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An essential resource focused on visual art from a Black perspective, Culture Type explores the intersection of art, history, and culture

International Curator Koyo Kouoh Tapped to Organize 2026 Venice Biennale, She is 'Ecstatic' and Called it a 'Momentous Mission'

International Curator Koyo Kouoh Tapped to Organize 2026 Venice Biennale, She is ‘Ecstatic’ and Called it a ‘Momentous Mission’

Koyo Kouoh will curate the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026. | Photograph by Mirjam Kluka, Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia   Koyo Kouoh is first Black woman and second African-born curator to organize Venice Biennale in international exhibition’s 130-year history   THE NEXT ARTISTIC DIRECTOR of the Venice Biennale is...
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Recent News in Black Art: Kim Dacres Joined Charles Moffett Gallery, Jordan Carter Co-Curating 2026 Counterpublic Triennial, Mabel O. Wilson to Deliver Mellon Lectures

Recent News in Black Art: Kim Dacres Joined Charles Moffett Gallery, Jordan Carter Co-Curating 2026 Counterpublic Triennial, Mabel O. Wilson to Deliver Mellon Lectures

Recent News in Black Art features updates and developments in the world of art and related culture   From left, Kim Dacres portrait. | Photo by Antony Artis; KIM DACRES, “Zora,” 2024 (found tires, tire rims wrapped in tire inner tubes, washers, wood and screws mounted on wood pyramid plinth with black paint, felted wool...
President Biden Will Award 20 National Medals of Arts, Recipients Include Carrie Mae Weems, Mark Bradford, and Spike Lee

President Biden Will Award 20 National Medals of Arts, Recipients Include Carrie Mae Weems, Mark Bradford, and Spike Lee

From left, National Medal of Arts recipients Mark Bradford and Carrie Mae Weems. | Photos: Courtesy of Mark Bradford; © Rolex, Audoin Desforges. Courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, and Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin   The President will also award National Humanities Medals today   PRESIDENT BIDEN is celebrating...
Darren Walker Elected President of National Gallery of Art, Head of Ford Foundation Has Been Member of Museum Board Since 2019

Darren Walker Elected President of National Gallery of Art, Head of Ford Foundation Has Been Member of Museum Board Since 2019

A PROMINENT AND INFLUENTIAL FIGURE in philanthropy and the arts, Darren Walker was elected president of the National Gallery of Art (NGA). Walker has been a member of the museum’s board since 2019. The nine-member board governs the museum, appointing the executive director and executive officers, advising on policies such as acquisitions, and supporting the...
Remembering Artist Floyd Newsum, 74, Co-Founder of Project Row Houses and 'Pillar of the Houston Arts Community'

Remembering Artist Floyd Newsum, 74, Co-Founder of Project Row Houses and ‘Pillar of the Houston Arts Community’

Floyd Newsum (1950-2024) stands before his work. | Photo: Madison Museum of Contemporary Art   HOUSTON, TEXAS, LOST a celebrated arts leader over the summer. Floyd Newsum (1950-2024), an artist, educator, and co-founder of Project Row Houses (PRH), died on Aug. 14. He was 74. Newsum was a professor of art at the University of...
Recent News in Black Art: Michaela Yearwood-Dan Joined Mega-Gallery Hauser & Wirth, Nikita Gale Awarded $100,000 Whitney Biennial Prize, Architect Charles Fleming & More

Recent News in Black Art: Michaela Yearwood-Dan Joined Mega-Gallery Hauser & Wirth, Nikita Gale Awarded $100,000 Whitney Biennial Prize, Architect Charles Fleming & More

Recent News in Black Art features updates and developments in the world of art and related culture   Michaela Yearwood-Dan in her studio, 2024. | Photo by Ollie Adegboye   REPRESENTATION Michaela Yearwood-Dan Now Represented by Hauser & Wirth Hauser & Wirth announced its representation of Michaela Yearwood-Dan (b. 1994) in collaboration with Marianne Boesky...
MacArthur Foundation Announced 2024 'Genius' Fellows, Recipients of $800,000 Grants Include Artists Ebony G. Patterson and Tony Cokes

MacArthur Foundation Announced 2024 ‘Genius’ Fellows, Recipients of $800,000 Grants Include Artists Ebony G. Patterson and Tony Cokes

