IN NEW YORK CITY, four must-see solo exhibitions showcase works by artists with singular practices: Lorraine O’Grady, Terry Adkins, Tavares Strachan, and Lauren Halsey. Spanning three generations, the artists work across multiple mediums mining Black history, culture, and experience through conceptual lenses. The gallery shows close this weekend: LORRAINE O’GRADY, “Gaze,” 1991/2019 (archival...
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THE RECIPIENT OF NOW Gallery’s 2022 Young Artist Commission, Joy Yamusangie is staging an immersive solo show, envisioning the London gallery as a jazz club. Following collaborations with Gucci, Paul Smith, Penguin Books, and Nike, the Congolese-British artist sought to realize their own singular vision. Yamusangie’s...
Detail of “Lonnie Holley: Coming From the Earth” at Dallas Contemporary FOR HIS FIRST EXHIBITION IN TEXAS, Lonnie Holley, 72, is presenting a new series of ceramic works at Dallas Contemporary. The Alabama artist’s creativity is informed by struggle and hardship and draws on his curiosity. Holley works in a variety of mediums but...
Venice Biennale: “Simone Leigh: Sovereignty,” U.S. Pavilion, 2022 A TOWERING SCULPTURE pays homage to the ritual performances of the Baga peoples of the Guinea coast. Face jugs made by enslaved and free African Americans in the Edgefield District of South Carolina inspired a five-foot-tall vessel embellished with outsized forms that read as cowrie shells....
Ceramic works by Akinsanya Kambon at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York City On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions MAKING HIS SOLO DEBUT in New York City, Akinsanya Kambon is presenting figurative sculptures and wall reliefs at Jack Shainman Gallery. The ceramic works were made using an American raku firing technique, creating...
Installation view of “Black American Portraits,” Los Angeles County Museum of Art THE OBAMA PORTRAITS were such a hit at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., the museum launched a multi-city tour to give people throughout the country a chance to see the historic paintings. Kehinde Wiley‘s portrait of President Barack Obama...
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions A NEW LARGE-SCALE INSTALLATION by Hew Locke, “The Procession” features nearly 150 life-sized figures outfitted in hand-made garments and masks. The latest Tate Britain Commission is a sculptural gumbo evoking celebration, sorrow, and world events across time—from slavery to climate change, the Black Lives Matter Movement,...
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions A RENOWNED SCHOLAR of African American art, David Driskell (1931-2020) had a deep interest in African Art, which he was introduced to when he was a student at Howard University. More than a dozen years later, in 1969-70 and 1972, when he was a professor of...
Installation view of “Prints from the Brandywine Workshop and Archives: Creative Communities” at Harvard Art Museums On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THROUGH COLLABORATION AND EXPERIMENTATION, master printers and a diverse slate of artists have been producing new works at Brandywine Workshop and Archives for half a century. The Philadelphia organization was...
“Octoroon (Constance)” (2021) by Ann Johnson On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions A SPECTRUM OF METHODS, techniques, and narratives employed and explored by Black women printmakers is on view at Claire Oliver Gallery in New York. “A Contemporary Black Matriarchal Lineage in Printmaking” showcases 21 works by nine contemporary printmakers: Tanekeya Word,...
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions AFTER HER BRAVE AND HARROWING ESCAPE from enslavement, Harriet Jacobs was employed in New York by Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806-1867), a white, well-paid writer and magazine editor who worked with Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Jacobs, who titled her 1861 autobiography “Incidents in the...
A PROLIFIC AND BELOVED BOSTON ARTIST, Allan Rohan Crite (1910-2007) was a life-long Episcopalian who described himself as a storyteller. He made paintings about African American life in Roxbury and Boston’s South End before dedicating himself primarily to works with religious themes. Crite illustrated hymns, Bible stories, and liturgical scenes, populating his narratives with...
“I’ll Be Watching You No. 1” (1987) by Shirley Woodson THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS (DIA) is showcasing large, vibrant paintings by Shirley Woodson featuring Black figures immersed in the Nile River. The images reference the mythical qualities of the storied African river and notions that its water provides bathers with nurturing and restorative...
‘TONI MORRISON’S BLACK BOOK,’ the latest exhibition curated by Hilton Als at David Zwirner Gallery in New York, is a love letter to the renowned author and editor. “I wanted to not only do this homage to her, but I wanted to talk about visual culture through the lens of “The Black Book” and...
“Farm Bowl with Orchard” (2022) by Syd Carpenter On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THE LEGACY OF BLACK FARMERS inspired a new series of ceramic sculptures by Syd Carpenter. The works are presented in “Earth Offerings: Honoring the Gardeners” at Rowan University Art Gallery. Carpenter has a passion for gardening that she...
Installation view of “Jennifer Packer: Every Shut Eye Ain’t Sleep” at MOCA Los Angeles On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions NEW YORK-BASED Jennifer Packer makes lyrical portraits and allegorical tableaux, including floral still lifes, funerary bouquets commemorating loss. In its final days, “Jennifer Packer: Every Shut Eye Ain’t Sleep” at the Museum...
THE ART WORLD is increasingly drawn to Greater Los Angeles, where the vibrant cultural landscape continues to transform. New art museums and a new wave of commercial galleries are establishing roots and a major art fair has a committed audience. The Orange County Museum of Art is inaugurating a new building in a new...
“Two on Fire” (2021) by Rachel Eulena Williams On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions A NEW BODY of three-dimensional paintings by Rachel Eulena Williams is on view at Xavier Hufkens Gallery in Brussels. “Joy and Rain” features 13 paintings made in 2021, including five tondos. Williams begins each work with untreated cotton...
“I Am Everywhere (Sassafras)” (2021) by Sydney Cain On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions SAN FRANCISCO ARTIST Sydney Cain is presenting a series of large- and small-scale drawings at Rena Bransten Gallery. Employing figurative representation, the new works explore Black myth, ancestral memory, and liminal spaces. “Sydney Cain: Dust to Dust” is...
Installation view of works by APLERH-DOKU BORLABI (left and right) and ZEH PALITO (center). On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions A GROUP EXHIBITION, “Winner Takes All” features an international slate of nine emerging painters who express themselves through figuration: Sophia-Yemisi Adeyemo-Ross, Jessica Alazraki, Aplerh-Doku Borlabi, YoYo Lander, Anoushka Mirchandani, Zéh Palito, Adjei...