November Exhibitions: 18 New Shows Feature African American Artists Nick Cave, Ellen Gallagher, Sam Gilliam, Mark Bradford, Nina Chanel Abney, Kehinde Wiley, and More
“White River Fish Kill” (2017) by Nina Chanel Abney. PROSPECT.4 OPENS TO THE PUBLIC on Saturday. The international triennial features major exhibitions and inventive installations by more than 70 artists, including prominent artists of African descent, the late Barkley L. Hendricks, Derrick Adams, John Akomfrah, Hank Willis Thomas, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Kahlil Joseph, Odili...
October Openings: Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Toyin Ojih Odutola, John Akomfrah, African Design, Hank Willis Thomas Debuts in London, and Women Working in Abstraction
THE FALL SEASON continues with an international slate of black artists presenting new and important work in the United States and abroad. The Whitney is hosting Toyin Ojih Odutola‘s first exhibition in a New York museum. A monumental exhibition of African design is making its U.S. debut at the High Museum in Atlanta. Njideka...
Soul of a Nation: Jack Whitten on Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and ‘the Political’ in His Abstract Paintings
Jack Whitten walks through “Soul of a Nation” at the Tate Modern and talks about his work and “present times” in America. | Video by Tate Modern NO STRANGER TO RACIAL DIVISION and political strife, Jack Whitten’s abstract canvases tackle weighty issues, confront hard truths, and consider the insights and sacrifices of important cultural...
Known for Her Conceptual Portraiture, Toyin Ojih Odutola’s First Solo Museum Show in New York Opens at the Whitney Oct. 20
OYIN OJIH ODUTOLA (b. 1985), “Pregnant,” 2017 (charcoal, pastel and pencil on paper, 74 1/2 x 42 inches). | © Toyin Ojih Odutola. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York FOR HER FIRST SOLO MUSEUM EXHIBITION in New York, Toyin Ojih Odutola plumbs the culture and heritage of her native Nigeria. She...
A Major Retrospective of Conceptual Pioneer Adrian Piper is Opening at Museum of Modern Art in 2018
THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (MoMA) in New York is presenting a major retrospective of conceptual artist Adrian Piper in spring 2018. The most comprehensive exhibition to explore her practice,”Adrian Piper: A Synthesis of Intuitions, 1965–2016″ will feature more than 280 works drawn from public and private collections around the world and be on...
New Season, New Art: Fall Begins with 45 Notable Exhibitions Featuring Works by Black Artists
THE FALL EXHIBITION SEASON IS UNDERWAY and a wide variety of amazing shows featuring Black artists is on view in museums and galleries. This month, exhibitions featuring major figures and emerging talents opened across the United States and at international venues. Kara Walker, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Jordan Casteel, Kahlil Joseph, Chris Ofili, Adrian Piper, and...
‘Black Pope’ by Charles White is Going on View at Museum of Modern Art in October
FOUR YEARS AFTER ACQUIRING “Black Pope (Sandwich Board Man)” by Charles White (1918-1979), the Museum of Modern Art in New York will display the signature work for the first time in a special exhibition conceived by artist David Hammons. “Charles White—Leonardo da Vinci. Curated by David Hammons” opens Oct. 7 and pairs “Black Pope”...
Julie Mehretu: ‘What Does It Mean to Paint a Landscape in this Political Moment?’
FOR MORE THAN TWO DECADES, curators at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) have been commissioning artists to create works for a pair of walls in its voluminous atrium. In 1997, Sol LeWitt was the first artist selected. Kerry James Marshall painted murals for the space in 2008. In anticipation of the...
Summer Shows: New Exhibitions Feature African American Artists Beverly Buchanan, Arthur Jafa, Glenn Ligon and Bradford Young
A NUMBER OF GEMS OPENED this month. Summer tends to be a relatively quiet season art-wise, but this year major international events—Venice Biennale, Documenta 14, and Art Basel—are coinciding with compelling gallery and museum exhibitions featuring works by black artists. From San Francisco and Detroit, to Greece, London and Cape Town, exhibitions by artists including...
‘Figuring History’: Seattle Art Museum Announces Major Three-Artist Exhibition Featuring Robert Colescott, Kerry James Marshall, and Mickalene Thomas
ROBERT COLESCOTT, “George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware” (1975). THE SEATTLE ART MUSEUM (SAM) is organizing a major exhibition of three critically recognized African American artists—Robert Colescott (1925-2009), Kerry James Marshall, and Mickalene Thomas. The exhibition will explore how their distinct approaches to figuration and history painting have recast the Western canon and challenged...
