Whitney Biennial 2019: A Look at 7 Artists and the Works They Presented
Installation view of work by Daniel Lind-Ramos at 2019 Whitney Biennial NEW YORK, N.Y.—Throughout the run of the 2019 Whitney Biennial, an inordinate amount of attention has been paid to the challenges and controversies surrounding the exhibition at the expense of consideration of the art on view in the galleries. Amid protests, mixed reviews,...
2019 Whitney Biennial: The Museum as a Site of Protest
THE ROOTS OF THE WHITNEY BIENNIAL date to 1932. Originally an annual event, the exhibition was established as a biennial in 1973. Through the decades, organizers of the group show have sought to reflect the state of contemporary art and tap the pulse of what’s going on outside the museum’s galleries. As a result,...
Cover Subject: Countering Historic Narratives, Derrick Adams Makes the Images He Wants to See in the World
BLACK PEOPLE FLOATING leisurely in pools are among the most recognizable images Derrick Adams has made in recent years. The brightly colored scenes in his Floaters series usually feature an individual figure lounging on an inflatable floater. “Floater 49” (2017), a mixed-media collage work from his Floaters series appears on the fall 2019 cover...
A Pioneer of Conceptual Art, Lorna Simpson Receives 2019 Getty Medal
AGAINST A STORMY BACKDROP, the 2019 J. Paul Getty Medals were presented to Mary Beard, an author and classics professor at the University of Cambridge, and American artists Ed Ruscha and Lorna Simpson. The recipients were announced in January and a dinner was held in their honor Sept. 16. Simpson’s recent paintings have been...
‘Art & Race Matters’: First Comprehensive Retrospective of Robert Colescott Opens at CAC Cincinnati This Week
BLENDING PROVOCATIVE PERSPECTIVES on race and gender relations, a unique sense of humor, knowledge of Western art history, and lived experience with American identity, culture, and traditions, Robert Colescott (1925-2009) developed an insightful and thought-provoking practice that didn’t shy away from controversial topics and images that might offend. He was an exceptional painter whose...
Boasting Works by Nina Chanel Abney, Hebru Brantley, William Villalongo, and Richard Prince, Q-Tip’s Art Collection Will Be Exhibited at Bonhams New York
IT’S NO SURPRISE Q-Tip is a serious record collector, given his vocation. When Gail King visited the renowned member of A Tribe Called Quest at his New Jersey home for a CBS This Morning segment, he told her he had about 9,000 records. Footage from the segment indicated Q-Tip has an interest in...
Artist Charles White Was a Devoted Teacher Who Served as a ‘Life Model’ to Countless Students in Los Angeles and Beyond
FOR THE FIRST TIME in more than three decades, “Charles White: A Retrospective” offered a career-spanning overview of Charles White, whose powerful paintings and drawings capture the strength, beauty, and dignity of African Americans. While showcasing White’s artistic practice was the focus of the museum survey, his son, Ian White, realized the traveling exhibition...
In an Interview Coinciding with His First Exhibition at Gagosian, Nathaniel Mary Quinn Tells Anderson Cooper: ‘My Paintings Come to Me as Visions’
EXPLORING THE INTERSECTION of reality, memory, and perception, Nathaniel Mary Quinn paints composite portraits that read as collage. In actuality, they are produced with oil paint, gouache, charcoal, oil stick, and pastels in his own hand. He has said his fragmented and visually layered portraits are based on the faces of people he...
Crystal Bridges Museum Announced 29 Acquisitions, Adding Works by Emma Amos, Jordan Casteel, Clementine Hunter, Henry O. Tanner, and Kehinde Wiley to Collection
EMMA AMOS, “The Reader,” 1967 (oil on canvas in artist’s frame, 41 1/4 × 61 inches). | Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas. Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE Gallery, New York A PORTRAIT of a Harlem suit shop owner by Jordan Casteel is on view in the 1940s to Now...
Osei Bonsu Named Curator of International Art at Tate Modern in London
THE TATE MODERN MUSEUM in London announced new appointments to its curatorial team today, covering African, Middle Eastern and South Asian modern and contemporary art. Nabila Abdel Nabi (Middle East and North Africa), Osei Bonsu (Africa), and Devika Singh (South Asia), have been named curators, international art. Valentina Ravaglia’s new role is curator, displays and...