Ebony G. Patterson. | Courtesy John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation   EMPLOYING BEAUTY, BLING, brilliant color, and the symbolism of the garden, Ebony G. Patterson, makes intensely layered and embellished works that explore complex themes—many of them not so pretty—including visibility, pageantry, violence, death, mourning, and regeneration. Over the past few years, the...
Sotheby's is Partnering With ARTNOIR and Artist Yinka Ilori, Tapped Rich Paul as 'Curator' and Titus Kaphar as Cover Star

Sotheby’s is Partnering With ARTNOIR and Artist Yinka Ilori, Tapped Rich Paul as ‘Curator’ and Titus Kaphar as Cover Star

  Sotheby’s engages in partnerships, collaborations, and content creation to promote its international auction business. Recent projects feature Black artists and organizations, including a pop-up redesign of its London café   Pride is Within My Story: Artist and Designer Yinka IIori at his Sotheby’s Cafe Pop Up. | Photo by Credit Chris McAndrew, Courtesy Sotheby’s...
Artists for Kamala: Dozens of Artists Donated Works to Auction Benefitting Harris-Walz Presidential Campaign

Artists for Kamala: Dozens of Artists Donated Works to Auction Benefitting Harris-Walz Presidential Campaign

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a White House NCAA Sports Day event, Monday, July 22, 2024, on the South Lawn of the White House. | Official White House Photo by Oliver Contreras   ARTISTS ARE COMING TOGETHER to help Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign for the presidency. Artists for Kamala announced that some of...
Taylor Renee Aldridge Joined Modern Ancient Brown Foundation in Detroit as Executive Director, Appointment Marks Return to Her Hometown

Taylor Renee Aldridge Joined Modern Ancient Brown Foundation in Detroit as Executive Director, Appointment Marks Return to Her Hometown

IN DETROIT, MICH., the Modern Ancient Brown Foundation (MAB) welcomed Taylor Renee Aldridge as executive director. Aldridge joined the foundation from the California African American Museum (CAAM) in Los Angeles, where she had been visual arts curator & program manager since 2020. The MAB appointment marks a homecoming for Aldridge, who was born and raised...
History Maker: 'Amy Sherald: American Sublime' Will Be First Solo Exhibition of a Black Female Artist at Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery

History Maker: ‘Amy Sherald: American Sublime’ Will Be First Solo Exhibition of a Black Female Artist at Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery

AMY SHERALD, “A God Blessed Land (Empire of Dirt),” 2022 (oil on linen, 96 1/8 x 130 1/8 inches). | Tymure Collection, © Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Joseph Hyde   THE LARGEST-EVER EXHIBITION of Amy Sherald (b. 1973) opens in November at the San Francisco Museum of Modern...
Celebrating African American Art Throughout the Year, 2025 Calendars Focus on Richard Mayhew, Alma Thomas, Faith Ringgold, Romare Bearden, Feature Barkley Hendricks

Celebrating African American Art Throughout the Year, 2025 Calendars Focus on Richard Mayhew, Alma Thomas, Faith Ringgold, Romare Bearden, Feature Barkley Hendricks

THE POWERFUL PORTRAITS of Barkley L. Hendricks (1945-2017) are in a category of their own. Key elements characterize the late artist’s paintings, including his masterful use of color. “Miss Brown To You” (1970) by Hendricks, pictures his subject wearing a red top against a red background. When he employed this stylized approach, Hendricks described the...
Moving On Up: 35 Museum Curators and Arts Leaders Who Took on New Appointments in First Half of 2024

Moving On Up: 35 Museum Curators and Arts Leaders Who Took on New Appointments in First Half of 2024

Culture Type reports on new appointments of Black curators and arts leaders to get a sense of representation in museums, with an emphasis on art museums. Museum leaders, curators, and educators shape the management and intellectual direction of institutions, determine the art visitors see and the programming they experience and, by extension, whether audiences of...
2024 Heinz Award Goes to Jennie C. Jones, Honor Includes $250,000 Prize

