Sept. 18: After putting her exhibition “America Monuments” on hold, artist lauren woods explains why the action is necessary. | Video by Daily 49er The following review of the past week or so presents a snapshot of the latest news in African American art and related culture: NEWS After four years in Brooklyn,...
Spelman College campus in Atlanta. A GRANT FROM THE WALTON FAMILY FOUNDATION positions Spelman College to become an incubator for African American curators. The five-year, $5.4 million grant will inaugurate the Atlanta University Center Collective for the Study of Art History and Curatorial Studies. An art history major and curatorial studies minor will be...
IN A 2008 PAINTING, Nina Chanel Abney brought together the seemingly disparate images of her friend Randal, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a pack of dogs, and Michael Vick, the NFL player who was serving 21 months in prison for participating in dog fighting, when the work was made. Titled “Randaleeza,” the...
“Husband and Wife” (2017) is one of three works by Toyin Ojih Odutola acquired by the Whitney Museum. FOR A YEAR, THE WHITNEY MUSUEM of American Art displayed “Hate Is a Sin Flag” a 2007 work by Faith Ringgold. It is a relatively small print, about 19 inches square, that makes a profound statement....
ISSA RAE OFTEN WEARS statement T-shirts on HBO’s “Insecure.” In recent episodes, her tees have declared “Love is Al Green” and promoted “Inglewood” and “N.W.A.” Another said “Mood” under a portrait of Nina Simone. When she went to the California African American Museum in Season Two, her shirt said, “The Last Poets.” It’s seven...
Installation view of “Frank Bowling: Make It New” at Alexander Gray Associates TEN DAYS AGO, “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power” opened at the Brooklyn Museum. The groundbreaking traveling show “shines light on a broad spectrum of Black artistic practice from 1963 to 1983, one of the most politically,...
Curator Lauren Haynes THE CURATORIAL TEAM for the 2019 Armory Show was announced this week. Lauren Haynes is curating the New York City art fair’s Focus section, which is “devoted to solo- and dual-artist presentations by relevant and compelling artists.” This year, Ryan Lee Gallery presented a solo show of works by Emma Amos...
Professor Anita Hill and artist Mark Bradford (2014) GLUED TO THEIR TELEVISIONS, most Americans “met” Anita F. Hill on Oct. 11, 1991. That’s how Mark Bradford was introduced to her, too. In Los Angeles, in the neighborhood of Leimert Park, the TV in the beauty salon owned by his mother, Janice Banks, was tuned...
Installation view of “Gary Simmons: Fade to Black” at CAAM A MONUMENTAL INSTALLATION has transformed the atrium/lobby of the California African American Museum (CAAM) in Los Angeles. The five wall-sized panels read: “Juke Joint,” “Moon Over Harlem,” “Midnight Shadow,” “The Joint is Jumpin, “Souls of Sin,” “Jivin in Be-Bop,” “The Bronze Buckaroo,” and on...
Thokaza township, Johannesburg (1991). Photo by Graeme Williams The following review of the past week or so presents a snapshot of the latest news in African American art and related culture: NEWS New York-based artist Hank Willis Thomas has been accused by South African photographer Graeme Williams of using an iconic image he...
WHEN HE WAS 11 years old, a book of photographs forever changed Dawoud Bey‘s perspective in terms of his vulnerability as a black child. His parents purchased the book in 1964 after hearing James Baldwin speak at their church in Queens, N.Y. The event was part of a tour organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating...
“Pittsburgh Memory” (1964) by Romare Bearden HOW SHOULD AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTISTS respond to the Civil Rights Movement? The question was central to the organization of Spiral, the New York artist collective formed in 1963 in advance of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The 15-member group including Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Reginald...
WITH LIGHT RAIN FALLING, four dozen black models walked the grounds of Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn on Saturday night. A 40-person gospel choir wearing flowing white robes and Reebok tennis shoes sang live during the 23-minute runway show. Outfitted in fabrics with painterly images of African Americans, the models paraded by with purpose...
FANS OF RIHANNA will be thrilled to see her on another magazine cover. This latest one is photographed by Deana Lawson, a black female artist with a distinct approach to capturing her subjects, usually ordinary people in their everyday surroundings. Admirers of Lawson will be doubly appreciative. Garage Issue 15 is manna for Lawson...
Jacob Lawrence-inspired shirts by Wales Bonner currently for sale at various retailers. The London-based menswear label was founded by Grace Wales Bonner. The following review of the past week or so presents a snapshot of the latest news in African American art and related culture: NEWS This blurb originally referenced and linked to...
“Jonathan with Hands” (1997) by Rashid Johnson A DRAMATICALLY LIT, close-cropped portrait by Rashid Johnson covers the catalog for the African-American Fine Art sale at Swann Auction Galleries on Oct. 4. Johnson’s subject obscures his face with his hands, which are the focus of the image. The gesture is emotional and his fingers—their knuckles...
“Everything #2.8” (2003) by Adrian Piper THE PRESENTATION of Adrian Piper’s retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) was historic. “Adrian Piper: A Synthesis of Intuitions, 1965–2016” was the museum’s largest-ever exhibition devoted to a living artist. At once sprawling and intentionally organized, the show featured more than 290 works. A conceptual pioneer, Piper...
The former director of Haus der Kunst and artistic director of the 2015 Venice Biennale, Okwui Ewezor gave an extensive interview to Spiegel about his tenure at the Munich museum. He also spoke recently to the Art Newspaper. | Photo by Joerg Koch for Getty Images The following review of the past week or...
In Progress: Simone Leigh assesses her towering “Brick House” sculpture. A STUNNING CLAY SCULPTURE by Simone Leigh rises 16-feet high in a Philadelphia foundry. Leigh’s monumental vision of a black woman is titled “Brick House” after the 1977 song by the Commodores. Blending architectural forms from West Africa and the American South with the...
EJ Hill at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles WHAT DID YOU DO THIS SUMMER? E.J. Hill spent his entire summer standing on a platform at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. The museum’s Made in L.A. biennial opened on June 3 and every since, six days a week for three months, Hill has...
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
On View: ‘Jack Whitten: The Messenger’ at Museum of Modern Art in New York is First Full Retrospective of Pioneering Artist
Jun 17, 2025
