Beyond the Fairs: London’s Must-See Exhibitions Featuring Black Artists
Embed from Getty Images LONDON IS THE PLACE TO BE this week with the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair and Frieze London underway. The fourth edition of 1:54 is open Oct. 6-9 at Somerset House. According to the fair, 40 exhibitors are presenting more than 130 African and African diasporan artists, alongside a program...
Where My Girls At?: 28+ Opportunities to See and Support the Work of Black Female Artists and Curators This Fall
Works by Alma Thomas, Simone Leigh, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye IT WAS A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM, a celebration of two important women in art—Alma Thomas (1891-1978) and Thelma Golden. The artist and the director of the Studio Museum in Harlem were both born Sept. 22. Thomas would have been 125. To mark the milestone,...
Gifted: Photographer Jaimie Milner Pays Tribute to Beauty, Ingenuity of Black Men
Jaimie Milner and some of the men she has photographed discuss the Gifted project. FOR MORE THAN FIVE YEARS, Jaimie Milner has been photographing black men. She describes the process as an exploration of the “beauty and ingenuity of black men today.” Milner has made portraits of more than 50 so far, from all...
With the Smithsonian African American Museum Set to Open in Washington, the Entire City is Brimming with Black Art
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is exhibiting works from its collection by African American artists including WILLIAM H. JOHNSON. WITH THE GRAND OPENING of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) less than a week away, anticipation is palpable. Visitor passes for the opening weekend disappeared shortly after their release...
Lorna Simpson Goes to Washington, Gives Inaugural Photography Lecture at National Gallery of Art
LORNA SIMPSON, “Untitled (Two Necklines),” 1989 WASHINGTON, D.C. — TWO DAYS AFTER her new exhibition of paintings opened at Salon 94 in New York, Lorna Simpson gave a talk at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. She offered a visual journey of her practice over the past three decades, sharing the concepts...
At Smithsonian, Carl Van Vechten’s Photographs Document Familiar Faces, Key Figures From Harlem’s Heydays
Artist Jacob Lawrence, photo by CARL VAN VECHTEN SOME OF THE MOST AMAZING PORTRAITS of Harlem’s 20th century figures were captured by Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964). A writer and photographer, Van Vechten socialized with the greats of African American arts and letters, including Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. A white patron of the...
Hammer Museum Launches Digital Archive with ‘Now Dig This!’ Exhibition About Black Artists in Los Angeles
THE HAMMER MUSEUM has breathed new life into one of its most dynamic and historically significant exhibitions. “Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980” explored a robust period in the city’s history when a pioneering group of African American artists established an influential creative community and produced important works commenting on the...
Race/Related: Times Reporting Team Gets Backstory on ‘A Man Was Lynched’ Redux
LAST WEEK IN NEW YORK CITY, artist Dread Scott joined protestors in Union Square. The demonstrators were taking a stand against police killing black men after the latest incidents involving the deaths of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La., and Philando Castile in Minneapolis. Scott brought a huge black flag, holding it aloft for...
Global Trotting: From Toronto to London and Addis Ababa, 17 Exhibitions Present the Work of Black Artists This Summer
TRAVELING TO TORONTO? Stop by Art Gallery Ontario (AGO) in Toronto, Canada, where a pair of solo exhibitions featuring British artist Hurvin Anderson and Chicago artist Theaster Gates are on view this summer. Both are also exhibiting in Europe. There is a Gates exhibition in Milan, Italy, and “Hurvin Anderson: Dub Versions” is at the...
Almost Famous: The Ebb and Flow of Sam Gilliam’s Formidable Practice
A MUST-READ PROFILE of Sam Gilliam published last week in The Washington Post, begins with a quote from the artist about him being “outlandishly famous.” The comment is meant to be facetious, but is actually not too far off base when one considers the recent trajectory of his recognition weighed against periods of his...
