Culture Type: The Month in Black Art, Here’s What Happened in February 2025
Project aims to document legacy of Altadena in wake of LA wildfires, Lubaina Himid will represent UK at Venice Biennale, photography curator Oluremi C. Onabanjo won Vilcek Prize, Anne Collins Smith is chief curator at New Orleans Museum of Art, Sandra Jackson-Dumont stepping down at Lucas Museum, and more Rashid Johnson was honored at...
What to See in U.S. Museums This Summer: 15 Solo Exhibitions Featuring Black Artists – Simone Leigh, James Barnor, Ming Smith, Whitfield Lovell, Gary Simmons & More
SOME OF THE SUMMER’S BEST U.S. museum exhibitions are on view beyond the art capitals of New York and Los Angeles. Landmark solo exhibitions of an inter-generational slate of prominent Black artists can be seen in Seattle, Detroit, Washington, D.C., and many cities in between. The first museum survey of photographer Ming Smith is...
Christina Quarles, Simone Leigh, and Jennifer Packer Set Soaring New Records at Sotheby’s New Now Evening Auction, Kerry James Marshall Painting is Top Lot
INTRODUCED AS A COMPLEMENT to Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Auction, the New Now Evening Auction is distinguished by its currency. The auction “focuses on the art of our time, offering the most exciting, cutting-edge works on the market.” The second edition of the sale was an attention getter with works by women representing more than...
Amoako Boafo’s Top-Selling Paintings at Auction are Dominated by the Color Yellow
Christie’s Hong Kong, Dec. 1, 2021 A STRIKING PORTRAIT by Amoako Boafo, “Hands Up” (2018) features a stylish young woman wearing yellow sunglasses against a yellow background. The painting sold for more than $3 million, nearly 10 times the estimate and an astounding new record at auction for the fast-rising artist. The record-setting result...
On View: See Images From ‘Winner Takes All,’ Emerging Artist Exhibition Co-Curated by Amoako Boafo and Larry Ossei-Mensah at Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York
Installation view of works by APLERH-DOKU BORLABI (left and right) and ZEH PALITO (center). On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions A GROUP EXHIBITION, “Winner Takes All” features an international slate of nine emerging painters who express themselves through figuration: Sophia-Yemisi Adeyemo-Ross, Jessica Alazraki, Aplerh-Doku Borlabi, YoYo Lander, Anoushka Mirchandani, Zéh Palito, Adjei...
Latest News in Black Art: Smithsonian Names Inaugural Director of Museum of American Latino, Valerie Cassel Oliver Recognized for Curatorial Excellence, Serpentine Pavilion Design by Theaster Gates Revealed
Latest News in Black Art features news updates and developments in the world of art and related culture Valerie Cassel Oliver. | Photo by Travis Fullerton, Courtesy the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Awards & Honors Valerie Cassel Oliver is receiving the 2022 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence from the Center...
Los Angeles: 5 New Gallery Exhibitions are Dedicated to Artists Lorna Simpson, Betye Saar, Amoako Boafo, June Edmonds, and Rashid Johnson
LOS ANGELES GALLERIES are brimming with new exhibitions featuring new works by prominent Black artists. The intergenerational slate includes Amoako Boafo, June Edmonds, Rashid Johnson, Lorna Simpson, and Betye Saar, all of whom have coinciding museum exhibitions and public art projects at a variety of venues nationwide. LORNA SIMPSON, “Recurring,” 2021 (ink and...
Latest News in Black Art: Valerie Cassel Oliver and Lowery Sims Headline Armory Show Curatorial Summit, Sadé Ayorinde Named Fellow at American Folk Art Museum, Beyoncé’s Problematic Tiffany Diamond
Latest News in Black Art features news updates and developments in the world of art and related culture Left, VMFA Curator Valerie Cassel Oliver is chairing the Armory Show’s 2021 Curatorial Leadership Summit. Right, Lowery Stokes Sims recently co-curated the traveling retrospective “Art & Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott.” Her current...
Latest News in Black Art: Guggenheim Hires Diversity Chief, Galerie Myrtis Presenting Exhibition at Venice Biennale, Kehinde Wiley Redesigns MTV Moon Person & More
Latest News in Black Art features news updates and developments in the world of art and related culture Kehinde Wiley reimagined MTV’s iconic Moon Person. He is the third artist to create a special edition of the symbol, which has served as the network’s VMA Trophy since 1984. A large-scale version inspired...
