Artist Charles White Was a Devoted Teacher Who Served as a ‘Life Model’ to Countless Students in Los Angeles and Beyond
FOR THE FIRST TIME in more than three decades, “Charles White: A Retrospective” offered a career-spanning overview of Charles White, whose powerful paintings and drawings capture the strength, beauty, and dignity of African Americans. While showcasing White’s artistic practice was the focus of the museum survey, his son, Ian White, realized the traveling exhibition...
In an Interview Coinciding with His First Exhibition at Gagosian, Nathaniel Mary Quinn Tells Anderson Cooper: ‘My Paintings Come to Me as Visions’
EXPLORING THE INTERSECTION of reality, memory, and perception, Nathaniel Mary Quinn paints composite portraits that read as collage. In actuality, they are produced with oil paint, gouache, charcoal, oil stick, and pastels in his own hand. He has said his fragmented and visually layered portraits are based on the faces of people he...
Ernie Barnes Retrospective Brings Renewed Attention to African American Artist Who Found Fame After Playing Pro Football
“The Sugar Shack” (1976) by Ernie Barnes LOS ANGELES—A master storyteller, Ernie Barnes (1938-2009) painted from experience. He captured the brawn of football and the quotidian of life in the segregated South. His representational images depict what he saw growing up in Durham, N.C., where black people gathered for communion and competition on porches and...
Curator Bridget R. Cooks Explains How the Ernie Barnes Retrospective Landed at the California African American Museum
WHEN THE PASADENA MUSEUM of California Art (PMCA) unexpectedly closed last October, after 16 years, there were three final exhibitions on view, including “Grafton Tyler Brown: Exploring California,” a small survey of Pacific Northwest landscape paintings and commercial lithographs. A pioneer, Grafton Tyler Brown (1841-1918) was the state’s first African American contractor and is...
On View: ‘Tricknology: Ektor Garcia and Allison Janae Hamilton,’ Curated by Sanford Biggers at Marianne Boesky in Aspen, Colo.
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions PROVIDING A PLATFORM for two up-and-coming artists, Sanford Biggers is presenting the work of Allison Janae Hamilton and ektor garcia at Marianne Boesky. (The gallery has represented Biggers since 2016.) Both artists make complex, narrative works. Garcia employs ceramics, crochet, and weaving techniques working with fibrous materials,...
In Los Angeles, Landmark Exhibitions are Showcasing the Photography of Gordon Parks, Kwame Brathwaite, and Figures Who Documented Hip Hop
“Black Is Beautiful: The Photography of Kwame Brathwaite,” Skirball Cultural Center THREE PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITIONS on view at Los Angeles institutions feature the work of Gordon Parks, Kwame Brathwaite, and photographers who have trained their lenses on the legends of hip hop. The Getty Center is presenting Parks’s 1961 images of Flávio da Silva, a...
Truth Teller: Next Month, Henry Taylor is Presenting a Series of New Portraits at Blum & Poe in New York
WHETHER YOU CALL HIM a figurative painter or a portrait painter, labels he is reluctant to embrace, Henry Taylor paints people, almost exclusively. He paints his family, his friends, people in his neighborhood, and people he meets when he travels. He connects with his subjects and has a real curiosity about their lives, which...
Kind of Blue: In Menorca, Stanley Whitney’s Colorful Grid Paintings are in Dialogue with an Iconic Yves Klein Installation
A SUMMER EXHIBITION in Mahon, Menorca, off the coast of Spain, brings together two artists deeply committed to color: Stanley Whitney and Yves Klein (1928-1962). “Stanley Whitney / Yves Klein: This Array of Colors” at Galería Cayón presents six recent paintings by Whitney with Klein’s “Pure Pigment.” A floor installation consisting solely of a...
On View: ‘Genevieve Gaignard: I’m Sorry I Never Told You That You’re Beautiful’ at Vielmetter Los Angeles
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THROUGH THE LENS of self-portraiture and symbolic domestic spaces, Los Angeles-based Genevieve Gaignard explores American constructs of identity, beauty, blackness, and whiteness. She considers racial logic and racial formation. Her latest exhibition, “I’m Sorry I Never Told You That You’re Beautiful,” features mixed-media works on panel, photographic...
Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art is Showcasing Women Artists, a Group Vastly Underrepresented in its Collection
“Liberal Women Protest March I” (1995) by Nike Davies-Okundaye of Nigeria THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN ART is celebrating women artists. Over the past five years, the Smithsonian museum has doubled its holdings of art by women. Showcasing some of the recent acquisitions, “I Am… Contemporary Women Artists of Africa,” opened in June. The...
