The following review of the past week or so presents a snapshot of the latest news in African American art and related black culture:
Christina Quarles Named Inaugural Pérez Prize Recipient
The Pérez Art Museum Miami announced Los Angeles-based artist Christina Quarles is the recipient of the first annual Perez Prize. Funded by The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation, the award “recognizes recent achievement in artistic innovation.” Quarles (work shown above) was honored with the $50,000 prize at the museum’s March 9 Art of the Party fundraiser.
2019 Frieze Artist Prize Goes to Lauren Halsey
Los Angeles artist Lauren Halsey won the 2019 Frieze Artist Award, which includes a commission for Frieze New York in May. Curated by Courtney J. Martin, Halsey “will create an architectural intervention in which fantasy architecture, neighborhood ephemera, images of Du-rag models, Black ideological pyramid worlds and Afrofuturist myth coincide and coalesce.”
Kapwani Kiwanga Wins 2019 Armory Show Prize
Three prizes were awarded at the latest edition of The Armory Show in New York City, including the inaugural Étant donnés Prize which went to Kapwani Kiwanga. Awarded $10,000, the Canadian artist was recognized for the solo show presented with Galerie Jérôme Poggi.
Artist Kambui Olujimi and photographer Andre D. Wagner are collaborating on a Studio Museum in Harlem exhibition. | Photo by SaVonne Anderson
Studio Museum Announces Spring 2019 Exhibitions
The Studio Museum in Harlem announced its forthcoming exhibitions, including “Future Continuous: Kambui Olujimi and Andre D. Wagner,” a collaboration between the multidisciplinary artist and street photographer at the George Bruce Library in Harlem and “MOOD: Studio Museum Artists in Residence 2018–19” featuring Tschabalala Self, Allison Janae Hamilton, and Sable Elyse Smith on view at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City. The museum’s presentations are all off-site while its new building is under construction.
Johnson Collection Founders Donate $1 Million to Charleston African American Museum
Susu and George Dean Johnson Jr., founders of the largest private art collection in South Carolina, donated $1 million to the forthcoming International African American Museum in Charleston. Located in Spartanburg, the Johnson collection of about 1,200 works features many African American artists.
Report: State of Visual Arts Journalism
Mary Louise Schumacher conducted a survey of 300 writers and critics covering visual arts. The 2017 Arts & Culture Nieman Fellow reported findings on influence, job stability, viewing art in the context of politics, and representation of issues such as race, gender, and identity.
Stanford University Museum Acquires Titus Kaphar Painting
The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University announced the acquisition of “Page 4 of Jefferson’s ‘Farm Book’…” (2018) by Titus Kaphar. The painting (at right) is on display in the exhibition “The Medium Is the Message: Art since 1950,” which runs through Aug. 18.
Opportunities
Spelman Summer Art History Program for High School Students
Spelman College has introduced the inaugural session of its residential Early College Program in Art History and Curatorial Studies. The cost of the four-week program (June 14-July 13, 2019) is covered for selected participants. (Travel not included.) Presented in collaboration with Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse College, the program is for both female and male rising junior and senior high school students. Application deadline March 15. CT
IMAGE: Top right, Installation view of CHRISTINA QUARLES, “Forced Perspective (And I Kno It’s Rigged, But It’s tha Only Game in Town),” 2018. Above right, TITUS KAPHAR (U.S.A., b. 1976), “Page 4 of Jefferson’s ‘Farm Book,’ January 1774, Goliath, Hercules, Jupiter, Gill, Fanny, Ned, Sucky, Frankey, Gill, Nell, Bella, Charles, Jenny, Betty, June, Toby, Duna (sic), Cate, Hannah, Rachael, George, Ursula, George, Bagwell, Archy, Frank, Bett, Scilla, ? , 2,” 2018 (oil on canvas on support panel). | © Titus Kaphar. Palmer Gross Ducommun Fund, 2018.102
