Fast-Rising Photographer Tyler Mitchell is Now Represented by Jack Shainman Gallery
PHOTOGRAPHER AND FILMMAKER Tyler Mitchell has joined Jack Shainman Gallery. Mitchell’s practice explores a new vision of the beauty and power of Blackness. Defined by a sense of optimism and aesthetic creativity, his images imagine a Black utopia. A closely watched talent, Mitchell experienced a meteoric rise in 2018 when he photographed Beyoncé for...
Revolution on Trial: Exploring the Black Panther Party’s Legacy in New Haven, Conn.
“A hand that held and loved someone (Personal Choice #3)” (2020) video installation by CHLOË BASS THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY for Self Defense marked its 50th anniversary in 2016 and the occasion was commemorated with books, exhibitions, and nationwide programs. In 2020, Artspace New Haven is recognizing the 50th anniversary of a pivotal moment...
Joining David Zwirner as a Director, Ebony L. Haynes Will Launch a New Gallery Space With an All-Black Staff
THE LATEST HIRE at David Zwirner negotiated a sweet deal. Ebony L. Haynes is joining the gallery as a director and she is launching her own exhibition program in a new stand-alone space in Manhattan. Expected to open in spring 2021, the location of the gallery and inaugural exhibition will be announced in the coming...
Her Story: Paying Tribute to a Century of Women Who Have a Way With Words
Lorraine Hansberry, 1959 THROUGHOUT THE NATION, organizations and cultural institutions have been commemorating the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment in a variety of ways. At the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., a new exhibition marks the occasion by highlighting 24 women writers whose work has shaped the literary landscape...
Everything is Beautiful: Major Alma W. Thomas Traveling Exhibition Opening at Chrysler Museum of Art in July 2021
TOMORROW, SEPT. 22, would have been the 129th birthday of artist Alma Thomas (1891-1978). The announcement today of a major traveling exhibition co-organized by the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Va., and the Columbus Museum in her hometown of Columbus, Ga., is a wonderful way to celebrate her life and legacy. “Alma W....
Kyla McMillan is Joining David Zwirner Gallery as a Director Focused on Artist Management and Sales
DAVID ZWIRNER GALLERY has hired Kyla McMillan as a director. The gallery has locations in New York, London, Paris and Hong Kong. McMillan will be based in Chelsea (New York) with a portfolio focused on artist management and sales. She begins at David Zwirner Oct. 15. The appointment was first reported today by ARTnews. “I...
An Ode to Tina Turner, Nikita Gale’s First Solo Museum Exhibition is About Refusal, Presence, and Visibility
“PRIVATE DANCER” (2020) by Nikita Gale THE FIRST SOLO MUSEUM EXHIBITION of Nikita Gale is an abstract sculptural installation at the California African American Museum (CAAM) in Los Angeles. Composed of theatrical trusses and lighting, the work pays homage to Tina Turner’s 1984 album “Private Dancer.” Gale has invoked Turner for six years and...
Employing ‘Outrageous Color,’ Peter Williams Makes Bold Paintings That Confront Racial Oppression and Envision a ‘Black Universe’
Detail of George Floyd Triptych (2020) by Peter Williams IN EARLY AUGUST, artist Peter Williams presented The George Floyd Triptych (2020), at Untitled, Art Online, the art fair’s inaugural virtual event. The work, which depicts the arrest, death, and burial of Floyd in three panels, was the central focus of the Luis De Jesus...
Studio Museum in Harlem Selects 2020-2021 Artists in Residence: Widline Cadet, Genesis Jerez, Texas Isaiah, and Jacolby Satterwhite
FOUR NEW ARTISTS are receiving the imprimatur of the Studio Museum in Harlem. Widline Cadet, Genesis Jerez, Texas Isaiah, and Jacolby Satterwhite (above, clockwise from left) have been selected for the museum’s Artist-in-Residence program, a prestigious opportunity that has served as a launching pad for some of today’s most highly regarded artists of African...
Renaissance Man: An Exceptional Painter, Musician, and Filmmaker, Blitz Bazawule Counts Beyoncé, Ava DuVernay, and Oprah Winfrey Among His Collaborators
A MOMENT IN TIME, a new series of paintings by Blitz Bazawule, is inspired by found photographs he located in markets around the world. The artist first discovered them in Rabat, Morocco, where vendors were selling albums full of old, black-and-white photographs belonging to families they didn’t know. In the paintings, which are on...
Showcasing African American Art Throughout the Year, 2021 Calendars Pay Homage to Archibald Motley, Charles White, Romare Bearden, and Harlem Renaissance
A 2021 WALL CALENDAR showcasing the work of jazz age modernist Archibald Motley (1891-1981) serves as a reminder that Black institutions were the first to collect the work of African American artists in a meaningful way. “Barbeque” (1934) appears on the cover of the calendar. One of Motley’s famous genre scenes, the painting belongs...
Ballet Icon Misty Copeland is a Budding Collector of African American Art
Misty Copeland opens her New York apartment up to Architectural Digest, revealing a penchant for African American art. | Video by Architectural Digest LOCATED ON THE UPPER WEST SIDE of Manhattan, Misty Copeland‘s three-bedroom apartment was recently showcased by Architectural Digest (AD). She gave the design magazine’s audience a video tour. The home’s theme,...
Pittsburgh Sculptor Thaddeus Mosley’s Improvisational Methods and Modern Forms Channel the ‘Essence of Good Jazz’
USING HAND TOOLS, Thaddeus Mosley carves abstract, modern forms out of felled logs from Western Pennsylvania. A trio of sculptures by Mosley is installed at Rockefeller Center near Fifth Avenue in front of the Channel Gardens. The works were created specifically for Frieze Sculpture 2020 at Rockefeller Center. The free outdoor public art exhibition...
Theaster Gates Reflects on His Johnson Publishing Project: ‘To Me the Photographic Images Were Waiting on Their Next Life’
A DENSE GATHERING of mostly African Americans, well-dressed for a day of national mourning, covers the fall 2020 edition of Gagosian Quarterly. The black-and-white photograph is by Moneta Sleet Jr. (1926-1996), a bird’s eye view captured at the public funeral of Martin Luther King Jr., in April 1968. The photograph is part of the...
For LA Artist Henry Taylor ‘Blackness is Not an Uneasy, Overcompensating Assertion, Blackness Just Is’
THE WRITING AND THE ART featured in Henry Taylor’s first major monograph are just as striking as the vivid orange cloth cover in which it is bound. Los Angeles-based Taylor is known for his richly colored, bluesy approach to figuration. His subjects are rendered loosely and somewhat abstract. He makes paintings of his friends,...
Aug. 28: Smithsonian is Marking March on Washington Anniversary With Film Dedicated to Pivotal Day in Black History
TO MARK THE 57TH ANNIVERSARY of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is making its grand opening film, “August 28: A Day in the Life of a People,” available online, free to public for 24 hours, beginning tomorrow morning. “Aug. 28”...