The Age of Basquiat: New Books, Important Exhibitions, and Soaring Auction Sales Are Substantiating the Artist’s Legacy
Embed from Getty Images FASCINATION WITH THE LIFE AND WORK of Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) has never really quelled since his death three decades ago. Over the past few years, a crush of exhibitions and catalogs, and soaring auctions sales have further shaped the legacy of Basquiat whose life was cut short by a drug...
Nasher Museum Hosting Barkley Hendricks Memorial Celebration, Presenting Special Tribute Exhibition of Artist’s Work
Barkley Hendricks (1945-2017). | Photo by Duke University, Courtesy Jack Shainman Gallery THE NASHER MUSEUM OF ART at Duke University is celebrating the life and work of Barley L. Hendricks (1945-2017) today. The extended museum and campus community, along with the family, friends, and fans of Hendricks are gathering at the museum to pay...
Artist and Citizen: Mark Bradford Presents His Democratic Vision at Venice Biennale
Installation view, from left, MARK BRADFORD, “Leucosia,” 2016 (mixed media on canvas); “Medusa,” 2016 (acrylic, paint, paper, rope, caulk), and “Raidne,” 2017 (mixed media on canvas). OVER THE PAST YEAR, Mark Bradford has been ruminating. Chosen in April 2016 to represent the United States at the 57th Venice Biennale, the Los Angeles artist has...
May Exhibitions: Mark Bradford Reps U.S. at Venice Biennale, Martine Syms at MoMA, Plus Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Pope.L, Beauford Delaney, Kehinde Wiley, and More
MUST-SEE EXHIBITIONS featuring some of the most interesting black female artists working today are opening around the world this month. The first solo museum show of Los Angeles-based Martine Syms opens May 27 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In the same city, an amazing show of new portrait paintings by British...
Celebrating Earth Day with Alma Thomas’s Nature-Inspired ‘Earth’ Paintings
Alma Thomas, “Untitled,” circa 1968. | MoMA A NEW EXHIBITION at the Museum of Modern Art in New York is dedicated to works by women artists created between the end of World War II in 1945 and the onset of the Feminist Movement in the late 1960s. “Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction”...
April Exhibitions: Mark Bradford Pays Homage to Clyfford Still, Plus ‘Black Radical Women,’ Radcliffe Bailey, Deana Lawson, Nari Ward, Terry Adkins, and More
SPRING SHOWS ARE HERE and the rich selection runs the gamut, from exhibitions of innovative new works to scholarly examinations of important historic movements. Exploring the intersection of race, feminism, political action, art production, the much-anticipated “We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85” is opening at the Brooklyn Museum. In advance of his representation...
Black Radical Women: This Spring, Several Group Shows Bring Together Works by African American Female Artists
NEARLY 40 YEARS AGO, the College Art Association’s National Women’s Caucus for Art planned an exhibition featuring works by “Afro-American” women artists. Co-curated by Emily Martin and Tritobia Benjamin (1944-2014), an art historian and professor at Howard University, the show was to be presented at CAA’s 1979 annual conference in Washington, D.C. Forty-six artists—including...
From London to New York, Whitney Biennial Artist Henry Taylor is Having a Major Art World Moment
HENRY TAYLOR’s paintings on view at 2017 Whitney Biennial, including his depiction of Philando Castile, at right. | Photograph by Matthew Carasella, Courtesy Whitney Museum THROUGH LOOSLY RENDERED FIGURATION Henry Taylor conveys a sense of authenticity and insight into the complexity of humanity. The Los Angeles-based artist is participating in the 2017 Whitney Biennial,...
March Exhibitions: Kerry James Marshall and Theaster Gates Open at Major Museums, Plus Beverly Buchanan, Derrick Adams, Leonardo Drew & More
AMONG EXHIBITIONS OPENING in March, presentations at major museums include Kerry James Marshall’s “Mastry” survey at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the last stop on its critically praised, three-venue tour. And Theaster Gates has a tightly curated show that just opened at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. “In the...
Recognition: Souls Grown Deep is Collaborating with Museums on Acquisitions of Art by African Americans From the South
THORNTON DIAL (1965-1998), “Lost Cows”, 2000-2001 SOON, THE GALLERIES at the de Young Museum in San Francisco will echo the American South. Works by African American contemporary artists from Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, and Florida will be presented in six spaces at the museum where the institution’s permanent collection is usually on view. An...
