figures that blend the serene with the surreal. Made this year, the images were captured among the natural...
September marked the start of the fall exhibition season, the death of artist Valerie Maynard, and announcements of several six-figure artist prizes LIVES | Valerie Maynard (1937-2022) was subject of focused survey at Baltimore Museum of Art (2020-21) and keynote speaker and honorary degree recipient at Maryland Institute College of Art’s 2021 commencement....
Incoming Board President Michelle Jacques THE ASSOCIATION of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) & AAMC Foundation announced a new leadership team. Michelle Jacques has been appointed president of the board of trustees for a two-year term beginning Jan. 1. She brings more than two decades of experience in the field to her new role. Currently,...
AT A TIME WHEN NEW YORK CITY galleries and museums had little interest in African American artists, Linda Goode Bryant established Just Above Midtown, a gallery and community space that served as both sanctuary and experimental platform for artists of color. Half a century after its founding in 1974, Just Above Midtown is now...