Coming Soon: Derrick Adams is Presenting a Series of Family Portraits for His First Hometown Solo Show in Baltimore
FOR AN EXHIBITION in his hometown of Baltimore Derrick Adams drew on his personal history, sourcing images from a family photo album. Inspired by the decades-old images, he made a series of paintings documenting scenes from his childhood—a pair of bridesmaids in matching turquoise blue dresses, children playing in the yard with a yellow...
Marcus Brutus Paints Portraits of Black Life That Connect Contemporary Narratives to Generations of Culture and History
IN THE HANDS OF Marcus Brutus scenes of contemporary black life are saturated with vibrant color and layered with cultural references. Harper’s Books in East Hampton, N.Y., is presenting the artist’s second solo show. About two-dozen paintings made in 2018 and 2019 are on view. The individual and group portraits and scenes of leisure and...
Mariane Ibrahim is Opening Her New Chicago Gallery in September with a Solo Exhibition Dedicated to Ayana V. Jackson
AFTER SEVEN YEARS in Seattle, Mariane Ibrahim has moved her eponymous gallery to Chicago. The new gallery opens next month with an inaugural exhibition dedicated to Ayana V. Jackson, an American artist whose photography examines the construction of identity. Titled “Take Me to the Water,” the presentation will feature a new series of large-scale...
On View: ‘Wadsworth Jarrell: Come Saturday Punch’ at Kavi Gupta in Chicago
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions CHARTING THE EVOLUTION of Wadsworth Jarrell‘s practice, “Come Saturday Punch” presents more than two-dozen works spanning 55 years. One of five original co-founders of AfriCOBRA, the collective established in Chicago in 1968, Jarrell has maintained a unique visual voice throughout his career. True to, but unbound...
On View: ‘Reality, Times Two: Joyce J. Scott & Elizabeth Talford Scott’ at Goya Contemporary in Baltimore
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions CELEBRATING THE CREATIVE CONNECTIONS between a mother and daughter, “REALITY, Times two” presents works by quilt artist Elizabeth Talford Scott (1916-2011) and bead artist Joyce J. Scott. The Baltimore artists lived together for more than 60 years until Elizabeth died in 2011. Born on a South Carolina...
On View: ‘Souls Grown Deep: Artists of the African American South’ at Philadelphia Museum of Art
“The Old Water” (2004) by Thornton Dial Sr. On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THORTON DIAL SR. (1928-2016), made symbolic mixed-media paintings and sculptural assemblage works with profound titles. “The Last Day of Martin Luther King” (1992), references the civil rights leader’s assassination, a moment of national tragedy, sadness, and mourning, and an...
On View: ‘Show Me Yours’ with Brittney Leeanne Williams, Jake Troyli, and Bianca Nemelc at Monique Meloche in Chicago
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THE UNIFYING THEME of “Show Me Yours” is not readily apparent, until you look closely. The exhibition features paintings by three emerging artists—Brittney Leeanne Williams, Jake Troyli, and Bianca Nemelc—each offering a unique interpretation of the nude form through the lens of identity. Rendered in electric pink,...
‘Harlem: In Situ’ at Addison Gallery Explores the Neighborhood’s Complex History and Influence on Generations of Artists
“Three Little Girls Eating Ice Cream Cones” (1936) by Lucien Aigner WHILE AFRICAN AMERICANS have lived in Harlem for centuries, photographers and artists have notably documented what became black Harlem for about 100 years and continue to train their sights on the cultural mecca increasingly defined by gentrification. The storied Harlem that captures the...
Black Female Artists Are Headlining Exhibitions Throughout London This Summer
MORE THAN A DOZEN EXHIBITIONS, most in and around London, are showcasing the work of black female artists this summer. Presented at museums, nonprofits, and commercial galleries, many of the shows are breaking new ground for the artists, who span generations. Faith Ringgold at Serpentine Galleries is making her European institutional solo debut and...
On View: At Serpentine Galleries in London, Faith Ringgold’s First Solo Exhibition at a European Institution
Artist Faith Ringgold, artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist, and curator Melissa Blanchflower discuss Ringgold’s longstanding career and current exhibition at Serpentine Galleries. | Video by Serpentine Galleries On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions SERPENTINE GALLERIES is presenting a five-decade survey of pioneering American artist Faith Ringgold, 88. Throughout her career, Ringgold has worked...
