Best of September: 13 New Museum Exhibitions Feature Artists Ulysses Jenkins, Adam Pendleton, Deborah Roberts, Naudline Pierre, Arthur Jafa, Lorna Simpson & More
THE FIRST MUSEUM retrospective of pioneering video/performance artist Ulysses Jenkins opens this week at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The exhibition is co-curated by ICA Associate Curator Meg Onli and Erin Christovale, associate curator at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Following Kerry James Marshall and...
On View: ‘Be Your Wonderful Self: The Portraits of Beauford Delaney’ at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in New York City
Installation view of “Be Your Wonderful Self: The Portraits of Beauford Delaney” On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions A RARE OPPORTUNITY to view a broad selection of portraits by Beauford Delaney (1901–1979), this exhibition features a 1962 self portrait and two dozen paintings of people in the Delaney’s orbit. The selection includes...
A Nexus for the Black Community, Tone Memphis is Presenting ‘On The Road: Chocolate Cities,’ Group Exhibition Explores Space, Place, and Belonging
A GROUP EXHIBITION in Memphis, Tenn., brings together a slate of mostly rising artists whose work explores notions of Blackness, space, place, and belonging. Tone Memphis, a Black arts nonprofit in Memphis, Tenn., is presenting “On The Road: Chocolate Cities: Exploration of Space Across the Black Diaspora.” Organized by Larry Ossei-Mensah, the exhibition reflects...
Retrospective of Michael Richards Showcases Rigor, Promise of Artist Who Died in Sept. 11 Terrorist Attack on World Trade Center
A RESIN AND STEEL SCULPTURE standing seven-and-a-half feet tall on a central platform anchors the first museum retrospective of Michael Richards (1963-2001). A seminal work from his series about the Tuskegee Airmen, “Tar Baby vs. St. Sebastian” (1999), depicts a Black male figure wearing a Tuskegee Airman suit with 18 miniature US P-51 Mustang...
5 New Art Gallery Exhibitions to See Now Feature Deborah Roberts, Carla Jay Harris, Jarrell Gibbs, LaKela Brown, and Brittney Leeanne Williams
THE FALL EXHIBITION SEASON is officially underway and some of the first new gallery shows to open feature five early- and mid-career artists to watch. Each has a unique visual voice. What unifies their latest work is a resonance with the contemporary moment. Deborah Roberts, Carla Jay Harris, and Brittney Leeanne Williams are confronting...
On View: ‘The Sun, the Moon, and the Truth,’ Adrienne Elise Tarver’s First Solo Museum Exhibition at Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Conn.
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions FOR HER FIRST SOLO MUSEUM EXHIBITION, Adrienne Elise Tarver is presenting a focused installation. Opening tomorrow at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Conn., “Adrienne Elise Tarver: The Sun, the Moon, and the Truth” features “Manifesting Paradise” (2020–ongoing), a suite of 22 mixed-media works on...
From California to Chicago, Tennessee to Maine, 15 of Summer’s Best Museum Exhibitions Remain on View This Fall
A BROAD SELECTION of exhibitions opened at art museums throughout the United States over the summer months. A great number of these shows remain on view, some through September, others further into the fall and beyond. Major traveling exhibitions of Bob Thompson, Joseph Yoakum, and Alma Thomas are underway. The first solo museum exhibitions...
On View: ‘Social Works,’ Curated by Antwaun Sargent at Gagosian in New York, Exhibition Will Have a Sequel in London in October
“Black Wall Street Journey #5 (2021) by Rick Lowe On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions At Gagosian, Antwaun Sargent has organized his first show since being named a director at the gallery in January. An ambitious group exhibition, “Social Works” explores the relationship between public and private space and Black social practice....
‘Alison Saar: Of Aether and Earthe,’ a Survey Spread Across Two Institutions, Presents Female Forms That ‘Activate Legacies of Bodily and Spiritual Survival’
DUALITY IS A CONSISTENT THEME in the work of Alison Saar. The multidisciplinary artist has long centered the female body and the wonder of nature in her practice, using figurative forms to explore cultural narratives and contemporary events. In her latest exhibition, she considers the binaries of body and spirit, earth and air...
August in New York: 8 Gallery Exhibitions to See Now Feature Texas Isaiah, Arcmanoro Niles, Julie Mehretu, Cal Bocicault, and Fascinating Landscapes
THE CHURN OF THE NEW YORK ART WORLD slows down in August with many art galleries on hiatus until after Labor Day. Nonetheless, in the waning days of August, there is still plenty to see in New York, this week and next, before the transition to fall shows in September. Terrific solo exhibitions and...
