Installation view of works by Richard Wyatt Jr., and Lyle Ashton Harris NEW YORK-BASED SALON 94 gallery is showcasing works by seven artists, including Derrick Adams, Lyle Ashton Harris, Robert Pruitt, and Richard Wyatt Jr. The works are presented in the gallery’s Frieze Viewing Room. Frieze London 2020 was a hybrid event with limited...
“Papa and Joshua” (2020) by Collins Obijiaku On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions A NEW COMMERCIAL GALLERY is opening in Accra, Ghana, on Oct. 15. Established by art advisor Adora Mba, ADA / Contemporary Art Gallery‘s inaugural exhibition features 17 portraits by emerging Nigerian artist Collins Obijiaku (born 1995). “Gindin Mangoro: Under...
THE UNITED STATES will be represented by Simone Leigh at the 59th Venice Biennale. It’s a historic choice. Leigh is the first Black female artist ever selected to stage a solo exhibition in the American Pavilion at the prestigious international exhibition and she is the third African American artist in row chosen for the...
THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CHICAGO named a new senior director of operations. Gwendolyn Perry Davis has been elevated to the position, a critical leadership role overseeing both strategic and creative aspects of the museum’s operations. Perry Davis’s new responsibilities include the collections and exhibitions department and the human resources, information technology, facilities, and security...
“Untitled (America)” (2018) by Glenn Ligon On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THE STATE OF THE NATION is influx. The pandemic. Isolation. Police killings. Racial justice protests. Election 2020. “To Be Determined” is a response to the moment. The collection exhibition draws on the expansive holdings of the Dallas Museum of Art,...
ARMED WITH A BLACK PEN and a penchant for line drawing and storytelling, Shantell Martin has carved out a significant artistic space for herself. Her visual musings are driven by her personal language of key words and faces, intuitive energy, and a sense of true freedom and joy gleaned from sharing her ideas. “Who...
Installation view of “Trenton Doyle Hancock: Something American” at James Cohan Gallery NEW PAINTINGS by Trenton Doyle Hancock collapse two worlds, bringing together Torpedo Boy, the artist’s Black superhero character and alter ego, and one of the cartoonish, hooded Klansmen figures from the work of Philip Guston (1913-1980). The images reflect the personal...
Eva Langret, Artistic Director of Frieze London IN LONDON THIS WEEK, the vision of Black women is shaping the 1-54 London and Frieze London art fairs. Both are underway with hybrid online and in-person formats this season. Eva Langret is the new artistic director of Frieze London. She tapped Zoé Whitley to curate a...
THE CUMMER MUSEUM OF ART & GARDENS announced the appointment of a new leader yesterday. Andrea Barnwell Brownlee is joining the Jacksonville, Fla., museum as George W. and Kathleen I. Gibbs Director and CEO. For two decades, Brownlee has been serving as director of the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art in Atlanta. She officially...
WORKS BY AN ECLECTIC MIX of artists were offered at Sotheby’s Contemporary Curated auction on Oct. 2 in New York. Important figures from the second half of the 20th century were featured alongside today’s most critically recognized contemporary artists. Five African American artists were ranked among the 10 top-10 highest-priced works by Kerry James...
EFFECTIVE THIS MONTH, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a new head of education. The New York City museum named Heidi Holder the Frederick P. and Sandra P. Rose Chair of Education. She previously served as director of education at the Queens Museum. News of Holder’s hiring was announced Sept. 18, alongside the appointment of...
Lot 39: AMOAKO BOAFO Amoako Boafo, “Lighter,” 2018 (oil and collage on paper, 59 x 55 inches / 149.9 x 139.7 cm). Estimate $40,000-$60,000. Sold for $325,000 fees included. TOP LOT PHILLIPS AUCTION HOUSE held its New Now auction on Sept. 30 in New York and “Lighter” by Amoako Boafo was the top...
THERE’S A FAMILY GATHERING of sorts underway at Claire Oliver Gallery in New York. “Adebunmi Gbadebo: A Dilemma of Inheritance” features more than 45 works that consider the legacies of two South Carolina plantations, sites where Black people were once enslaved, production of rice and indigo thrived, and Adebunmi Gbadebo traces her own family...
A DEEP LOVE OF BLACK PEOPLE and Black culture rings throughout the practice of Kwame Braithwaite, a self-described artist-activist who has said “Black is Beautiful was my directive.” His photography is on view at Philip Martin Gallery in Los Angeles. “Kwame Brathwaite: The Struggle Continues, Victory is Certain” showcases his iconic portraits, street shots,...
THE SMITHSONIAN’S BLACK MUSEUM has a new leader. Kevin Young has been named director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C. Young is currently director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York. He also serves as poetry editor at The New Yorker. He...
PHOTOGRAPHER AND FILMMAKER Tyler Mitchell has joined Jack Shainman Gallery. Mitchell’s practice explores a new vision of the beauty and power of Blackness. Defined by a sense of optimism and aesthetic creativity, his images imagine a Black utopia. A closely watched talent, Mitchell experienced a meteoric rise in 2018 when he photographed Beyoncé for American...
“A hand that held and loved someone (Personal Choice #3)” (2020) video installation by CHLOË BASS THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY for Self Defense marked its 50th anniversary in 2016 and the occasion was commemorated with books, exhibitions, and nationwide programs. In 2020, Artspace New Haven is recognizing the 50th anniversary of a pivotal moment...
THE LATEST HIRE at David Zwirner negotiated a sweet deal. Ebony L. Haynes is joining the gallery as a director and she is launching her own exhibition program in a new stand-alone space in Manhattan. Expected to open in spring 2021, the location of the gallery and inaugural exhibition will be announced in the coming...
Lorraine Hansberry, 1959 THROUGHOUT THE NATION, organizations and cultural institutions have been commemorating the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment in a variety of ways. At the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., a new exhibition marks the occasion by highlighting 24 women writers whose work has shaped the literary landscape...
TOMORROW, SEPT. 22, would have been the 129th birthday of artist Alma Thomas (1891-1978). The announcement today of a major traveling exhibition co-organized by the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Va., and the Columbus Museum in her hometown of Columbus, Ga., is a wonderful way to celebrate her life and legacy. “Alma W....