2024 Heinz Award Goes to Jennie C. Jones, Honor Includes $250,000 Prize

Jennie C. Jones. | Photo by Joshua Franzos   THE UNIQUE PRACTICE of Jennie C. Jones (b. 1968) has gained increasing attention and more prominent platforms in recent years. A sonic and visual artist, Jones works across painting, sculpture, sound, and installation. In 2022, her exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York...
On View: First International Institutional Survey of Noah Davis Now Open in Germany, Will Travel to London and Los Angeles, Where the Late Artist Was Based

On View: First International Institutional Survey of Noah Davis Now Open in Germany, Will Travel to London and Los Angeles, Where the Late Artist Was Based

NOAH DAVIS, “The Missing Link 4,” 2013 (oil on canvas, 78 x 86 1/4 inches / 198.1 x 219.1 cm). | Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Purchased with funds provided by AHAN: Studio Forum, 2013 Art Here and Now purchase. © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis and David...
Jessica Bell Brown to Lead Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond

Jessica Bell Brown to Lead Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond

IN RICHMOND, VA., the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University appointed Jessica Bell Brown its next executive director. ICA at VCU opened its doors in 2018. In less than a decade, the young institution has established itself as a dynamic space with a formidable contemporary art program engaging with local and regional figures...
Next Spring: Major Mid-Career Survey of Rashid Johnson Will Unfold Throughout the Grand Rotunda of Guggenheim Musuem

Next Spring: Major Mid-Career Survey of Rashid Johnson Will Unfold Throughout the Grand Rotunda of Guggenheim Musuem

RASHID JOHNSON, “Untitled Escape Collage,” 2018 (ceramic tile, mirror tile, branded red oak flooring, vinyl, spray enamel, oil stick, black soap, and wax, 97 × 121 × 2 1/4 inches / 246.4 × 307.3 × 5.7 cm). | Image courtesy the artist © Rashid Johnson, 2024. Photo by Martin Parsekian   A MAJOR TRAVELING SURVEY...
Latest News in Black Art: Francis Kéré Designing Las Vegas Museum, Ashley James Curating Kingston Biennial, Deana Lawson Guest-Edited Aperture Magazine & More

Latest News in Black Art: Francis Kéré Designing Las Vegas Museum, Ashley James Curating Kingston Biennial, Deana Lawson Guest-Edited Aperture Magazine & More

Latest News in Black Art features updates and developments in the world of art and related culture   Concept design for Las Vegas Museum of Art. | Kéré Architecture   MUSEUMS Francis Kéré Designing Forthcoming Las Vegas Museum Las Vegas, Nev., is getting an art museum designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Francis Kéré. Elaine Wynn,...
Uprising of the Sun: Multi-Story Window Painted by Julie Mehretu Will Greet Visitors at Forthcoming Obama Presidential Center

Uprising of the Sun: Multi-Story Window Painted by Julie Mehretu Will Greet Visitors at Forthcoming Obama Presidential Center

Rendering of “Uprising of the Sun” by Julie Mehretu – Women’s Garden View, Obama Presidential Center Museum Building. | Photo: Lamar Johnson Collaborative and Julie Mehretu Studio   WHEN THE OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER opens in 2026, visitors will be greeted by the work of Julie Mehretu. Working with glass for the first time, the renowned...
Metropolitan Museum of Art Welcomed Candice Yates as Senior Research Associate of James Van Der Zee Archive

Metropolitan Museum of Art Welcomed Candice Yates as Senior Research Associate of James Van Der Zee Archive

JAMES VAN DER ZEE (American, 1886-1983), “Self-portrait,” 1931 (gelatin silver print). | © James Van Der Zee Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art   A VAST COLLECTION representing the legacy of Harlem Renaissance photographer James Van Der Zee (1886-1983) is housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The expansive holdings include about...
On View: 'Tau Lewis: Spirit Level' at ICA Boston Features Handcrafted Monumental Beings Drawn From 'Black Geographies'

On View: ‘Tau Lewis: Spirit Level’ at ICA Boston Features Handcrafted Monumental Beings Drawn From ‘Black Geographies’

Installation view of “Tau Lewis: Spirit Level,” Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2024. | Photo by Mel Taing, Courtesy ICA Boston   On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions   SINCE CHILDHOOD, Tau Lewis (b. 1993) has collected materials and artifacts imbued with history and personal meaning. Pulling from this assiduously assembled library, Lewis creates soft...