On View: ‘Oracles of the Pink Universe,’ South African Artist Simphiwe Ndzube’s First U.S. Solo Museum Exhibition
“The Bloom of the Corpse Flower” (2020) by Simphiwe Ndzube On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THE DENVER ART MUSEUM is hosting the first U.S. solo museum exhibition of Simphiwe Ndzube. Imagination is fundamental for the Los Angeles-based South African artist. For the exhibition, Ndzube created his own fantasy world within the...
Washington Plans Citywide Celebration of Pioneering Artist Alma Thomas, First Lady Michelle Obama Opening Major Symposium
WASHINGTON, D.C., is gearing up for a citywide celebration of artist Alma Thomas (1891-1978) this fall. Honoring her contributions to the city’s cultural heritage, the events coincide with the traveling exhibition “Alma Thomas: Everything is Beautiful,” opening Oct. 30 at The Phillips Collection. Institutions throughout Washington are participating in the celebration, including the National...
Coming Soon: Toyin Ojih Odutola’s ‘A Countervailing Theory’ Exhibition Will Make U.S. Debut at Hirshhorn Museum This Fall
THIS FALL, A FASCINATING STORY about Nigerian women, female warriors who ruled a prehistoric civilization, will be told at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. Presented through a series of 40 large-scale monochromatic drawings by Toyin Ojih Odutola, the mythological narrative conceived by the artist will unfold on the Smithsonian museum’s...
Encore Presentation: Cut Short By COVID-19 Closure, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s Tate Britain Exhibition is Returning in Fall 2022
THE MOST EXTENSIVE SURVEY of British painter Lynette Yiadom-Boakye will open and close at Tate Britain in London. “Lynette Yiadom- Boakye: Fly in League with the Night” features about 80 works made over the span of nearly two decades, dating back to 2003. After debuting at Tate last December, the run of the exhibition...
Best of Both Worlds: For Three Decades, British Painter Frank Bowling Shuttled Between Studios in London and New York
WHEN BRITISH PAINTER Frank Bowling moved to New York in the mid-1960s, the new art scene broadened his perspective. He connected with Jack Whitten, Mel Edwards, Al Loving, and Daniel LaRue Johnson, met Jasper Johns, and began a decades-long dialogue with Clement Greenburg. It was also in New York that Bowling shifted away from...
Black Female Artists Who Got Their Start in 1960s and 70s are Focus of Two Group Exhibitions in New York
ACTIVE IN THE 1960S AND 70S, Black women artists had to deal with politics, even if their work wasn’t overtly political. Some of the most prominent figures from the time, including Vivian Browne, Emma Amos, Camille Billops, Suzanne Jackson, Senga Nengudi, and Betye Saar, rallied with their peers, taking stands and speaking up for...
Industrious: Theaster Gates is Selling the Contents of a Now Closed Chicago Hardware Store in an Art Gallery
“Theaster Gates: How to Sell Hardware” at Gray Warehouse, Chicago THE COLLECTING PRACTICE of Theaster Gates is about preserving archives and memorializing social history, cultural history, and changing urban landscapes. His artistic practice imagines new ways to activate, share, present, and reinvent the archives, as he does with his latest exhibition “Theaster Gates: How...
On Occasion of New Exhibition ‘Alma Thomas: Everything is Beautiful,’ Curators and Scholars Reflect on Lesser-Known Aspects of Artist’s Life and Work
“Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful,” Chrysler Museum of Art A NEW FOUR-CITY traveling exhibition offers an expansive look at the life and work of Alma Thomas (1891-1978). A pioneer in post-World War II abstraction, Thomas is arguably the earliest example of a highly regarded African American female artist working in abstraction. Best known...
Museum of African Diaspora in San Francisco Will Host First Solo Museum Exhibitions of Amoako Boafo and Billie Zangewa This Fall
THE SEMINAL TEXT OF W.E.B. DU BOIS (1868-1963) inspired the title of a forthcoming solo exhibition of Amoako Boafo. The Ghanaian-born painter grew up in Osu, where Du Bois, the author of “The Souls of Black Folk” is buried. “Amoako Boafo: Soul of Black Folks” will be on view this fall at the Museum...
On View: ‘Beautiful Disruption,’ Photographer Nadine Ijewere’s First-Ever Solo Exhibition at C/O Berlin
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THE FRESH PERSPECTIVE and imaginative eye of Nadine Ijewere have produced beautiful and novel images, bringing international attention to the rising young photographer. Known for her striking fashion portraiture, Ijewere became the first Black woman to photograph a Vogue magazine cover when she shot the cover...
