Seeing in Texas: From Dallas to Houston and San Antonio, Museums are Showcasing a Spectrum of African American Art
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...
Culture Type 2020 Holiday Gift Guide: Artist-Inspired Ideas for Everyone on Your List
FAITH RINGGOLD COLLABORATED with Vans and the Museum of Modern Art. The estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat partnered with Coach and Derrick Adams joined forces with a swimsuit brand. Considering an art-inspired gift? This year, highly acclaimed Black artists have made their work more accessible to wider audiences in the form of products such as...
Artist List for Prospect New Orleans Triennial Includes Mark Bradford, Willie Birch, Simone Leigh, Dawoud Bey, Glenn Ligon, Karon Davis, Naudline Pierre, and Kevin Beasley
Still from single-channel video by Tiona Nekkia McClodden THE ARTIST LIST for Prospect New Orleans was officially announced today. Invited artists for the 2020 triennial include Los Angeles-based Mark Bradford, who participated in the first Prospect New Orleans more than a decade ago and is contributing a major new site-specific work; the late Georgia-born...
Flag Flying: Artists Are Using the Symbolic Medium to Raise Political and Social Issues
WHAT TO THE AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTIST is the Fourth of July? Is it consumed by fireworks and barbecue or grounded, perhaps, in the words of Frederick Douglass? On July 5, 1852, Douglass gave a historic address in Rochester, N.Y., at an event commemorating the Declaration of Independence. He said in part: What, to the...
Nari Ward in New York: The Artist’s First Museum Survey in the City Showcases His Reinvention of Local Found Materials
EMPLOYING CARPETS left behind by the previous occupant of his Harlem studio, Nari Ward made an angel. He reinvented the carpets, cutting them down and forming tightly rolled segments, combining them with found plastic bags, plastic bottles, springs, wood screws, and rope, to create an airy, open-weave structure. He named the work “Carpet Angel.”...
Black Art History: 17 Exhibition ‘Firsts’ Happening This February
BLACK HISTORY MONTH coincides with a number museum and gallery exhibitions marking new milestones for African American artists. On-the-rise talents such as Jordan Casteel, Eric N. Mack, and Amy Sherald are presenting their first major solo museum exhibitions this month. Nari Ward and Kevin Beasley are having their first New York museum shows. Mid-career...
The Year Ahead in African American Art: What to Look Forward to in 2019
THE YEAR AHEAD begins and ends with major traveling exhibitions, each presenting nearly a century of works by African American artists. The January debut of “Black Refractions: Highlights From the Studio Museum in Harlem” at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco kicks off a tour of six venues. Scheduled for seven...
Holiday Gift Guide 2018: Selections Inspired by the Works of African American Artists Jack Whitten, Mickalene Thomas, Charles White & More
FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA recommends giving a gift of museum membership this holiday season. On the occasion of the publication of her new book “Becoming,” Obama contributed a gift guide to People magazine. She said when she first became a mom, she and her girlfriends would take their children on museum tours. She mentioned...
Summer Shows: New Exhibitions Feature African American Artists Beverly Buchanan, Arthur Jafa, Glenn Ligon and Bradford Young
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...
LaToya Ruby Frazier and Nari Ward Among 16 Artists Participating in Creative Time’s Political ‘Pledges of Allegiance’
FLAGS HAVE PROVEN to be a powerful medium in contemporary art, from David Hammons’s “African American Flag” (1990), which sold at Phillips auction for more than $2 million, to Dread Scott’s “A Man Was Lynched by Police Yesterday” (2015) displayed last summer at Jack Shainman Gallery, and Nu Barreto’s “Desunited States of Africa” (2010)...
April Exhibitions: Mark Bradford Pays Homage to Clyfford Still, Plus ‘Black Radical Women,’ Radcliffe Bailey, Deana Lawson, Nari Ward, Terry Adkins, and More
SPRING SHOWS ARE HERE and the rich selection runs the gamut, from exhibitions of innovative new works to scholarly examinations of important historic movements. Exploring the intersection of race, feminism, political action, art production, the much-anticipated “We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85” is opening at the Brooklyn Museum. In advance of his representation...
Vilcek Prize Winner Nari Ward to Recreate ‘We the People’ Installation at New-York Historical Society on President’s Day
“We the People” at Barnes Foundation, 2016 SIX YEARS AGO, artist Nari Ward created a textile installation composed of nearly 1,000 shoe laces spelling out “We the People.” The work of art is particularly relevant today. The divisive political climate in the United States has awakened Americans anew to the values of democracy, importance...
2016 Holiday Gift Guide: 30 Objects Inspired by the Work of African American Artists
FOR THE ART ENTHUSIASTS ON YOUR LIST, consider a gift inspired by one of the most critically acclaimed African American artists working today. Culture Type has curated a list of 30 fabulous finds to fit any budget and suit a variety of recipients. Many special products were created to accompany major exhibitions in 2016,...
Post Election, to Realize Our Future, We Have to ‘Do More and Do Better’
For Freedoms: NARI WARD, “Mass Action,” 2016 (shoelaces). | ©Nari Ward. Courtesy the Artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong ONE WEEK AGO TODAY, AMERICA WOKE UP to a new president-elect. The largely unexpected result has struck fear, anger, disappointment, and disbelief, in a majority of the voting populace. Americans are dismayed...
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...
Gallery Openings: 21 Fall Exhibitions Featuring Black Artists
EACH FALL BRINGS A NEW SLATE of art exhibitions, usually the best of the calendar year. This season, commercial galleries are showing an interesting mix of African American and African diasporic artists working in a range of mediums and addressing a diversity of issues. Following William Pope.L‘s “Trinket” exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art,...
Holiday Gift Guide 2014: A Curated Selection for the Art Lovers on Your List
GIVE THE GIFT OF ART. Many highly regarded artists are designing functional art objects that would make perfect gifts for the art lovers on your list. Culture Type has assembled more than a dozen fabulous finds that fit any budget and would thrill family, friends and even the most scrutinizing art collectors. Who wouldn’t want...
Art Agenda | June 1-7, 2014
MUST-SEE EXHIBITION openings and interesting talks and appearances happening this week in black art: Sunday, June 1, 2014 @ 1 p.m. Franklin Sirmans Discusses Futbol Exhibit at LACMA | Los Angeles Franklin Sirmans, curator of “Futbol: The Beautiful Game” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (at left), is participating in a panel...
Culture Talk: Duke Professor Richard J. Powell on Archibald Motley
THE NASHER MUSEUM OF ART at Duke University is infused with Chicago jazz and Paris blues. Since January 19, the museum has been exhibiting 45 paintings by Chicago artist Archibald J. Motley Jr. (1891-1981). “Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist” presents a rare opportunity to experience the work of one of the 20th century’s most...
