BEGINNING IN THE MID-20TH CENTURY, Johnson Publishing dominated the media landscape disseminating images of African Americans that defined black identity during an unprecedented period of progress and change. The photography published in Ebony and Jet magazines established a visual language and black aesthetic that came to represent the African American experience. It’s hard to...
AN AMAZING PAINTER who juggles a variety of projects and collaborations, Nina Chanel Abney has been channeling her talents as a curator. Last fall, Abney organized “Punch” at Jeffrey Deitch in New York. The show focused on 19 artists in her circle whose work, similar to her own, examines contemporary life through the lens...
SINCE 2014, Njideka Akunyili Crosby has been using her signature collage technique to make a series of portraits focused on Nigerian children, including her siblings in their youth. Recent works from the ongoing series The Beautyful Ones are featured at Victoria Miro Venice. Closing soon, the exhibition is on view through July 13....
“Lead Me Gently Home” (2019) by Naudline Pierre THE STUDIO MUSEUM in Harlem is welcoming three new artists in residence this fall. The program’s 2019-2020 participants are E. Jane, Naudline Pierre, and Elliot Reed. The museum announced the new group today. Thelma Golden, director and chief Curator of the Studio Museum, said she...
Architect Philip Freelon (1953-2019) ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL African American architects of his generation, Philip Freelon (1953-2019) designed artful museums, cultural centers, and civic buildings across the nation. The architect-of-record for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), Freelon died July 9 at his home in Durham, N.C. He...
The following review presents a snapshot of the recent news in African American art and related black culture: Duro Olowu is Collaborating with Estée Lauder on a New Makeup Collection Known for his kaleidoscopic prints, British fashion designer Duro Olowu worked with Estée Lauder on a new makeup collection. “I love mixing unusual...
THE SEATTLE ART MUSEUM is presenting an ongoing series of self-portraits by South African photographer Zanele Muholi. Opening July 10, “Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness” features 76 black-and-white portraits and large-scale photographic wall papers. The series reimagines so-called classic portraiture and re-articulates notions of race, representation, and identity. Muholi’s own face and body...
FOR GENERATIONS, African American artists have not received anywhere near the institutional and market recognition experienced by their white peers. In terms of acquisitions, many museums are attempting long-delayed corrections. Few museums have consistently collected works by black artists, leaving historic gaps in their collections. To address these shortfalls and diversify their holdings, three...
WHAT TO THE AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTIST is the Fourth of July? Is it consumed by fireworks and barbecue or grounded, perhaps, in the words of Frederick Douglass? On July 5, 1852, Douglass gave a historic address in Rochester, N.Y., at an event commemorating the Declaration of Independence. He said in part: What, to the...
THE NATIONAL BOOK TOUR for “The Water Dancer,” the first novel by Ta-Nehisi Coates, will kick off at the Apollo Theater on Sept. 23. Coates will be in conversation with Oprah Winfrey. The author, who testified before Congress two weeks ago about reparations for African Americans, will serve as the inaugural artist-in-residence at the...
IN VIVID BLACK AND BLUE, “Four Idioms on Negro Art #4 Primitivism” (2015) by Kara Walker depicts a violent confrontation among four silhouetted figures. A police officer in combat gear hovers over the scene. A phallus hanging between his wide spread legs, he is kicking a male figure that is sucking the breast of...
CREATIVE TIME, the public arts nonprofit that commissioned Kara Walker’s monumental sugar sphinx in Brooklyn and presented Nick Cave’s herd of dancing horses in Grand Central Station, named a new deputy director. Natasha L. Logan has been promoted to the role. She joined Creative Time in 2016, serving as project manager and director of programming,...
The following review presents a snapshot of the recent news in African American art and related black culture: Lauren Haynes and Teka Selman Named Co-Curators for Inaugural Tennessee Triennial A new triennial launching in Tennessee in 2021 will be co-organized by Lauren Haynes, curator of contemporary art at the Crystal Bridges Museum of...
SOTHEBY’S ANNOUNCED LAST WEEK that it was being acquired by French-Israeli telecommunications billionaire Patrick Drahi in a $3.7 billion deal. The purchase would take the publicly traded auction house private, again, after 31 years on the New York Stock Exchange. (Other major auction houses are privately held, including Christie’s, its chief rival, Phillips, and...
THE SMITHSONIAN’S black history museum has been entrusted to Spencer R. Crew, a curator, scholar, and veteran museum director. In the wake of Lonnie Bunch’s appointment as secretary of the entire Smithsonian Institution, the founding director of the National Museum of African America History and Culture (NMAAHC) tapped Crew, 60, as his temporary replacement....
NEW GALLERY REPRESENTATION for up-and-coming artists often follows a succession of critical recognition—high-profile awards, acquisitions, and exhibitions. Diedrick Brackens has achieved all of that and then some over the past year. The Los Angeles-based textile artist was invited to participate in the Made in L.A. biennial at the Hammer Museum last summer, won the...
A NEW ACQUISITION has enriched both the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and the communities it serves. Presented with the opportunity to help the Toronto museum acquire more than 3,500 historic photographs, members of the local black and Caribbean communities stepped up, helping to raise $300,000. The largesse of 27 donors made possible the...
THE POSTER PROMOTING a new documentary about Toni Morrison gives an indication of what’s to come in the film. A collage portrait by artist Mickalene Thomas depicts the Nobel Prize-winning author against a vivid fuchsia background. A live-action version of the portrait opens the film. The poster graphic comes together through a process of...
FOR THE FIRST TIME in 17 years, the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA), will have a change in leadership. Courtney J. Martin, deputy director and chief curator of the Dia Art Foundation and Yale alum, has been named the next director of YCBA. Yale University President Peter Salovey announced the appointment in April...
THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART (LACMA), which is developing a new $650 million building, announced three appointments to its board of trustees—Colleen Bell, Melody Hobson, and Robbie Robinson. Two of the new members, Hobson and Robinson, are formidable figures in Chicago’s finance and investment world. Bell, a media executive and former U.S....
On View: ‘Paris Noir’ Exhibition at Centre Pompidou ‘Retraces the Presence and Influence of Black Artists in France from 1950s to 2000’
Jun 29, 2025
On View: ‘Michael Armitage: Crucible,’ Paintings by Kenyan British Artist Explore Migration at David Zwirner in New York
Jun 27, 2025
Fresh Out of Graduate School, Christine Sun Kim Helped to Greatly Improve Experiences of Deaf Audiences at the Whitney Museum
Jun 24, 2025
American Sign Language Videos Explore Whitney Museum’s Collection, Including Works by Simone Leigh, Archibald Motley, Diedrick Brackens, Jacob Lawrence & More
Jun 24, 2025
Picturing Freedom: Exhibition and Pulitzer Prize-Winning Book Shed Light on Harriet Tubman’s Greatest Feat, Liberating More than 700 in Combahee River Raid
Jun 19, 2025
