Artist List for 2017 Whitney Museum Biennial Includes Henry Taylor, Lyle Ashton Harris, Pope.L, and Deana Lawson
Clockwise, from left, Deana Lawson, Pope.L, Lyle Ashton Harris, Maya Stovall, and Cauleen Smith (center). THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART announced 63 individual artists and collectives participating in the museum’s 2017 biennial. Largely informed by the contentious political climate and the socioeconomic issues dividing Americans, the exhibition will explore themes including “formation of...
Battleground States: Art is Winning in Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, Political Powerhouses Where Must-See Exhibitions are on View
THE FINAL DAYS OF THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION are playing out in a handful of states, battlegrounds with key electoral votes likely to determine the outcome of a hard fought, stranger-than-fiction race for the White House. There are 538 electoral votes up for grabs and 270 are needed to win. The campaigns of Hillary...
Election Fervor: For 40 Years, ‘Teenie’ Harris Photographed Pittsburgh’s African American Community, Including Major Political Moments
CHARLES “TEENIE” HARRIS, Linda Starkey handing bouquet to Shirley Chisholm, surrounded by Delta Sigma Theta sorority members, including Christine Jones Fulwiley on left, Vivian Mason Lane, and Marcia Davis, in Loendi Club, March 5, 1972 (black and white: Kodak Safety Film). | Carnegie Museum of Art, Heinz Family Fund FOR GENERATIONS, AFRICAN AMERICANS in...
At the Art Institute of Chicago, Kemang Wa Lehulere Mines South Africa’s History, Imagines Its Future
Kemang Wa Lehulere’s first American museum exhibition, “In My Wildest Dreams” at the Art Institute of Chicago, is on view through Jan. 16, 2017. | Video by Art Institute of Chicago LIKE COUNTLESS OTHER NATIONS, South Africa has an uneven history. Unlike its African neighbors, its recent past has garnered sustained international attention—from apartheid-era...
Kerry James Marshall Retrospective at Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York Headlines Robust Fall Season of 50+ U.S. and European Exhibitions Featuring Black Artists
Kerry James Marshall’s retrospective, featuring “Untitled (Studio), opens at The Met Breuer Oct. 25. THE VISIONARY AND IMAGINATIVE PAINTINGS of Kerry James Marshall are coming to New York. Presenting 35 years of painting, “Mastry” is the largest retrospective of the artist’s work to date. After debuting at MCA Chicago in April, the exhibition opens...
Off the Beaten Path: From Cleveland to Durham, N.C., 19 Must-See Exhibitions Featuring African American Artists
Kara Walker’s work is on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art; A massive Nick Cave installation open at MASS MoCA Oct. 15. BEYOND NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES, AND CHICAGO, there are major U.S. museums and innovative art institutions presenting the work of world-renowned artists. The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art is one of...
We the People: This Election Season, Art and the Politics of Social Justice are on View
THIS FALL, NEW EXHIBITIONS featuring work by and about black people are opening in a political season like no other. Social justice issues are at the fore and change is afoot as the presidential election nears. The climate is reflected in the subjects African American artists are addressing in their work and is also paralleled...
Beyond the Fairs: London’s Must-See Exhibitions Featuring Black Artists
Embed from Getty Images LONDON IS THE PLACE TO BE this week with the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair and Frieze London underway. The fourth edition of 1:54 is open Oct. 6-9 at Somerset House. According to the fair, 40 exhibitors are presenting more than 130 African and African diasporan artists, alongside a program...
Where My Girls At?: 28+ Opportunities to See and Support the Work of Black Female Artists and Curators This Fall
Works by Alma Thomas, Simone Leigh, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye IT WAS A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM, a celebration of two important women in art—Alma Thomas (1891-1978) and Thelma Golden. The artist and the director of the Studio Museum in Harlem were both born Sept. 22. Thomas would have been 125. To mark the milestone,...
Gifted: Photographer Jaimie Milner Pays Tribute to Beauty, Ingenuity of Black Men
Jaimie Milner and some of the men she has photographed discuss the Gifted project. FOR MORE THAN FIVE YEARS, Jaimie Milner has been photographing black men. She describes the process as an exploration of the “beauty and ingenuity of black men today.” Milner has made portraits of more than 50 so far, from all...
