THE YEAR IN BLACK ART is off to a fascinating start. In January, Helen Molesworth organized a Noah Davis (1983-2015) exhibition at David Zwirner gallery in New York, a rare look at more than 20 paintings by the late Los Angeles-based artist and founder of the Underground Museum. The Johnson Publishing Company art collection...
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...
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM CULTURE TYPE. Whenever this time of year rolls around, I begin to think of images documenting the holiday season and none resonate more than the black-and-white photographs of James VanDerZee (1886-1983). The renowned Harlem photographer took a couple of memorable Christmas images in 1933 that document the vintage charm of traditional...
RECOMMENDED FEATURES recently published content from around the web, recommendations from Culture Type worth taking the time to explore: “Considering Brazil’s Racial Heritage” by Laura C. Mallonee | Hyperallergic Laura C. Malonnee speaks with Brazilian artist Adriana Varejão, who lives and works in Rio De Janeiro, about the “two contrasting subjects that have preoccupied [her]...
RECOMMENDED READING FEATURES recently published content from around the web, recommendations from Culture Type worth taking the time to explore: “Recovering Weeksville” By Brandon Harris | The New Yorker The new Weeksville Heritage Center, “Brooklyn’s largest African-American cultural center,” cements the legacy of the black landowning community for which it was named. Straddling Bedford-Stuyvesant and...
ART AGENDA LISTS UPCOMING EVENTS, must-see exhibition openings and interesting talks happening this week in black art. There are myriad activities across the nation from San Diego, Chicago and Minneapolis, to Boston, New York and Washington D.C. Today’s edition features “Funk, God, Jazz, Medicine: Black Radical Brooklyn,” Rashid Johnson’s production of “Dutchman,” Phillips “Under...