For Your Summer Agenda, 49 U.S. Exhibitions Featuring Works by Black Artists
This summer, artists including (clockwise from left) Nari Ward, Simone Leigh, Fred Wilson, Chakaia Booker, and John Akomfrah, are presenting solo exhibitions. THIS SUMMER 2016, incredible exhibitions featuring artists of African descent are on view across the United States. From Los Angeles, to Chicago, Atlanta, and New York, museums and galleries and public spaces...
Culture Talk: Curator Adrienne Edwards on Her New Exhibition ‘Blackness in Abstraction’
PACE GALLERY IS PRESENTING a few of Adrienne Edwards’s “favorite things.” It’s how the curator describes works by black contemporary artists about whom she writes and has a social and intellectual connection, and modern standouts with whom she has been “obsessed” over the course of her academic and professional career. A veteran curator at Performa...
Martin Puryear Appreciates the Dichotomy of ‘Big Bling,’ His Largest Sculpture to Date
Martin Puryear: “Big Bling” | Video by Art21 RISING AMONG THE TREES in Madison Square Park, “Big Bling” is a monument to Martin Puryear‘s practice. Standing 40-feet high, it is the largest temporary outdoor sculpture the artist has created. Part animal, part abstract form, from afar the voluminous sculpture looks heavy, but upon closer...
All in the Family: Artist Larry Walker Debuts at His Daughter’s Gallery
LARRY WALKER, “Other Voices – Other Spaces: Urban Spirits, Wall Series,” 2007 (acrylic and mixed media on canvas). | Courtesy Sikkema Jenkins NEW YORK, N.Y. — There’s a framed box on the wall outside Sikkema Jenkins that announces the gallery’s exhibitions. Currently, it says “Larry Walker.” The Georgia-born artist is in the sunset of his...
Muhammad Ali Has Died: The Charismatic Boxing Legend was a Photographer’s Dream
CAUGHT IN A QUIET MOMENT, donning a robe while penning a letter. Indulging a young boy in the chance to spar with a champion. Perched on a massage table, wide-eyed with a playful, mock expression of shock. Pictures tell incredible stories. In life and death, much has been said and written about Muhammad Ali;...
Painter Stanley Whitney: ‘I Don’t Have a Theory About Color’
In the Studio with Stanley Whitney, May 2016 | Video by Lisson Gallery WROUGHT WITH IMPROVISATION and experimentation, when it comes to color, Stanley Whitney‘s bold canvases are defined by an ordered approach to composition. Following a spate of 2015 exhibitions, including “Dance the Orange,” a critically recognized solo show at the Studio Museum...
The Smithsonian is Mounting a Bill Traylor Retrospective, the First Major Exhibition Devoted to an Artist Born Enslaved
THE SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM (SAAM) says it is mounting the first-ever major exhibition devoted to the work of an artist born enslaved. “Between Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor,” the retrospective of self-taught African American artist Bill Traylor (1854- 1949) will open Sept. 28, 2018. The Washington, D.C., museum made the announcement in...
‘The Figure Remains Essentially Black in Every Circumstance’: Kerry James Marshall Previews His Master Paintings at MCA Chicago
Kerry James Marshall previews his new exhibition “Mastry” at MCA Chicago. | Photo by Victoria L. Valentine CHICAGO — TWO PAINTINGS MARKED A TURNING POINT for Kerry James Marshall. Complete with Royal Crown Dressing hair pomade, a Zenith radio, and a business license with the first dollar made tucked into the frame, “De Style,”...
Spring Shows: 32 New Exhibitions Feature Innovative Works by Black Artists
ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED museum exhibitions of the season, a major survey of Kerry James Marshall‘s work, primarily focused on his painting over the past 35 years, is opening at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, on April 23. In September, the exhibition will travel to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York...
Culture Talk: Courtney Willis Blair on Ryan Lee Gallery’s Representation of Emma Amos
At Ryan Lee Gallery, EMMA AMOS, “Seated Figure and Nude,” 1966 (oil on canvas). | Photo by Victoria L. Valentine AT THE REAR OF RYAN LEE GALLERY in New York, a 1966 painting by Emma Amos casually sits on the floor leaning against the wall between works by other gallery artists. Blending figuration and...