With the Smithsonian African American Museum Set to Open in Washington, the Entire City is Brimming with Black Art
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is exhibiting works from its collection by African American artists including WILLIAM H. JOHNSON. WITH THE GRAND OPENING of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) less than a week away, anticipation is palpable. Visitor passes for the opening weekend disappeared shortly after their release...
Lorna Simpson Goes to Washington, Gives Inaugural Photography Lecture at National Gallery of Art
LORNA SIMPSON, “Untitled (Two Necklines),” 1989 WASHINGTON, D.C. — TWO DAYS AFTER her new exhibition of paintings opened at Salon 94 in New York, Lorna Simpson gave a talk at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. She offered a visual journey of her practice over the past three decades, sharing the concepts...
At Smithsonian, Carl Van Vechten’s Photographs Document Familiar Faces, Key Figures From Harlem’s Heydays
Artist Jacob Lawrence, photo by CARL VAN VECHTEN SOME OF THE MOST AMAZING PORTRAITS of Harlem’s 20th century figures were captured by Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964). A writer and photographer, Van Vechten socialized with the greats of African American arts and letters, including Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. A white patron of the...
Hammer Museum Launches Digital Archive with ‘Now Dig This!’ Exhibition About Black Artists in Los Angeles
THE HAMMER MUSEUM has breathed new life into one of its most dynamic and historically significant exhibitions. “Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980” explored a robust period in the city’s history when a pioneering group of African American artists established an influential creative community and produced important works commenting on the...
Race/Related: Times Reporting Team Gets Backstory on ‘A Man Was Lynched’ Redux
LAST WEEK IN NEW YORK CITY, artist Dread Scott joined protestors in Union Square. The demonstrators were taking a stand against police killing black men after the latest incidents involving the deaths of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La., and Philando Castile in Minneapolis. Scott brought a huge black flag, holding it aloft for...
Global Trotting: From Toronto to London and Addis Ababa, 17 Exhibitions Present the Work of Black Artists This Summer
TRAVELING TO TORONTO? Stop by Art Gallery Ontario (AGO) in Toronto, Canada, where a pair of solo exhibitions featuring British artist Hurvin Anderson and Chicago artist Theaster Gates are on view this summer. Both are also exhibiting in Europe. There is a Gates exhibition in Milan, Italy, and “Hurvin Anderson: Dub Versions” is at the...
Almost Famous: The Ebb and Flow of Sam Gilliam’s Formidable Practice
A MUST-READ PROFILE of Sam Gilliam published last week in The Washington Post, begins with a quote from the artist about him being “outlandishly famous.” The comment is meant to be facetious, but is actually not too far off base when one considers the recent trajectory of his recognition weighed against periods of his...
For Your Summer Agenda, 49 U.S. Exhibitions Featuring Works by Black Artists
This summer, artists including (clockwise from left) Nari Ward, Simone Leigh, Fred Wilson, Chakaia Booker, and John Akomfrah, are presenting solo exhibitions. THIS SUMMER 2016, incredible exhibitions featuring artists of African descent are on view across the United States. From Los Angeles, to Chicago, Atlanta, and New York, museums and galleries and public spaces...
Culture Talk: Curator Adrienne Edwards on Her New Exhibition ‘Blackness in Abstraction’
PACE GALLERY IS PRESENTING a few of Adrienne Edwards’s “favorite things.” It’s how the curator describes works by black contemporary artists about whom she writes and has a social and intellectual connection, and modern standouts with whom she has been “obsessed” over the course of her academic and professional career. A veteran curator at Performa...
Martin Puryear Appreciates the Dichotomy of ‘Big Bling,’ His Largest Sculpture to Date
Martin Puryear: “Big Bling” | Video by Art21 RISING AMONG THE TREES in Madison Square Park, “Big Bling” is a monument to Martin Puryear‘s practice. Standing 40-feet high, it is the largest temporary outdoor sculpture the artist has created. Part animal, part abstract form, from afar the voluminous sculpture looks heavy, but upon closer...
