Latest News in Black Art features news updates and developments in the world of art and related culture
 


Jacqueline Stewart joined the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in the lead up to its opening, directing exhibitions, programming, and education. She is the host of “Silent Sunday Nights” on Turner Classic Movies and a 2021 MacArthur Foundation Fellow. | Photo Courtesy Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

 
Appointments

Jacqueline Stewart was appointed director and president of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, succeeding Bill Kramer who was named chief executive of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Located in Los Angeles, the Academy Museum is “the largest museum in the United States devoted to the arts, sciences, and artists of moviemaking” and also explores the history of filmmaking. Since January 2021, Stewart has been serving as chief artistic and programming officer of the museum, which opened to the public last September. A scholar, curator, archivist, and public educator, Stewart is a professor of cinema and media studies at the University of Chicago. She assumes her new role at the Academy Museum on July 18. A special exhibition, “Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971,” opens on Aug. 21. | Los Angeles Times

The Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Ky., announced two newly created positions. Toya Northington (right) was appointed inaugural director of Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. She was elevated from her previous position as community engagement strategist at the museum. In addition, fari nzinga (far right) is joining the Speed as its first curator of academic engagement and special projects. A curator, educator, and co-founder of the Color BLOC, nzinga was most recently a visiting professor and scholar-in-residence at the bell hooks center at Berea College in Berea, Ky. | More

The B&O Railroad Museum appointed Lola Pyne chief marketing officer. Located in Baltimore, Md., where the first mile of America’s commercial railroad was laid, the museum is a Smithsonian affiliate. Pyne joins the B&O from the Library of Congress, where she worked for 18 years, most recently heading marketing and advertising. She officially starts at the museum on July 11. | More

IMAGES: Above right, from left, Toya Northington and fari nzinga. | Courtesy Speed Art Museum (2)

 


Portrait of Johnson Eziefula. | © Johnson Eziefula, Courtesy Maruani Mercier

 
Representation

Maruani Mercier announced its European representation of Johnson Eziefula of Lagos, Nigeria. Known for his striking portraits of friends and family, Eziefula’s paintings were first presented in New York in 2020 and 2021 in gallery exhibitions organized by Destinee Ross-Sutton/Ross-Sutton Gallery, a Black woman-owned gallery. “Johnson Eziefula: From Time to a Time,” the artist’s debut solo exhibition with Maruani Mercier opens Sept. 3 in Brussels, Belgium. | More

Multimedia artist Rodney Ewing joined Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco. His first exhibition with the gallery, “Rodney Ewing: The Devil Finds Work,” opens July 9. The San Francisco-based artist recently moved across the country and now lives and works in Brooklyn, N.Y. | More

 


RODNEY EWING, “Conductor (William Still),” 2021 (hand-colored silk screen on ledger paper). | © Rodney Ewing. Courtesy the artist and Rena Bransten Gallery

 

Books

Ghana-born, U.S.-based painter, filmmaker, and musician Blitz Bazawule was a director on Beyoncé’s Black is King Album and is currently working on a movie musical adaptation of “The Color Purple.” Now Bazawule has added published author to his portfolio. Set in the mid-1960s, his new novel, The Scent of Burnt Flowers, follows Melvin and his fiancé Bernadette who flee Alabama for Ghana, where they seek the aid of his college roommate, President Kwame Nkrumah. The story “is by turns rollicking, romantic and solemn, always acutely aware of the historical forces shaping its characters’ destinies and fascinated with the culture shocks they experience as they move between continents.” | New York Times

Featuring about 150 exhibitors, the 2022 San Francisco Art Book Fair is July 15-17 at Minnesota Street Project. The fair is free and open to the public. Highlights include artists Keko Jackson and Lava Thomas in conversation about their recent books “Keko Jackson: Restored/Access” and “Lava Thomas: Homecoming” and a performative lecture presented by Christine Wang from the artist zine series at Cassandra Press, which was founded by artist Kandis Williams. | More

Coinciding with the SF Art Book Fair, Rena Bransten Gallery is hosting a book event with artist Oliver Lee Jackson. On July 16 at 2 p.m., Jackson is signing his recent catalog published on the occasion of his solo exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum. | Rena Bransten Gallery

 
More News

News of the $5 million capital campaign launched by the African American Museum of Iowa in Cedar Rapids drew attention from a late night talk show. | CBS2Iowa

In May, the Austrian Museum for Black Entertainment and Black Music (ÖMSUBM) opened in Vienna, Austria. | Contemporary And
CT

 

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