While Traveling the World Documenting Foodways of African Diaspora, Jessica B. Harris Has Been Collecting Vintage Postcards
TRAVELING THE WORLD for more than 50 years, Jessica B. Harris has been documenting the foodways of the African Diaspora surfacing Black history in the culture and traditions of food and the people who cultivate, sell, and cook it. Along the way, she’s collected recipes and vintage postcards. Turns out, the acclaimed culinary historian...
On View: ‘Present Generations: Creating the Scantland Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art,’ in Columbus, Ohio
Self portrait of artist and his family, including former wife, photographer Deana Lawson. | © Aaron Gilbert On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THE COLLECTION of modern paintings assembled by the Columbus Museum of Art is largely the result of the largesse of private collectors who dating back to 1931 have...
Blue Is the Color We See Before We Die: Delita Martin is Latest Artist to Contribute to Ava DuVernay’s Police Accountability Project
THE COLOR BLUE ordinarily symbolizes spirituality in the work of Delita Martin. She creates figurative mixed-media works combining relief printing, painting, drawing, hand-stitching, and collage. Inspired by oral traditions and old family photographs, her representations of Black women seek to correct problematic narratives and instead emphasize their individuality and vital family and community roles....
Latest News in Black Art: Christopher Myers Now Repped by James Cohan Gallery, Nicole Fleetwood Joins NYU, Derrick Adams and Jay-Z Collaborate on NFT, Dallas Museum of Art Acquires Its First Basquiat
Latest News in Black Art features news updates and developments in the world of art and related culture Artist Christopher Myers. | Courtesy of the artist and James Cohan, New York Representation Brooklyn-based artist Christopher Myers is now represented by James Cohan Gallery. Myers’s multidisciplinary practice is rooted in storytelling. He works...
Legacy Russell Appointed Executive Director and Chief Curator at The Kitchen, an Experimental Interdisciplinary Art Space in New York
FOUNDED 50 YEARS AGO as a venue for video art, The Kitchen has evolved over the years and currently presents creative works across a range of disciplines, including visual art, video, film, performance, dance, music, theater, and literature, in collaboration with both emerging and established artists. One of New York’s oldest nonprofit art spaces, The...
AIGA Selects 50 Best Book and Cover Designs: Winners Include ‘Black Futures’ and Publications From Ming Smith, Duro Olowu, and Tyler Mitchell
KNOWN AS MORCOS KEY, Waël Morcos and Jon Key are the design team behind “Black Futures,” the ambitious collaboration from Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham. The authors set out to answer the question “What does it mean to be Black and alive right now?” Their response is an impressive compilation—a cacophony of images, memes,...
Latest News in Black Art: McArthur Binion Joins Xavier Hufkens, ICI Announces 4 Okwui Enwezor Fellows, Basquiat Painting Featured on NYT Magazine Sells at Auction
Latest News in Black Art features news updates and developments in the world of art and related culture Artist McArthur Binion, 2017. | Photo by Francesco Galli Representation Chicago-based McArthur Binion joined the roster of Xavier Hufkens in Belgium. His work will be featured in a group exhibition at the gallery this...
Museums Recognize Juneteenth: Newly Established National Holiday is ‘Celebration of Resilience, Freedom Deferred But Found’
FOR BLACK AMERICANS, transformational change has always been on the horizon, just out of reach. Long after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation with an effective date of Jan. 1, 1863, and the Civil War ended two-and-a-half years later in April 1965, it was another two months before Union troops arrived in Galveston,...
A Call for Justice and Healing, Nina Chanel Abney’s First Public Art Installation in Canada Declares ‘Stop,’ ‘Don’t Kill,’ and ‘Love’
A NEW THOUGHT-PROVOKING PROJECT from Yorkville Murals implores the community to choose joy and hope over violence and despair. “Generally Speaking” by Nina Chanel Abney is the artist’s first public art work in Canada. Installed in Toronto’s Yorkville district, the 120-foot street mural (one-third the length of a football field) is replete with the...
Historic Appointment: Geovette Washington Elected Board Chair of Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, First Black Person in History of Institutions to Serve in Role
THE NEW CHAIR of the board of trustees for the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh is Geovette E. Washington. She is leading the board that oversees four major museums in the city: the Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Science Center, and Andy Warhol Museum. Washington has been senior vice chancellor...
