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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

Alma Thomas Way: Washington D.C., Street Where Famous African American Artist Lived is Now Named in Her Honor

Alma Thomas Way: Washington D.C., Street Where Famous African American Artist Lived is Now Named in Her Honor

Charles Thomas Lewis, grand nephew of Alma Thomas, with Susan Talley, who established the Friends of Alma Thomas group more than a decade ago. They are holding the commemorative street sign DC Councilmember Christina Henderson presented to Lewis. “I think this is a wonderful recognition for her,” he said. “I...
Recently Published
Look, See, Buy: African American Art at Art Basel in Miami Beach, a Survey of What was on View and What Sold

Look, See, Buy: African American Art at Art Basel in Miami Beach, a Survey of What was on View and What Sold

“Hammons meets a hyena on holiday,” (2016) by Henry Taylor sold for $70,000 at Blum & Poe gallery.   HOWARDENA PINDELL WAS ON HAND to talk about her work at Garth Greenan Gallery. Sean Combs spent time checking out the latest offering by Mickalene Thomas. Nigel Freeman of Swann Auction Galleries shared an image of...
Jack Shainman Gallery Announces its Representation of Nina Chanel Abney, Will Debut Artist's Work at Art Basel Miami Beach

Jack Shainman Gallery Announces its Representation of Nina Chanel Abney, Will Debut Artist’s Work at Art Basel Miami Beach

Jack Shainman Gallery is presenting two new untitled paintings by Nina Chanel Abney at Art Basel Miami Beach.   THE JACK SHAINMAN BOOTH at Art Basel Miami Beach is always a big draw, presenting artists from its impressive roster of diverse artists. This year the space will feature a new artist. Jack Shainman announced its...
William T. Williams Joins Michael Rosenfeld in New York, Gaining Gallery Representation for the First Time in 40 Years

William T. Williams Joins Michael Rosenfeld in New York, Gaining Gallery Representation for the First Time in 40 Years

WILLIAM T. WILLIAMS, “Truckin,” 1969 (acrylic on cotton canvas). | via Swann Auction Galleries   A SINGLE PAINTING GREETS VISITORS when they enter the fourth-floor visual art galleries at the new National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C. The large-scale, abstract geometric painting, a captivating mix of color and composition,...
2016 Holiday Gift Guide: 30 Objects Inspired by the Work of African American Artists

2016 Holiday Gift Guide: 30 Objects Inspired by the Work of African American Artists

  FOR THE ART ENTHUSIASTS ON YOUR LIST, consider a gift inspired by one of the most critically acclaimed African American artists working today. Culture Type has curated a list of 30 fabulous finds to fit any budget and suit a variety of recipients. Many special products were created to accompany major exhibitions in 2016,...
Oprah Winfrey Has a Whitfield Lovell Installation in Her West Hollywood Office

Oprah Winfrey Has a Whitfield Lovell Installation in Her West Hollywood Office

Oprah Winfrey tells Steve Harvey that Whitfield Lovell’s work inspires her (starting at 4:00) | Video by The Steve Harvey Show   PERSONAL PHOTOS OF NELSON MANDELA and countless Emmys fill the shelves of Oprah Winfrey’s office, and across from her desk is an installation by artist Whitfield Lovell. Yesterday, Steve Harvey dedicated an entire...
Market Interest: With Intimate Portrait, Njideka Akunyili Crosby Achieves Auction Record for Second Time in Two Months

Market Interest: With Intimate Portrait, Njideka Akunyili Crosby Achieves Auction Record for Second Time in Two Months

“Drown” by Njideka Akunyili Crosby sold for more than $1 million at Sotheby’s New York on Nov. 17, 2016. | via Sotheby’s   MANY ARTISTS GO OUT OF THEIR WAY to make clear that the issues raised in their work serve to start a conversation rather than reflect their own opinion and the figures they...
Retrospective: The Latest News in Black Art - Sam Gilliam Acquisition, Black Portraiture[s], United States Artists Fellows

Retrospective: The Latest News in Black Art – Sam Gilliam Acquisition, Black Portraiture[s], United States Artists Fellows

  RETROSPECTIVE is a review of the latest news and happenings related to visual art by and about people of African descent, with the occasional nod to cultural matters. United States Artist Fellows for 2016 were announced, including Senga Nengudi and Stanley Whitney. Curatorial appointments were made at the Tang Teaching Museum and Chrysler Museum....
Chrysler Museum of Art Hires Kimberli Gant as Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

Chrysler Museum of Art Hires Kimberli Gant as Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

THE CHRYSLER MUSEUM OF ART in Norfolk, Va., announced the appointment of Kimberli Gant as curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. She joins a succession of young black women who have accepted prestigious curatorial appointments at important institutions across the country this year. “With her bold vision, international perspective, scholarship, and verve, Kimberli Gant will...
Artist List for 2017 Whitney Museum Biennial Includes Henry Taylor, Lyle Ashton Harris, Pope.L, and Deana Lawson

Artist List for 2017 Whitney Museum Biennial Includes Henry Taylor, Lyle Ashton Harris, Pope.L, and Deana Lawson

Clockwise, from left, Deana Lawson, Pope.L, Lyle Ashton Harris, Maya Stovall, and Cauleen Smith (center).   THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART announced 63 individual artists and collectives participating in the museum’s 2017 biennial. Largely informed by the contentious political climate and the socioeconomic issues dividing Americans, the exhibition will explore themes including “formation of...
Post Election, to Realize Our Future, We Have to 'Do More and Do Better'

Post Election, to Realize Our Future, We Have to ‘Do More and Do Better’

