A Feat of Engineering and Craftsmanship, Martin Puryear’s First Brick Sculpture Was a Decade in the Making: ‘It’s Been an Adventure and a Challenge’
MARTIN PURYEAR, Installation view of “Lookout,” 2023. Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, N.Y. | © Martin Puryear, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery. Photo by Jeffrey Jenkins A CURIOUS LOOKING, CURVED FORM sits on a high overlook in the North Woods of Storm King Art Center. A miracle of construction with no underlying framework, the brick...
What to See in New York: 5 Gallery Exhibitions Showcasing Works by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Awol Erizku, Sam Gilliam, Chase Hall, and Christopher Myers
SOLO EXHIBITIONS dedicated to Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Awol Erizku, Sam Gilliam, Chase Hall, and Christopher Myers are among the must-see gallery shows currently on view in New York. Spanning three generations, the artists represent an array of practices and mediums, from painting, sculpture, and neon to stained-glass and quilting. Akunyili Crosby, who has exhibited...
What to See in New York: 5 New Gallery Exhibitions Feature Works by Ed Clark, Emanoel Araújo, Mickalene Thomas, Sanford Biggers, and Kandy G Lopez
COMMERCIAL ART GALLERIES in New York are dedicating their September exhibitions to a variety of Black artists. Singular, mid-career figures Mickalene Thomas and Sanford Biggers are presenting new works. A survey of the late artist Ed Clark’s dynamic career is spread across two floors. The selections also include inaugural exhibitions of Brazilian artist Emanoel...
Sixty Years Ago, the March on Washington Inspired Change and Drew Many Artists, Including a Future Photographer Named Frank Stewart
SIXTY YEARS AGO, Bayard Rustin stood on the grounds of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., hoping after a short two months of intense organizing that crowds of demonstrators would come to the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. “I was terrified people wouldn’t show,” Rustin told the Washington Post years later....
British Fashion Designer Grace Wales Bonner is Curating ‘Artist’s Choice’ Exhibition at Museum of Modern Art This Fall
HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON, “Washington, D.C.,” 1957 (gelatin silver print, 6 3/4 × 10 inches / 17.1 × 25.4 cm). | Gift of John C. Waddell. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. © 2023 Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos, courtesy Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris The practice of Wales Bonner is informed by Black art, history, and culture....
New Conceptual Works by Kevin Beasley Channel Memories Through Domestic Sounds, Familial Materials, and Consumer Products
Installation view of “Kevin Beasley: In an Effort to Keep,” Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York, N.Y. (May 13-July 28, 2023). | Photo by Jason Wyche HOW DOES SOUND DOCUMENT our experiences and preserve memories? Kevin Beasley gathered five artists in a Brooklyn apartment outfitted with 36 microphones for two days, recording the collective experience...
What to See in U.S. Museums This Summer: 15 Solo Exhibitions Featuring Black Artists – Simone Leigh, James Barnor, Ming Smith, Whitfield Lovell, Gary Simmons & More
SOME OF THE SUMMER’S BEST U.S. museum exhibitions are on view beyond the art capitals of New York and Los Angeles. Landmark solo exhibitions of an inter-generational slate of prominent Black artists can be seen in Seattle, Detroit, Washington, D.C., and many cities in between. The first museum survey of photographer Ming Smith is...
Barkley L. Hendricks Was a Powerful Portrait Painter Whose Exceptional Photography Practice is Coming to Light
BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, “Untitled,” circa 1975 (gelatin silver print, 16 x 24 inches, image); 16 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches, framed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS (1945-2017) had an incredible eye. His latest gallery exhibition...
New York: 10 Gallery Exhibitions Feature Works by Artists Fred Eversley, Bob Thompson, Mark Bradford, Lisa Corinne Davis, Kehinde Wiley, Zéh Palito & More
NEW YORK CITY GALLERIES are currently showcasing works by a spectrum of Black artists, including art stars Mark Bradford and Kehinde Wiley and emerging figures Uman and Zéh Palito. Two surveys of Bob Thompson (1937-1966) and important presentations of sculptor Fred Eversley, 82, and painter Richard Mayhew, 99, are also on view. BOB...
In Recognition: Ebony G. Patterson’s Multifaceted Practice Taps Beauty of Botanical World to Start Conversations About Visibility, Violence, and Survival
Artist Ebony G. Patterson. | Photo by Frank Ishaman ATTENDING ART SCHOOL in Jamaica, Ebony G. Patterson made a “classically inclined” painting that she didn’t love. Her undergraduate professor recognized that she was struggling and asked her why she was pursuing the medium in that style. “Ebony, is this really what you want to...