Cameron Shaw is the New Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles
THE CALIFORNIA AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM (CAAM) announced a new appointment today. Curator, writer, and editor Cameron Shaw has been named deputy director and chief curator of the Los Angeles Museum. Shaw is the co-founder of Pelican Bomb, a New Orleans-based contemporary art nonprofit that provided a platform for exhibitions, public programming, and arts journalism. For...
Sponsored: Treadway Gallery Holding African American Fine Art Auction, Sept. 15
Lot 273: ALMA WOODSEY THOMAS (1891-1978), “Untitled,” circa 1970 (watercolor on paper, 13.2 x 15.75 inches framed). | Estimate $20,000-$30,000 Women working in Abstract Expressionism and an array of artists active in Chicago are among the highlights of the Sept. 15 African American Fine Art Auction at Treadway Gallery in Cincinnati. The gallery has...
Latest News in African America Art: Simone Leigh Collaborates with Zendaya, Eva Langret Joins Frieze, Art x Fashion & More
“Untitled #7” (1975) by Howardena Pindell The following review presents a snapshot of recent news in African American art and related black culture: ARTISTS The New York Times profiled Betye Saar in advance of her fall solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Los Angeles County Museum of...
Brooklyn-Based Artist Derrick Adams Joins Luxembourg & Dayan and Salon 94
BALTIMORE-BORN, Brooklyn-based artist Derrick Adams is working with two new galleries. Luxembourg & Dayan and Salon 94 announced their collaborative representation of Adams Sept. 5. His multidisciplinary practice spans painting, collage, sculpture, video, sound, and performance. Adams will continue to be represented by Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago. Described by the galleries, Adams’s practice...
Ernie Barnes Retrospective Brings Renewed Attention to African American Artist Who Found Fame After Playing Pro Football
“The Sugar Shack” (1976) by Ernie Barnes LOS ANGELES—A master storyteller, Ernie Barnes (1938-2009) painted from experience. He captured the brawn of football and the quotidian of life in the segregated South. His representational images depict what he saw growing up in Durham, N.C., where black people gathered for communion and competition on porches and...
Summering with Mickalene Thomas: The Artist Turns to Nature and Good Friends for a Creative Charge
From the New York Times video: Pool Party | Mickalene Thomas and Racquel Chevremont FOR THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS, Brooklyn-based Mickalene Thomas has decamped to a property in Salisbury, Conn., during “kids-away-from-school” time with Racquel Chevremont, her partner in work and life, and their three children. Purchased in 2013, Thomas calls the 19th century...
Curator Bridget R. Cooks Explains How the Ernie Barnes Retrospective Landed at the California African American Museum
WHEN THE PASADENA MUSEUM of California Art (PMCA) unexpectedly closed last October, after 16 years, there were three final exhibitions on view, including “Grafton Tyler Brown: Exploring California,” a small survey of Pacific Northwest landscape paintings and commercial lithographs. A pioneer, Grafton Tyler Brown (1841-1918) was the state’s first African American contractor and is...
On View: ‘Tricknology: Ektor Garcia and Allison Janae Hamilton,’ Curated by Sanford Biggers at Marianne Boesky in Aspen, Colo.
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions PROVIDING A PLATFORM for two up-and-coming artists, Sanford Biggers is presenting the work of Allison Janae Hamilton and ektor garcia at Marianne Boesky. (The gallery has represented Biggers since 2016.) Both artists make complex, narrative works. Garcia employs ceramics, crochet, and weaving techniques working with fibrous materials,...
A Portrait of Faith Ringgold Painted by Alice Neel is Jordan Casteel’s Favorite Artwork
WORKS BY MORE THAN 60 ARTISTS, including Faith Ringgold, are featured in the international traveling exhibition “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power.” Nearly all the artists are Black, except Virginia Jaramillo, Andy Warhol (1928-1987), and Alice Neel (1900-1984), who contributed a portrait of Ringgold to the landmark exhibition. Rinngold...
The Hirshhorn Museum Asked Artists About Their Influences. Amy Sherald Chose Deborah Roberts, Jordan Casteel Selected Faith Ringgold
FOR ITS FIFTH ANNUAL GALA in New York, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is paying tribute to 42 artists, an “intergenerational vanguard” including Jordan Casteel, Faith Ringgold, Amy Sherald, Deborah Roberts, and David Hartt. The museum is assembling the group by inviting 21 artists to identify an additional honoree who “has influenced...
