On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions RECENT FIGURATIVE PAINTINGS and works on paper by Otis Quaicoe are on view at the Portland Art Museum, the artist’s adopted hometown museum. Born in Ghana, Quaicoe moved to Portland, Ore., in 2017, joining his new wife in the city where she lived and worked....
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions FOR HIS FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION in London and his first solo show with Gagosian gallery, Tyler Mitchell is presenting a new series of transporting photographs of Black figures that blend the serene with the surreal. Made this year, the images were captured among the natural...
AT A TIME WHEN NEW YORK CITY galleries and museums had little interest in African American artists, Linda Goode Bryant established Just Above Midtown, a gallery and community space that served as both sanctuary and experimental platform for artists of color. Half a century after its founding in 1974, Just Above Midtown is now...
THEMED EXHIBITIONS exploring the Great Migration and showcasing works by metal workers in Memphis and young fashion photographers are among the noteworthy shows featuring Black artists that opened in museums this spring and summer. From Seattle to Cleveland, Atlanta, Boston, and London, many of these exhibitions remain open through September. Museums are presenting works...
CURRENTLY ON VIEW in London, galleries are presenting solo exhibitions of American artists Deborah Roberts and Kara Walker; emerging Nigerian artist Nengi Omuku; and British Nigerian sculptor Sokari Douglas Camp. In addition, a two-artist show is presenting works by Gareth Nyandoro and Mostaff Muchawaya, who are both based in Harare, Zimbabwe. The exhibitions dedicated...
A VISUAL REVELATION, “Afro-Atlantic Histories” presents a sweeping account of the African Diaspora. The exhibition explores the “historical experiences and cultural formations” of Black people of African descent, across five centuries dating from the 17th century to the present. More than 130 works of art by artists from Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the...
IN NEW YORK CITY, five must-see exhibitions are dedicated to Amanda Williams, Vivian Browne, Shikeith, Alberta Whittle, Alanis Forde, and Akilah Watts. The artists work in a variety of mediums, most prominently painting. The group includes three artists who hail originally from Barbados; Shikeith and Whittle are presenting their first solo exhibitions in New...
IN NEW YORK CITY, five must-see solo exhibitions are dedicated to artists whose practices are largely focused on painting: Sylvia Snowden, Naudline Pierre, Walter Price, Wole Lagunju, and Ebony G. Patterson. Expressing themselves through abstraction and figuration, the artists explore fantasy worlds, beauty, violence, religion, and “mental landscapes.” The gallery shows close this weekend:...
THE VICTOR IN A FIERCE BIDDING WAR, art collector Bill Perkins paid a record-shattering $15.3 million for “The Sugar Shack” (1976) by Ernie Barnes (1938-2009) at Christie’s New York on May 12. The iconic painting was estimated to sell for about $200,000, so the staggering price made international news and brought long overdue, widespread...
IN NEW YORK CITY, four must-see solo exhibitions showcase works by artists with singular practices: Lorraine O’Grady, Terry Adkins, Tavares Strachan, and Lauren Halsey. Spanning three generations, the artists work across multiple mediums mining Black history, culture, and experience through conceptual lenses. The gallery shows close this weekend: LORRAINE O’GRADY, “Gaze,” 1991/2019 (archival...
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THE RECIPIENT OF NOW Gallery’s 2022 Young Artist Commission, Joy Yamusangie is staging an immersive solo show, envisioning the London gallery as a jazz club. Following collaborations with Gucci, Paul Smith, Penguin Books, and Nike, the Congolese-British artist sought to realize their own singular vision. Yamusangie’s...
Detail of “Lonnie Holley: Coming From the Earth” at Dallas Contemporary FOR HIS FIRST EXHIBITION IN TEXAS, Lonnie Holley, 72, is presenting a new series of ceramic works at Dallas Contemporary. The Alabama artist’s creativity is informed by struggle and hardship and draws on his curiosity. Holley works in a variety of mediums but...
Venice Biennale: “Simone Leigh: Sovereignty,” U.S. Pavilion, 2022 A TOWERING SCULPTURE pays homage to the ritual performances of the Baga peoples of the Guinea coast. Face jugs made by enslaved and free African Americans in the Edgefield District of South Carolina inspired a five-foot-tall vessel embellished with outsized forms that read as cowrie shells....
Ceramic works by Akinsanya Kambon at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York City On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions MAKING HIS SOLO DEBUT in New York City, Akinsanya Kambon is presenting figurative sculptures and wall reliefs at Jack Shainman Gallery. The ceramic works were made using an American raku firing technique, creating...
Installation view of “Black American Portraits,” Los Angeles County Museum of Art THE OBAMA PORTRAITS were such a hit at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., the museum launched a multi-city tour to give people throughout the country a chance to see the historic paintings. Kehinde Wiley‘s portrait of President Barack Obama...
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions A NEW LARGE-SCALE INSTALLATION by Hew Locke, “The Procession” features nearly 150 life-sized figures outfitted in hand-made garments and masks. The latest Tate Britain Commission is a sculptural gumbo evoking celebration, sorrow, and world events across time—from slavery to climate change, the Black Lives Matter Movement,...
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions A RENOWNED SCHOLAR of African American art, David Driskell (1931-2020) had a deep interest in African Art, which he was introduced to when he was a student at Howard University. More than a dozen years later, in 1969-70 and 1972, when he was a professor of...
Installation view of “Prints from the Brandywine Workshop and Archives: Creative Communities” at Harvard Art Museums On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THROUGH COLLABORATION AND EXPERIMENTATION, master printers and a diverse slate of artists have been producing new works at Brandywine Workshop and Archives for half a century. The Philadelphia organization was...
“Octoroon (Constance)” (2021) by Ann Johnson On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions A SPECTRUM OF METHODS, techniques, and narratives employed and explored by Black women printmakers is on view at Claire Oliver Gallery in New York. “A Contemporary Black Matriarchal Lineage in Printmaking” showcases 21 works by nine contemporary printmakers: Tanekeya Word,...
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions AFTER HER BRAVE AND HARROWING ESCAPE from enslavement, Harriet Jacobs was employed in New York by Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806-1867), a white, well-paid writer and magazine editor who worked with Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Jacobs, who titled her 1861 autobiography “Incidents in the...