On View: Firelei Báez Explores Diasporic Histories, Mythical Figures, and Imagined Realms at James Cohan Gallery in New York
While museums and galleries are temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 virus, On View will continue to showcase images from noteworthy exhibitions THE DYNAMIC WORKS of Firelei Báez are studies in contrast—bridging the past and future, marrying static documents with painterly gestural images bursting with color, energy, movement, and symbolism. Báez paints directly...
South Africa-Based Artist Billie Zangewa is Now Represented by New York Gallery Lehmann Maupin, Her Silk ‘Paintings’ Center the Lives and Experiences of Women
“Soldier of Love” (2020) by Billie Zangewa DRESSED IN A KHAKI TRENCH COAT, Billie Zangewa holds her young son’s hand, escorting him to school. He wears a backpack and a school uniform. Lush green foliage crowds their path. Behind them, the sky is a luminous pink. The everyday scene is of the artist’s own...
Slated to Showcase African American Art This Season, San Francisco Museums and Galleries are Closed Due to Coronavirus
Works by Rosie Lee Tompkins at BAMPFA UNDER THE LEADERSHIP of Mayor London Breed, San Francisco has fared relatively well over the past couple of months. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city has faced infections and deaths, but early actions by the mayor significantly contained its impact. As of May 4,...
Terry Adkins Conceived His Exhibitions as a Conversational Interplay Among Objects, Installations, and Musical Performances
RIGOROUS, POETIC, AND HIGHLY ABSTRACT, the practice of Terry Adkins (1953-2014) is a nexus of art, music, and language. He repurposed found objects and reimagined instruments; brought visibility to the layered biographies of pivotal historical figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Matthew Henson, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, Sojourner Truth, and John Brown; and...
‘Give Me Some Moments’: Lorna Simpson’s New Collages Channel the Imagined Lives and Complex Interiority of Black Women
THE IMAGES OF AFRICAN AMERICANS that populate the pages of vintage Ebony and Jet magazines have been a source of inspiration for Lorna Simpson for nearly a decade. Black men and children have featured in her collages, but overwhelmingly she’s focused on advertising images of Black women culled and cut from the pages of the...
Everyone Can Relate to Trees and Wood, So Hugh Hayden Uses the Materials to Change How We Think About Larger Cultural Issues
Today marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, a worldwide environmental movement to drive transformative change and positive action for our planet. THESE AREN’T ORDINARY LOGS, positioned just so, one on top of the other. Together, they form a mixed-media sculpture by Hugh Hayden. He meticulously collaged Sharptail grouse feathers to create the...
New Paintings by Stanley Whitney Speak to Enduring Influence of Rome and Realization That ‘Space is in the Color’
IN THE 1990s, Stanley Whitney spent five years in Rome. He says he arrived in 1992 or 1993 and that living and working in Rome was a turning point, the beginning of his “mature” work. Whitney speaks in a language of color, working within a grid structure mindful of rhythm, density, and space. Visually, the...
On View: ‘Sula Bermúdez-Silverman: Neither Fish, Flesh, nor Fowl’ at California African American Museum in Los Angeles
While museums and galleries are temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 virus, On View will continue to showcase images from noteworthy exhibitions THE FIRST SOLO MUSEUM EXHIBITION in Los Angeles of Sula Bermúdez-Silverman, debuted Feb. 28. “Sula Bermúdez-Silverman: Neither Fish, Flesh, nor Fowl” was open for about two weeks at the California African...
Knoxville Museum of Art Explores ‘Intellectual Exchange’ Between Artist Beauford Delaney and Writer James Baldwin
THE CREATIVITY of Beauford Delaney (1901-1979) flourished in New York City and Paris. An exhibition at his hometown museum brings attention to a pivotal relationship that thrived in parallel. “Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin: Through the Unusual Door” at the Knoxville Museum of Art explores the nearly four-decade relationship between Delaney and James Baldwin...
Beginning in Late 1950s, African American Painters Known as ‘Highwaymen’ Captured Florida’s Natural Landscapes
Untitled and undated painting by Harold Newton BEGINNING IN THE LATE 1950s, a group of mostly self-taught African American artists devoted themselves to capturing Florida’s natural landscapes. During a time when Black artists were generally focused on figuration and the best way to express themselves in the wake of Jim Crow and the fight...