Harvard Art Museums Appoint Horace D. Ballard Associate Curator of American Art
HARVARD ART MUSEUMS announced the appointment of Horace D. Ballard, who will serve as Theodore E. Stebbins Jr. Associate Curator of American Art. Ballard arrives from the Williams College Museum of Art, where he is curator of American art. His Harvard appointment is effective Sept. 1. “Horace’s scholarship and curatorial vision, combined with his...
Karen Comer Lowe Named Executive Director of Hammonds House Museum, Atlanta Institution Known for Collection of African American Art
AN ATLANTA INSTITUTION with a formidable collection of Black art, Hammonds House Museum announced Karen Comer Lowe is its new executive director and first chief curator. Comer Lowe has a spectrum of experience in the Atlanta arts scene, most recently serving as manager and curator at Chastain Arts Center. She is returning to Hammonds...
Latest News in Black Art: Julie Mehretu Benefit Auction Sets New Record, Vanessa German Joins Kasmin, Gordon Parks Documentary, Jean-Michel Basquiat & More
Latest News in Black Art features news updates and developments in the world of art and related culture vanessa german in her exhibition “MATRIX 174/i come to do violence to the lie” (2016), Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Conn. | Photo by Allen Phillips/Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art Representation Kasmin announced...
Visions of Equity: Jordan Casteel’s Mother and Child Portrait Covers Special Issue of Time Magazine
TO ILLUSTRATE THE COVER of its special issue titled Visions of Equity, Time magazine chose a painting by Jordan Casteel. “God Bless the Child” (2019), captures a tender moment, a young mother cradling the head of her child, presumably a little girl. Both of their faces are obscured. Nonetheless, Casteel takes great care in...
Kymberly Pinder Appointed Dean of the Yale School of Art, First Black Person to Lead School in 150-Year History
ONE OF THE NATION’S most prestigious art schools will be led by Kymberly Pinder. Yale University President Peter Salovey announced Pinder as the next Stavros Niarchos Foundation Dean of the Yale School of Art. An alum of Yale, where she earned her Ph.D., Pinder is the first Black person appointed dean since the school...
Auction Record: Gospel and R&B Icon Mavis Staples Sold Ernie Barnes Painting for $75K at Hindman in Chicago
A FIGURATIVE PAINTER with a singular style, Ernie Barnes (1938-2009) had a reverence for Black women. They were a popular subject for the artist who depicted them possessed with dignity, passion, and joy. Barnes made paintings of Black women playing sports, DJing, dancing, attending church, showing strength in the face of adversity, and socializing...
Forthcoming in October, Ebony L. Haynes Will Open David Zwirner Space in Tribeca With Inaugural Exhibition Program Focused Exclusively on Women Artists
DAVID ZWIRNER DIRECTOR Ebony L. Haynes is opening a new space in Tribeca at 52 Walker Street. Nine months ago, Haynes joined the gallery with a unique arrangement providing her the latitude to run her own David Zwirner location in New York. Haynes announced more details today about the stand alone space and the exhibition...
Latest News in Black Art: Zimbabwean Artist Portia Zvavahera Joins David Zwirner, Preston Pavlis Now Repped by Bradley Ertaskiran, Stained Glass Museum Acquires Kehinde Wiley Work & More
Latest News in Black Art features news updates and developments in the world of art and related culture Artist Portia Zvavahera. | Photo by Mario Todeschini. © Portia Zvavahera. Courtesy David Zwirner and Stevenson Representation Zimbabwean artist Portia Zvavahera (above) is now represented by David Zwirner in collaboration with Stevenson Gallery of...
Curator Joy Bivins Named Director of Schomburg Center in Harlem: ‘In My Career, I Have Worked to Help Others Make Sense of History’
THE SCHOMBURG CENTER for Research in Black Culture in Harlem has a new leader. The New York Public Library announced Joy Bivins will serve as the next director of the renowned cultural institution, a library and research center where the papers of James Baldwin, Malcolm X, and Maya Angelou are housed. Bivins is being...
Mickalene Thomas, Whose Powerful Paintings Celebrate Black Women, is Staging Exhibitions with Lévy Gorvy Gallery in Four World Capitals This Fall
THIS FALL, Mickalene Thomas will make a grand statement, presenting all new work in a series of exhibitions in four world capitals, in partnership with Lévy Gorvy. The gallery is hosting the shows at its locations in New York, London, Paris, and Hong Kong. Over the past two decades, Thomas has built a singular...