Museum of African Diaspora in San Francisco Will Host First Solo Museum Exhibitions of Amoako Boafo and Billie Zangewa This Fall
THE SEMINAL TEXT OF W.E.B. DU BOIS (1868-1963) inspired the title of a forthcoming solo exhibition of Amoako Boafo. The Ghanaian-born painter grew up in Osu, where Du Bois, the author of “The Souls of Black Folk” is buried. “Amoako Boafo: Soul of Black Folks” will be on view this fall at the Museum...
British Painter Jadé Fadojutimi Nearly Doubles Auction Record at Phillips Hong Kong, Sale Also Features Major Fire Hose Work by Theaster Gates
OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS, paintings by emerging Black contemporary artists have been popular and garnered record-setting prices at major auction houses in New York and London. Increasingly, their work is also attracting high bids in Asian markets, both from Asian collectors and international buyers looking to purchase at auctions held whereever works that...
Paintings by 4 Black Female Artists Set Auction Records at Christie’s Evening Sale: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Nina Chanel Abney, Mickalene Thomas, Jordan Casteel
PAINTINGS BY 10 OF THE MOST HIGHLY REGARDED Black contemporary artists active today were featured in Christie’s inaugural 21st Century Evening Sale in New York. Six set new artist records, including four figurative works by women artists. Nina Chanel Abney‘s powerful 2015 painting of two Black cops arresting a white man sold for $990,000....
New Auction Records For Joy Labinjo, Jammie Holmes and Aboudia at Christie’s London, Self Portrait by Amoako Boafo Also Exceeds Expectations
RECENT SALES AT CHRISTIE’S LONDON resulted in new auction records for British-Nigerian artist Joy Labinjo and Dallas, Texas-based Jammie Holmes, two up-and-coming artists garnering increasing attention after receiving institutional recognition. Aboudia, who splits his time between his native Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and Brooklyn, N.Y., also set a new high mark. Labinjo’s “No Wahala” (2019)...
Culture Type: The Year in Black Art, Key News, Exhibitions, Awards, and More That Defined 2020
Noah Davis at David Zwirner Gallery, NY BLACK ARTISTS WON NUMEROUS AWARDS, joined major art galleries, and published lavishly illustrated books about their work in 2020. Early in the year, Christine Turner’s documentary “Betye Saar: Taking Care of Business” screened at Sundance, an expansive survey of Los Angeles painter Noah Davis opened at...
New Now: Amoako Boafo and Titus Kaphar Top Phillips Emerging Artist Auction, Firelei Báez and Marcus Jahmal Among Record Setters
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...
Phillips Restarts Live Auctions With Record Results for Titus Kaphar and Christina Quarles, Notable Debut for Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe
LIVE SALES AT THE BIG AUCTION HOUSES have returned and at Phillips works by several black artists stood out in the results. On July 2, the Phillips New York 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale featured 25 premium lots and all found buyers. Seven black artists were represented including Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Hammons,...
Amoako Boafo is Latest Young Black Artist to Make Major Auction Debut
A RECENT PAINTING by Amoako Boafo portrays a woman with gray hair gathered on top of her head in a loose Afro puff. She’s lounging on a pool float, wearing a white one-piece bathing suit covered with a leafy lemon print. Her lips are red and a pair of sunglasses shields her eyes from...
Culture Type: The Year in Black Art 2019
ONCE RELEGATED TO THE MARGINS, artists of African descent continued to migrate toward the center of the art world in 2019, claiming space on just about every front as the decade came to a close. Black contemporary artists won many of the year’s most prestigious and lucrative international art prizes. They shared their work...
Latest News in African American Art: Duro Olowu x Estée Lauder, Smithsonian Keeping Sackler Name, Maya Angelou Murals, Where Are the Critics of Color? & More
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...
Culture Talk: Amoako Boafo’s First Exhibition at Roberts Projects in Los Angeles Centers Black Subjectivity
“Yellow Turtleneck” (2018) by Amoako Boafo AFTER MOVING TO VIENNA, Amoako Boafo began a new portrait series. The work grew less out of inspiration and more out of motivation. Ghanaian-born Boafo found the Austrian capital generally unreceptive to black people and the art scene was just as challenging. The portrait series served as...
