Latest News in Black Art features updates and developments in the world of art and related culture
Floyd Hall. | Photo by Wesley Cummings
Appointments
Floyd Hall is joining Atlanta Contemporary as executive director, effective Jan. 16. An Atlanta-based cultural producer and media strategist, Hall has collaborated with a variety of companies and organizations over the past dozen years. He has been serving as interim director of Emory University’s Science Gallery Atlanta since June 2022 and is a co-founder of the Canopy Atlanta, a journalism nonprofit. (1/8) | More
Awards & Honors
Sculptor Melvin Edwards is being honored with a lifetime achievement award from the International Sculpture Center on April 12. (1/11). | More
The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Conn., selected of painter Kimberly Klauss as its inaugural artist-in-residence. During the nine-month residency funded by Art Bridges, she will have the opportunity to respond to two works on loan to the museum from Art Bridges, “Collage X Landscape” by George Morrison and ‘DNA: Sepia V” by McArthur Binion, in the context of her own practice. Munich. Born in the United States, Klauss spent some of her formative years in Japan, and most of her adult life in Germany, where she was previously based in Munich. (12/27) | More
Magazines
The work of Derek Fordjour covers the Winter 2024 issue of Whitewall magazine. Inside, a conversation with the artist explores his recent exhibition at Petzel Gallery in New York, an ensemble of multidisciplinary works spread across three galleries. Fordjour presented paintings, sculptures, kinetic installations, and live weekly performances in collaboration with choreographer Sidra Bell and musician Hannah Mayree of the Black Banjo Reclamation Project. Titled “Score” (Nov. 10-Dec. 22, 2023), the show drew on the layered meaning of the term: “to cut and scrape–a reference to his distinctive process of excavation in painting; to gain points in a competitive contest, a constant allegory in Fordjour’s work; and to compose as he has in collaboration to create a choreographic performance.” (12/18) | More
New York-based BOMB magazine, which has been publishing conversations with and among artists since 1981, announced a new website, describing it as “a dynamic interface and site architecture that highlights the magazine’s rich archive and 43-year history.” BOMB also announced a “refreshed” mission with a focus on three core values: authenticity, inclusion, and sustainability.
(1/12). | More
Grants
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced 260 new grants. NEH is dedicating $33.8 million to fund humanities projects across the nation. The grants were awarded in 11 categories, including infrastructure and capacity building grants, digital humanities grants, fellowships, and faculty grants. For the first time, 28 awards were granted in a new category: Public Impact Projects at Smaller Organizations. Part of NEH’s American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future initiative, these grants benefit small- and mid-sized cultural organizations. (1/9) | More
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts began 2024 with good news for 50 arts organizations, museums, and university art galleries. More than $4 million is going to Fall 2023 grant recipients to support artists and their practices. Recipients include Afro Charities in Baltimore, Md.; ALMA | LEWIS, which houses The Black Archive in Pittsburgh, Pa.; NXTHVN in New Haven, Conn.; The Kitchen in New York, N.Y.; Project for Empty Space in Newark, N.J.; and LAXART in Los Angeles, Calif. Grants are also benefitting new museum exhibitions, such as “Hayward Oubre: Structural Integrity” at the Birmingham Museum of Art and a five-decade survey of Suzanne Jackson, her first major museum retrospective, organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. (1/10) | More
Films
BlackStar Projects announced dates for this year’s BlackStar Film Festival: Aug. 1-4, 2024. The 13th edition is a hybrid in-person and online event, with screenings occurring in downtown Philadelphia. Film submissions for the festival are now open with rolling deadlines on Feb. 1 (early), March 1 (preferred), and April 1 (late). BlackStar Projects also announced a new appointment. Nonprofit administrator and fundraiser Catherine Lee came on board as senior director of development and operations. (1/12) | More
CT
FILMS | “Lift,” a heist film starring Kevin Hart and Gugu Mbatha-Raw debuted on Netflix Jan. 12. The action-packed opening scene is set in the art world. The focus is an NFT up for auction in Venice, Italy, and the anonymous, masked artist who created it. The work follows “Prelude (Babacar Mané),” a 2021 painting by Kehinde Wiley with bidding opening at $7 million! It sells, but it is unclear for how much. Wiley’s real-life auction record is just over $649,000. Hart’s HartBeat Productions has top billing on the film, which is directed by F. Gary Gray. | Video by Netflix
