On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions CHARTING THE EVOLUTION of Wadsworth Jarrell‘s practice, “Come Saturday Punch” presents more than two-dozen works spanning 55 years. One of five original co-founders of AfriCOBRA, the collective established in Chicago in 1968, Jarrell has maintained a unique visual voice throughout his career. True to, but unbound...
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions CELEBRATING THE CREATIVE CONNECTIONS between a mother and daughter, “REALITY, Times two” presents works by quilt artist Elizabeth Talford Scott (1916-2011) and bead artist Joyce J. Scott. The Baltimore artists lived together for more than 60 years until Elizabeth died in 2011. Born on a South Carolina...
“The Old Water” (2004) by Thornton Dial Sr. On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THORTON DIAL SR. (1928-2016), made symbolic mixed-media paintings and sculptural assemblage works with profound titles. “The Last Day of Martin Luther King” (1992), references the civil rights leader’s assassination, a moment of national tragedy, sadness, and mourning, and an...
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THE UNIFYING THEME of “Show Me Yours” is not readily apparent, until you look closely. The exhibition features paintings by three emerging artists—Brittney Leeanne Williams, Jake Troyli, and Bianca Nemelc—each offering a unique interpretation of the nude form through the lens of identity. Rendered in electric pink,...
“Three Little Girls Eating Ice Cream Cones” (1936) by Lucien Aigner WHILE AFRICAN AMERICANS have lived in Harlem for centuries, photographers and artists have notably documented what became black Harlem for about 100 years and continue to train their sights on the cultural mecca increasingly defined by gentrification. The storied Harlem that captures the...
MORE THAN A DOZEN EXHIBITIONS, most in and around London, are showcasing the work of black female artists this summer. Presented at museums, nonprofits, and commercial galleries, many of the shows are breaking new ground for the artists, who span generations. Faith Ringgold at Serpentine Galleries is making her European institutional solo debut and...
Artist Faith Ringgold, artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist, and curator Melissa Blanchflower discuss Ringgold’s longstanding career and current exhibition at Serpentine Galleries. | Video by Serpentine Galleries On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions SERPENTINE GALLERIES is presenting a five-decade survey of pioneering American artist Faith Ringgold, 88. Throughout her career, Ringgold has worked...
AN AMAZING PAINTER who juggles a variety of projects and collaborations, Nina Chanel Abney has been channeling her talents as a curator. Last fall, Abney organized “Punch” at Jeffrey Deitch in New York. The show focused on 19 artists in her circle whose work, similar to her own, examines contemporary life through the lens...
SINCE 2014, Njideka Akunyili Crosby has been using her signature collage technique to make a series of portraits focused on Nigerian children, including her siblings in their youth. Recent works from the ongoing series The Beautyful Ones are featured at Victoria Miro Venice. Closing soon, the exhibition is on view through July 13....
THE SEATTLE ART MUSEUM is presenting an ongoing series of self-portraits by South African photographer Zanele Muholi. Opening July 10, “Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness” features 76 black-and-white portraits and large-scale photographic wall papers. The series reimagines so-called classic portraiture and re-articulates notions of race, representation, and identity. Muholi’s own face and body...
THE NEW MUSEUM is presenting the first-ever U.S. solo museum show of British artist Lubaina Himid next week. The 2017 Turner Prize-winner, who describes herself as a painter and a social activist, is debuting an all-new body of work at the New York City museum. Opening June 26, “Lubain Himid: Work from Underneath” features...
Installation view of “Get Up, Stand Up Now.” Shown, From left, Works by Yinka Shonibare and Sanford Biggers (in background). | Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Somerset House On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions A STUNNING ARRAY of works by more than 100 artists from Britain, the United States, and beyond, is on view at...
A STRIKING PORTRAIT of a black woman was awarded first prize at the National Portrait Gallery in London. “Imara in Her Winter Coat” by Charlie Schaffer won the BP Portrait Award 2019. The winning portrait and 43 other top entries will be on view in an exhibition that opens June 13 at the National...
Artist Leonardo Drew in his Brooklyn studio. WORKING IN HIS UNIQUE STUDIO SPACE in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, artist Leonardo Drew simultaneously produced work for two projects. He fabricated “City in the Grass,” which features a trio of towers rising from an abstracted cityscape grounded by a massive surface resembling a topographically patterned carpet. His...
From left, Artists Sable Elyse Smith, Allison Janae Hamilton, and Tschabalala Self THE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM Artists-in-Residence exhibition opened Sunday at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City. Titled “MOOD,” the exhibition features 2018-19 artists Allison Janae Hamilton, Tschabalala Self, and Sable Elyse Smith. Here is how the museum describes the show: MOOD explores...
Curator Zoé Whitley THE BRITISH PAVILION at the 58th Venice Biennale features a new body of work by Irish artist Cathy Wilkes. Conceptual and figurative sculptures, a spare selection of household objects, and abstracted landscape paintings are installed in a series of six pristine galleries flooded with natural light. She’s created narrative moments and...
FROM ONE DECADE TO THE NEXT, one can never guess where Frank Bowling will take his painting. Where ever he goes, somehow it always looks like Bowling. Whether he is sewing silkscreen images of his mother’s house to canvases, stenciling silhouettes of Africa and South America against fields of color, or relying on...
EMPLOYING CARPETS left behind by the previous occupant of his Harlem studio, Nari Ward made an angel. He reinvented the carpets, cutting them down and forming tightly rolled segments, combining them with found plastic bags, plastic bottles, springs, wood screws, and rope, to create an airy, open-weave structure. He named the work “Carpet Angel.”...
INSTALLED ON THE EIGHTH FLOOR of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, a group exhibition celebrates color. “Spilling Over: Painting Color in the 1960s” considers the technical, formal, and substantive possibilities of painting with bold, neon, and saturated hues. Drawing exclusively on the Whitney Museum’s collection, the show brings together 18...
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THE PULSATING RHYTHMS and dynamic energy of London’s reggae and dub nightclub scene in the early 1980s are palpable in the work of Denzil Forrester. His large-scale paintings are characterized by “vivid color, gestural brushstrokes, and frenetic compositions.” Spanning the four decades (1978-2019), new and historic works...