South African Artist David Koloane (1938-2019) The following review presents a snapshot of recent news in African American art and related black culture: South African Artist David Koloane Died at 81 A prominent figure in apartheid-era South Africa artist David Koloane (1938-2019) died June 30. “Apartheid was a politics of space more than...
THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME. If there was any question Simone Biles is the greatest athlete in the history of gymnastics, she put all doubts to rest over the weekend at the United States Gymnastics Championships in Kansas City, Mo. The world’s top gymnast pushed new boundaries, delivered ambitious routines, and clenched her sixth...
THROUGH THE LENS of self-portraiture and symbolic domestic spaces, Los Angeles-based Genevieve Gaignard explores American constructs of identity, beauty, blackness, and whiteness. She considers racial logic and racial formation. Her latest exhibition, “I’m Sorry I Never Told You That You’re Beautiful,” features mixed-media works on panel, photographic portraits, sculpture, furniture installations, and a work...
“Liberal Women Protest March I” (1995) by Nike Davies-Okundaye of Nigeria THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN ART is celebrating women artists. Over the past five years, the Smithsonian museum has doubled its holdings of art by women. Showcasing some of the recent acquisitions, “I Am… Contemporary Women Artists of Africa,” opened in June. The...
FOR AN EXHIBITION in his hometown of Baltimore Derrick Adams drew on his personal history, sourcing images from a family photo album. Inspired by the decades-old images, he made a series of paintings documenting scenes from his childhood—a pair of bridesmaids in matching turquoise blue dresses, children playing in the yard with a yellow...
SHE GOT A LOT DONE. On Monday, Toni Morrison died at the age of 88. The announcement of her death prompted an outpouring of laudatory tributes to the author who wrote with authority and aplomb about the lives of black people, with black women at the center of her narratives. Artists were among those...
IN THE HANDS OF Marcus Brutus scenes of contemporary black life are saturated with vibrant color and layered with cultural references. Harper’s Books in East Hampton, N.Y., is presenting the artist’s second solo show. About two-dozen paintings made in 2018 and 2019 are on view. The individual and group portraits and scenes of leisure and...
AFTER SEVEN YEARS in Seattle, Mariane Ibrahim has moved her eponymous gallery to Chicago. The new gallery opens next month with an inaugural exhibition dedicated to Ayana V. Jackson, an American artist whose photography examines the construction of identity. Titled “Take Me to the Water,” the presentation will feature a new series of large-scale...
MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE Art Museum (MHCAM) has a new associate curator. Stephanie Sparling Williams joined the museum in South Hadley, Mass., in June. She previously served as assistant curator for the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. MHCAM Director Tricia Y. Paik said she was thrilled to welcome Sparling...
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions CHARTING THE EVOLUTION of Wadsworth Jarrell‘s practice, “Come Saturday Punch” presents more than two-dozen works spanning 55 years. One of five original co-founders of AfriCOBRA, the collective established in Chicago in 1968, Jarrell has maintained a unique visual voice throughout his career. True to, but unbound...
Still from Solange’s film “When I Get Home.” | Courtesy the artist The following review presents a snapshot of recent news in African American art and related black culture: Solange Screening Art Film at Museums in U.S. and Europe An international slate of museums and theaters is screening an extended director’s cut...
BEFORE HE PAINTED hotly colored Jazz Age scenes set in Chicago and Paris, Archibald Motley Jr. (1891-1981), made a loving portrait of his paternal grandmother embedded with history and the nuances of her life experience. Emily Sims Motley (1842-1929) was an ex-slave born in Kentucky. “This painting…is in some ways an outlier from those...
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions CELEBRATING THE CREATIVE CONNECTIONS between a mother and daughter, “REALITY, Times two” presents works by quilt artist Elizabeth Talford Scott (1916-2011) and bead artist Joyce J. Scott. The Baltimore artists lived together for more than 60 years until Elizabeth died in 2011. Born on a South Carolina...
THE MINNESOTA MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART announced the appointment of Robyne Robinson as chair of its board of directors. A former news anchor, Robinson is the founder of Five x Five Public Art Consulting. The news was announced July 16 and she has assumed her new post. Known as The M, the St. Paul...
Kind of Blue: In Menorca, Stanley Whitney’s Colorful Grid Paintings are in Dialogue with an Iconic Yves Klein Installation
Aug 17, 2019
Latest News in African American Art: Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys Plan Art Center, New Yorker Commissions Toni Morrison Cover by Kara Walker, Smithsonian Acquires Beyonce Portrait by Tyler Mitchell & More
Aug 15, 2019
World Champion Simone Biles and the Elite Competition and Complexities of Women’s Gymnastics Recently Inspired Two Painters
Aug 14, 2019
On View: ‘Genevieve Gaignard: I’m Sorry I Never Told You That You’re Beautiful’ at Vielmetter Los Angeles
Aug 13, 2019
Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art is Showcasing Women Artists, a Group Vastly Underrepresented in its Collection
Aug 11, 2019
