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...
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...
On View: ‘Conrad Egyir: Terra Nullius’ at Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
Installation view of “Conrad Egyir: Terra Nullius” at Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THE FIRST SOLO MUSEUM EXHIBITION of Conrad Egyir presents a series of individual and group portraits whose subjects hail from Detroit, New York City, or Aburi, Ghana. On view at the Museum of...
On View: ‘Terry Adkins: Resounding’ at Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis, Mo.
Installation view of “Terry Adkins: Resounding,” featuring “Last Trumpet” (1995). On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions SHOWCASING A BROAD SURVEY of Terry Adkins (1953-2014), the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis, Mo., reopened today after five months of closure due to COVID-19. Adkins expressed himself through sculpture, sound, performance, video, and printmaking,...
Carrie Mae Weems on Kitchen Table Series: ‘Not Simply a Voice for African American Women, but More Generally for Women’
IN A NEW ONLINE VIEWING ROOM, Jack Shainman Gallery is showcasing Carrie Mae Weems‘s iconic Kitchen Table Series (1990). The photographs feature a succession of staged scenes that explore female identity, experiences, and relationships in the context of a traditionally female domain. Employing visual performance, image making, and a compelling narrative text, the powerful...
Exploring the Beauty of New Orleans Courtyards, Artist Patrick Waldemar Channeled a Painful History of Racism
PATRICK WALDEMAR, “Hanging Out in the Courtyard,” 2020 (watercolor on paper, 12 x 12 inches). | © Patrick Waldemar, Courtesy the Artist and Stella Jones Gallery WORKING FOR NEARLY A YEAR on a series of paintings inspired by the stately courtyards of New Orleans, Patrick Waldemar‘s work began to shift. With the onset of...
On View: ‘Chase Hall: Half Note’ at Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THE TITLE of Chase Hall‘s new solo exhibition, “Half Note,” references both the improvisation of jazz and biracial identity. He explores both in a new series of portraits on view at Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago. One of the paintings is named for a famous impromptu...
Say It Loud: Curator Destinee Ross-Sutton Partnered With Christie’s to Help Emerging Artists Showcase and Sell Their Work
CHRISTIE’S AUCTION HOUSE is providing an online platform for emerging and mid-career artists to sell their work. It’s not an auction, rather it’s a virtual selling exhibition with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the artists. “Say It Loud” is a collaboration with independent curator Destinee Ross-Sutton and features 22 international artists of...
New Voice With Plenty to Say: Kenyan Painter Michael Armitage Bridges European Traditions and East African Modernism
Artist Michael Armitage. | Photo courtesy White Cube ONE OF THE MOST THOUGHT-PROVOKING figures in contemporary painting, Kenyan artist Michael Armitage probes the politics and cultural history of East Africa. His fascinating narrative scenes have a mythical quality and abstract tendencies that draw on aesthetic tensions between European traditions and East African modernism. In...
South African Artist Neo Matloga: ‘I Am Hoping the Audience Will See Their Emotions, Their Experiences, Their Spirits Living on My Canvases’
THE SCENES AND SITUATIONS in Neo Matloga‘s collage paintings are familiar. He captures small groups gathered in living rooms and around dining tables, couples engaged in intimate conversations, and individuals in the midst of introspective moments. Combining images cut from books and magazines with ink and charcoal line drawings, Matloga creates compelling characters...
Curator Shawnya L. Harris is Planning a Major Museum Retrospective of Emma Amos, Forthcoming in 2021
AN UNPRECEDENTED RETROSPECTIVE dedicated to Emma Amos (1937-2020) has been in the works for five years and is forthcoming in 2021 at the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia in Athens. Shawnya Harris is curating “Emma Amos: Color Odyssey.” Amos was a progressive painter. From the beginning, she explored and challenged...
On View: ’50 Artists: Art on the Grid,’ a Citywide Public Art Exhibition in New York
“A Great Day in Harlem” (2020) by Chase Hall On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions INITIALLY ENVISIONED IN RESPONSE to the global coronavirus pandemic, the Public Art Fund’s “50 Artists: Art on the Grid” exhibition came together with the ensuing police protests and racial justice movement top of mind. The project...
On View: ‘The Beautiful Journey: The Lens of Devin Allen’ at The Gallery at Baltimore City Hall
“Mother and Son” by Devin Allen While museums and galleries are temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 virus, On View will continue to showcase images from noteworthy exhibitions DOCUMENTING THE UPRISING that spilled into the streets of Baltimore in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray while he was in police custody,...
Tate Museums are Reopening July 27. New Exhibitions are Delayed, Including Surveys of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and Zanele Muholi
AFTER JOINING A CHORUS of museums around the world that closed temporarily in mid-March to contain the spread of COVID-19, the Tate in London announced its reopening plans. All four Tate galleries are opening to the public July 27. The pause in operations resulted in a shift in exhibition schedules and six-month delays for...
On View: ‘Painting with Light: The Photography of Ming Smith’ at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery in London
“Abidjan Children” (1972 / 2003) by Ming Smith While museums and galleries are temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 virus, On View will continue to showcase images from noteworthy exhibitions A PIONEERING AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHER, Ming Smith is known for her experimental techniques. Her painterly and artfully blurred images are achieved with slow shutter...
Brazilian Artist Sonia Gomes Joins Blum & Poe and Pace Galleries: ‘My Work is Black, It is Feminine, and It is Marginal’
Sonia Gomes in her São Paulo studio, 2020. BLUM & POE and Pace Galleries have added Brazilian artist Sonia Gomes to their rosters. Gomes works with found and gifted fabrics, exploring the embedded meaning, histories, and social significance of the textiles. Issues of memory and identity are at the center of her practice. New...
American and European Museums Plan 48-Hour Stream of Arthur Jafa’s Moving Video Installation ‘Love is the Message’
Still from Arthur Jafa’s “Love is the Message, The Message is Death” (2016) A MEDLEY OF HISTORIC and contemporary footage, Arthur Jafa‘s “Love is the Message, The Message is Death” (2016) is an ode to the Black experience. The video installation is a rapid-pace montage of poignant images, both celebratory and heart-wrenching. Kanye West’s...
Culture Talk: Frank Stewart on His Jazz Photographs, Approach to Image Making, and Forthcoming Museum Retrospective
THE ARRAY OF IMAGES Frank Stewart has made over the course of his career is dizzying. He’s photographed African American culture in its many forms—art, food, dance, and music, jazz in particular. He’s made portraits of artists, shot barbecue in the South and Midwest, and captured the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He photographed a...
New Drawings by Toyin Ojih Odutola Pair Powerful Portraits with Invented Stories
“As He Watched Him Walk Away” (2020) by Toyin Ojih Odutola A NEW SERIES OF WORKS ON PAPER by Toyin Ojih Odutola explores her fascination with marrying images and text. The artist’s pursuit satiates the viewer’s natural inclination to spin narratives around her powerful and alluring portraits. This desire to imagine the lives and...
Floaters: Series of Leisurely Pool Images by Derrick Adams is About Black Radical Joy
CENTERED ON JOY AND LEISURE, “Derrick Adams: Buoyant” may seem out of step with the moment. Two months of quarantine and social distancing borne of a global pandemic dovetailed with a new wave of Black people murdered by police. Then a multiracial, intergenerational protest movement sprouted in response, calling for racial justice, police...
