CURRENTLY ON VIEW in New York, galleries are presenting solo exhibitions of artists Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Michaela Yearwood-Dan, McArthur Binion, Leonardo Drew, and Matthew Angelo Harrison. The shows feature all new paintings and sculpture and emerging artists Harrison and Yearwood-Dan are collaborating with Salon 94 and Marianne Boesky galleries, respectively, for the first time....
A PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL PLAYER who became a successful artist, Ernie Barnes (1938-2009) made paintings about what he experienced and what was familiar. His most frequent subjects were African American life in the South, referencing his North Carolina roots, and racially diverse athletes engaged in all manner of sports, from tennis and boxing, to basketball...
Installation view of “Jesse Murry” at David Zwirner, New York MARKING THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issuing its first report about what would become known as AIDS, David Zwirner is presenting More Life, a special series dedicated to artists who died from HIV/AIDS-related ailments during the first two...
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions VICTORIA MIRO in London is showing nine new paintings by Kudzanai-Violet Hwami. “When You Need Letters for Your Skin” is the Hwaami’s first solo exhibition with the gallery since joining the roster in December. Born in Gutu, Zimbabwe, she grew up in South Africa from...
Installation view of “Betty Blayton: In Search of Grace” On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THE EXHIBITION “In Search of Grace” provides a rare opportunity to explore the work of Betty Blayton (1937-2016) across five decades. Known for her “spiritual abstractions,” Blayton employed poetic palettes and often worked in a tondo format....
Installation view of “Alvaro Barrington: Wave Your Flags: Labor Day” On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions TEAMING UP WITH Black female gallerists, Alvaro Barrington is showing paintings in multiple New York locations. “Alvaro Barrington: Wave Your Flags: Labor Day” is the inaugural presentation of Kyla McMillan‘s Saint George Projects. Featuring nearly 30...
LOS ANGELES GALLERIES are brimming with new exhibitions featuring new works by prominent Black artists. The intergenerational slate includes Amoako Boafo, June Edmonds, Rashid Johnson, Lorna Simpson, and Betye Saar, all of whom have coinciding museum exhibitions and public art projects at a variety of venues nationwide. LORNA SIMPSON, “Recurring,” 2021 (ink and...
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THE EMPOWERING ELEMENTS of the super natural and extra-human possibility thread Robert Pruitt‘s figurative portraits. For his latest exhibition, Pruitt is presenting 11 “heroically-scaled” drawings. “Robert Pruitt: To Control the Universe” is inspired by James Baldwin’s “Stranger in the Village.” The title of the exhibition references...
CURRENTLY ON VIEW IN NEW YORK, London-based John Akomfrah is presenting a new film project he’s been continuously working on since March 2020 at Lisson Gallery. It’s an “archive of today, made in real-time.” Inaugural solo exhibitions of Chicago photographer Dawoud Bey and Los Angeles artist Calida Rawles are featured at Sean Kelly and...
“A Young Man Resting on an Exercise Bike, Amityville, NY” (1988) by Dawoud Bey On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions CHICAGO PHOTOGRAPHER Dawoud Bey has been chronicling America since the mid-1970s, training his lens on individuals, communities, and histories that are often unseen, yet central to the nation’s narrative. “Dawoud Bey: An...
In 2012, Dindga McCannon paid tribute to Black women in aviation. On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions A CO-FOUNDER OF THE ARTIST COLLECTIVE Where We At Black Women Artists, Dindga McCannon established her artistic identity during the Civil Rights Movement and the onset of the feminist arts movement, concerns that inform...
THE FIRST MUSEUM retrospective of pioneering video/performance artist Ulysses Jenkins opens this week at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The exhibition is co-curated by ICA Associate Curator Meg Onli and Erin Christovale, associate curator at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Following Kerry James Marshall and...
Installation view of “Be Your Wonderful Self: The Portraits of Beauford Delaney” On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions A RARE OPPORTUNITY to view a broad selection of portraits by Beauford Delaney (1901–1979), this exhibition features a 1962 self portrait and two dozen paintings of people in the Delaney’s orbit. The selection includes...
A GROUP EXHIBITION in Memphis, Tenn., brings together a slate of mostly rising artists whose work explores notions of Blackness, space, place, and belonging. Tone Memphis, a Black arts nonprofit in Memphis, Tenn., is presenting “On The Road: Chocolate Cities: Exploration of Space Across the Black Diaspora.” Organized by Larry Ossei-Mensah, the exhibition reflects...
A RESIN AND STEEL SCULPTURE standing seven-and-a-half feet tall on a central platform anchors the first museum retrospective of Michael Richards (1963-2001). A seminal work from his series about the Tuskegee Airmen, “Tar Baby vs. St. Sebastian” (1999), depicts a Black male figure wearing a Tuskegee Airman suit with 18 miniature US P-51 Mustang...
THE FALL EXHIBITION SEASON is officially underway and some of the first new gallery shows to open feature five early- and mid-career artists to watch. Each has a unique visual voice. What unifies their latest work is a resonance with the contemporary moment. Deborah Roberts, Carla Jay Harris, and Brittney Leeanne Williams are confronting...
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions FOR HER FIRST SOLO MUSEUM EXHIBITION, Adrienne Elise Tarver is presenting a focused installation. Opening tomorrow at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Conn., “Adrienne Elise Tarver: The Sun, the Moon, and the Truth” features “Manifesting Paradise” (2020–ongoing), a suite of 22 mixed-media works on...
A BROAD SELECTION of exhibitions opened at art museums throughout the United States over the summer months. A great number of these shows remain on view, some through September, others further into the fall and beyond. Major traveling exhibitions of Bob Thompson, Joseph Yoakum, and Alma Thomas are underway. The first solo museum exhibitions...
“Black Wall Street Journey #5 (2021) by Rick Lowe On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions At Gagosian, Antwaun Sargent has organized his first show since being named a director at the gallery in January. An ambitious group exhibition, “Social Works” explores the relationship between public and private space and Black social practice....
DUALITY IS A CONSISTENT THEME in the work of Alison Saar. The multidisciplinary artist has long centered the female body and the wonder of nature in her practice, using figurative forms to explore cultural narratives and contemporary events. In her latest exhibition, she considers the binaries of body and spirit, earth and air...