On View: ‘Christina Quarles’ at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
While museums and galleries are temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 virus, On View will continue to showcase images from noteworthy exhibitions REPRESENTING THE BODY as flexible and free, contorted and constricted, intertwined and engaged, the work of Christina Quarles reflects the pressures and pleasures of life and the complexities of identity. The...
On View: ‘Alpha Crucis – Contemporary African Art’ at Astrup Fearnley Museum in Oslo, Norway
While museums and galleries are temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 virus, On View will continue to showcase images from noteworthy exhibitions SINCE 2005, the Astrup Fearnley Museum has been staging expansive exhibitions exploring national and continental art scenes around the world. After showcasing the United States, Brazil, India, China and Europe, the...
Kara Walker Has Opened Her Personal Archive, Showing Nearly 270 Drawings
GRAND SCALE narrative installations, figurative scenes produced as cut-paper silhouettes, brought early acclaim to Kara Walker more than 25 years ago. More recently, she has ventured into monumental public art. Her first foray was in 2014, when she created “A Subtlety,” her massive sphinx-like mammy figure, a sculpture covered entirely with sugar installed at...
50 Years After His Death, William H. Johnson’s Work is Showcased in Museum Exhibitions and Rare Solo Presentation by Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
ACTIVE FOR ABOUT TWO DECADES, American artist William H. Johnson (1901-1970) made paintings in two distinct styles over the course of his career. Living in Europe from the mid-1920s to 30s, he developed a modern aesthetic making expressive and moody landscapes and later took an interest in folk art and what he called a...
A Masterful Portrait Painter, Barkley L. Hendricks Produced an Early Series of Basketball Paintings Grounded in Abstraction
“Father, Son, and…” (1969) by Barkley L. Hendricks ONE OF THE BIG DRAWS at the Jack Shainman booth at Frieze Los Angeles last month was a triptych by Barkley L. Hendricks (1945-2017) called “Father, Son,…” Given the title and the artist’s renown for making masterful portraits that convey his subject’s cool style and mien,...
On View: ‘Tau Lewis: Sparkle’s Map Home’ at Oakville Galleries in Ontario
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions FOUND AND RECYCLED TEXTILES are at the heart of Tau Lewis‘s practice. She makes labor-intensive sculptural portraits constructed with hand-sewing, quilting, and assemblage techniques. Her work explores memory, agency, and individual and collective trauma and healing. For example, recent works have considered the legacy of loss...
Artist List for Prospect New Orleans Triennial Includes Mark Bradford, Willie Birch, Simone Leigh, Dawoud Bey, Glenn Ligon, Karon Davis, Naudline Pierre, and Kevin Beasley
Still from single-channel video by Tiona Nekkia McClodden THE ARTIST LIST for Prospect New Orleans was officially announced today. Invited artists for the 2020 triennial include Los Angeles-based Mark Bradford, who participated in the first Prospect New Orleans more than a decade ago and is contributing a major new site-specific work; the late Georgia-born...
The Year Ahead in African American Art: What to See and Do in 2020
THE YEAR IN BLACK ART is off to a fascinating start. In January, Helen Molesworth organized a Noah Davis (1983-2015) exhibition at David Zwirner gallery in New York, a rare look at more than 20 paintings by the late Los Angeles-based artist and founder of the Underground Museum. The Johnson Publishing Company art collection...
In a Series of Dignified Portraits, Ajamu Kojo Recalls the Racial Violence that Destroyed ‘Black Wall Street’ Nearly 100 Years Ago
NEARLY A CENTURY AGO, the Greenwood section of Tulsa, Okla., was destroyed. The thriving black business district known as Black Wall Street was besieged in 1921, from May 31 to June 1, by a white mob attacking residents and their homes and businesses. The massacre leveled 35 square blocks, killing countless people (reports range...
National Portrait Gallery: African Americans and Racial Justice are Popular Subjects at Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition
OCCURRING EVERY THREE YEARS, the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition has showcased the work of numerous African American artists. Amy Sherald won first prize in 2016, transforming her career. In the latest cycle, Deborah Roberts, Genevieve Gaignard, Lava Thomas and Nona Faustine are among the finalists, and Wayde McIntosh tied for third prize. Their works...