Daniel Lind-Ramos Gives Voice to Black Puerto Rican and Afro-Caribbean Communities Through Monumental Assemblage Works
DANIEL LIND-RAMOS (b. 1953), Installation view of “Baño de María (Bain-marie/The Cleansing),” 2018–2022, MoMA PS1, Queens, N.Y. | Photo by Steven Paneccasio THE MONUMENTAL SCULPTURES of Puerto Rican artist Daniel Lind-Ramos are formed with everyday objects of personal and cultural significance. Using a visual language all his own, Lind-Ramos tells stories. He works with...
Ficre Ghebreyesus’s Compositions Explore War, Displacement, Notions of Home: ‘When I Started Painting… The Pieces That Flowed Out of Me Were Very Painful and Direct’
Installation view of “Ficre Ghebreyesus: I Believe We Are Lost,” Galerie Lelong, New York, N.Y. (March 30-May 6, 2023). | © The Estate of Ficre Ghebreyesus, Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co., Photo by Jon Cancro AFRICA, EUROPE, AMERICA. Ficre Ghebreyesus (1962-2012) lived across the globe. Born in Asmara, Eritrea, he left his home country...
Coming Soon: First Traveling Exhibition of Harmonia Rosales is Headed to Spelman College Museum, Her Paintings Explore Grand Narratives of Creation and Tragedy
AS SUMMER COMES TO A CLOSE and the fall semester beckons, the campus museum at Spelman College will be transformed into a temple of sorts when spiritual images by Harmonia Rosales are displayed throughout its galleries. Chicago-born, Los Angeles-based Rosales is of Afro-Cuban and Jewish Jamaican heritage, a milieu that informs her perspective and...
39 Artists Selected for Hammer Museum’s Made in L.A. Biennial, Including Septuagenarians Akinsanya Kambon and Teresa Tolliver
Announcement video for the sixth edition of Made in L.A. lists the 39 artists selected for the 2023 biennial. | Video by Hammer Museum THE HAMMER MUSEUM announced 39 artists and collectives selected to participate in its forthcoming Made in L.A. biennial, including Sula Bermúdez-Silverman, Emmanuel Louisnord Desir, Akinsanya Kambon, Dominique Moody, Devin Reynolds,...
Winfred Rembert’s Painful Memories of Jim Crow South Produced Powerful Images: ‘Nobody Else Was Putting Their History or Their Life Story on Leather’
Patsy Rembert walks through Winfred Rembert’s exhibition at Hauser & Wirth and shares what motivated her husband to start painting his life story on leather. | Video by Hauser & Wirth THE WHITE CUBE GALLERIES of Hauser & Wirth on the Upper East Side of New York stand in stark contrast to the vivid...
11 Los Angeles-Area Museum Exhibitions Are Showcasing Works By a Spectrum of Black Artists: Henry Taylor, Helen Cammock, Milford Graves, Kenturah Davis & More
From San Marino to Downtown L.A., Leimert Park and Long Beach, Los Angeles-area museums are showcasing the work of emerging, mid-career, and historic Black artists. Among the expansive offerings are Afro-Atlantic Histories, a survey of five centuries of art; a Njideka Akunyili Crosby show organized by Hilton Als; the first U.S. exhibition of Turner...
Next Turbine Hall Commission Goes to El Anatsui, Celebrated Sculptor Will Create New Site-Specific Installation at Tate Modern
THIS FALL, Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall will be graced with a new site-specific installation by renowned artist El Anatsui. The London museum announced this morning that the Ghana-born, Nigeria-based sculptor known for his dazzling tapestry-style installations is the next Hyundai Commission artist. The annual presentation provides a unique opportunity for an artist to envision...
Shrouds and Spirit Catchers: Woven Paintings by Alonzo Davis are Layered with Personal Meaning and Cultural Symbolism
ALONZO DAVIS, King’s Peace Cloth, 1985 (acrylic on woven canvas, 56 x 56 inches). | © Alonzo Davis, Courtesy Alonzo Davis and parrasch heijnen ‘Alonzo Davis: The Blanket Series’ is on view at Parrasch Heijnen gallery in Los Angeles. The artist spoke about the series during oral history interviews with UCLA REV....
As We Rise: Photography Publication and Coinciding Traveling Exhibition Explore Black Life on Both Sides of Atlantic
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,...
Depicting Black Bodies in Motion, Noel W. Anderson’s Tapestries Reinvent Images From Iconic TV Show ‘Soul Train’
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,...