For Freedoms: NARI WARD, “Mass Action,” 2016 (shoelaces). | ©Nari Ward. Courtesy the Artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong   ONE WEEK AGO TODAY, AMERICA WOKE UP to a new president-elect. The largely unexpected result has struck fear, anger, disappointment, and disbelief, in a majority of the voting populace. Americans are dismayed...
Tang Teaching Museum Has Appointed Isolde Brielmaier Curator-at-Large

Tang Teaching Museum Has Appointed Isolde Brielmaier Curator-at-Large

  CURATOR, SCHOLAR, AND WRITER Isolde Brielmaier is joining the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College as curator-at-large. The Tang is expanding its curatorial team in order to advance its 21st century approach to presenting innovative contemporary art exhibitions and programming. In announcing the appointment, which begins this month, the...
Battleground States: Art is Winning in Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, Political Powerhouses Where Must-See Exhibitions are on View

Battleground States: Art is Winning in Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, Political Powerhouses Where Must-See Exhibitions are on View

  THE FINAL DAYS OF THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION are playing out in a handful of states, battlegrounds with key electoral votes likely to determine the outcome of a hard fought, stranger-than-fiction race for the White House. There are 538 electoral votes up for grabs and 270 are needed to win. The campaigns of Hillary...
Election Fervor: For 40 Years, 'Teenie' Harris Photographed Pittsburgh's African American Community, Including Major Political Moments

Election Fervor: For 40 Years, ‘Teenie’ Harris Photographed Pittsburgh’s African American Community, Including Major Political Moments

CHARLES “TEENIE” HARRIS, Linda Starkey handing bouquet to Shirley Chisholm, surrounded by Delta Sigma Theta sorority members, including Christine Jones Fulwiley on left, Vivian Mason Lane, and Marcia Davis, in Loendi Club, March 5, 1972 (black and white: Kodak Safety Film). | Carnegie Museum of Art, Heinz Family Fund   FOR GENERATIONS, AFRICAN AMERICANS in...
Retrospective: The Latest News in Black Art - Theaster Gates Starts Apprentice Program, Rodney McMillian Wins Austin Art Prize

Retrospective: The Latest News in Black Art – Theaster Gates Starts Apprentice Program, Rodney McMillian Wins Austin Art Prize

  RETROSPECTIVE is a review of the latest news and happenings related to visual art by and about people of African descent, with the occasional nod to cultural matters. This week, Theaster Gates announced a groundbreaking apprenticeship program to provide training for local residents through his Rebuild Foundation in Chicago; Rodney McMillian received an important...
Backstory: Nina Chanel Abney Revisits Her First Major Painting, ‘Class of 2007’

Backstory: Nina Chanel Abney Revisits Her First Major Painting, ‘Class of 2007’

NINA CHANEL ABNEY, “Class of 2007,” 2007 (acrylic on canvas).   ONE OF THE MOST STRIKING PAINTINGS in the exhibition “30 Americans” is by Nina Chanel Abney. It’s a compelling work, depicting her MFA class at Parsons School of Design in New York. The artist envisions herself as a bespectacled, gun-toting blonde; Her classmates don...
At the Art Institute of Chicago, Kemang Wa Lehulere Mines South Africa's History, Imagines Its Future

At the Art Institute of Chicago, Kemang Wa Lehulere Mines South Africa’s History, Imagines Its Future

Kemang Wa Lehulere’s first American museum exhibition, “In My Wildest Dreams” at the Art Institute of Chicago, is on view through Jan. 16, 2017. | Video by Art Institute of Chicago   LIKE COUNTLESS OTHER NATIONS, South Africa has an uneven history. Unlike its African neighbors, its recent past has garnered sustained international attention—from apartheid-era...
Retrospective: The Latest News in Black Art - Derrick Adams Wins Studio Museum Prize, Influential Young Curators

Retrospective: The Latest News in Black Art – Derrick Adams Wins Studio Museum Prize, Influential Young Curators

  RETROSPECTIVE is a review of the latest news and happenings related to visual art by and about people of African descent, with the occasional nod to cultural matters. This week, the Studio Museum in Harlem announced the recipient of its annual Joyce Alexander Wein prize; and art news outlets published lists of the most...
Frieze Magazine: Betye Saar Reveals 5 Influences in First-Person Reflection on Nearly 70 Years of Art Making

Frieze Magazine: Betye Saar Reveals 5 Influences in First-Person Reflection on Nearly 70 Years of Art Making

  THE LOS ANGELES-BASED ARTIST Betye Saar is known for her assemblage works, mixed-media objects that explore race, history, death and rebirth through found objects. Indeed, Saar herself is enjoying a bit of a renaissance. After serving as a resident faculty member in 1985, Saar returned to Skowhegan in 2014 as a visiting artist. Further,...
Retrospective: The Latest News in Black Art - Mark Bradford Designs ICA LA Logo, Sanford Biggers Joins Marianne Boesky Gallery

Retrospective: The Latest News in Black Art – Mark Bradford Designs ICA LA Logo, Sanford Biggers Joins Marianne Boesky Gallery

  RETROSPECTIVE is a review of the latest news and happenings related to visual art by and about people of African descent, with the occasional nod to cultural matters. This week, Mark Bradford designed a museum logo; Sanford Biggers joined a new gallery; and Ralph Lemon was recognized with a dance award. New exhibitions opened...
Book Report: New Titles Explore Work of Artists Shinique Smith, Rashid Johnson, and Whitfield Lovell

Book Report: New Titles Explore Work of Artists Shinique Smith, Rashid Johnson, and Whitfield Lovell

BOOK REPORT CHARTS recently published art books. The four titles featured here explore the work of African African contemporary artists Whitfield Lovell, Rashid Johnson, and Shinique Smith through recent and current exhibitions.   “Whitfield Lovell: Kin,” with contributions by Sarah Lewis, Julie L McGee, Klaus Ottmann and Elsa Smithgall, and an introduction by Irving Sandler...