Black Artist News

NEW YORK: JOHN WILSON

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson

September 20, 2025 - February 8, 2026

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY

From metmuseum.org:

For over six decades, the American artist John Wilson (1922–2015) made powerful and poignant works that reflected his life as a Black American artist and his ongoing quest for racial, social, and economic justice. While still a teenager, Wilson was struck by the absence of positive representations of Black Americans and their experiences in both museums and popular culture. Working in a figurative style, he sought to correct this omission and create art in a variety of mediums and techniques that centered the humanity and experiences of Black Americans. Wilson’s subjects were diverse and include depictions of racial prejudice, economic inequality, fascism, the physical toll of labor, the writings of Richard Wright, and intimate images of family, friends, and community, with a particular focus on fatherhood. In both finely rendered portraits and more abstracted images of anonymous people, Wilson portrayed the emotion, dignity, and inner life of his subjects. Despite the range and importance of his art and the continuing relevance of themes he explored, Wilson’s work has not received the recognition it deserves.

Featuring approximately 100 works in a variety of mediums as well as previously unavailable archival material, this exhibition will show the humanity, scope, and power of Wilson’s art over the course of his career. The exhibition begins with work he made while in art school in Boston in which he depicted the horrors of Nazi Germany and American racial violence as well as tender images of his family life. It continues through his time in Paris, Mexico City, and New York City, highlighting his goal to create a more democratic art, and concludes with his sculptures and celebrated depictions of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., such as the maquette for the sculpture at the U.S. Capitol. The exhibition will include paintings, prints, drawings, and sculpture, as well as examples of Wilson’s work as an illustrator for children’s books.

Witnessing Humanity will be the largest exhibition of Wilson's work and the artist's first solo museum show in New York.

The exhibition was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

For more information, click here.

ADELPHI: PRESTON SAMPSON

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 17:09:00 +0000

Letters from Home

July 27, 2025 - Ocotber 19, 2025

UMGC ARTS PROGRAM GALLERY
College Park Marriott Hotel & Conference Center
3501 University Blvd. East
Adelphi, MD

A graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, nationally acclaimed artist Preston Sampson has spent his career immersed in the many facets of the art world — from cartooning and printmaking to teaching, curating, and beyond. His latest exhibition offers a vivid journey through a life shaped by creativity and expression.

Sampson's colorful, stylistic works span painting, mixed media, collage, encaustic, and pulp paper — each piece reflecting his personal narrative and the evolution of his artistic voice. This is more than a showcase of technique; it’s a visual memoir told through texture, tone, and time.

For more information click here.

TRANSITION: RAYMOND SAUNDERS (1934 - 2025)

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 21:01:00 +0000

Raymond Saunders, Artist Whose Enigmatic Works Highlighted Sociopolitical Concerns, Dies at 90

VIDEO: BEUFORD SMITH

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 14:00:00 +0000

VIDEO: HOWARDENA PINDELL

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

ATLANTA: FAITH RINGGOLD

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Seeing Children

June 27 - October 12, 2025

HIGH MUSEUM OF ART
1280 Peachtree St NE
Atlanta, GA

From high.org:

American artist Faith Ringgold (1930-2024) is widely known and celebrated for her paintings and multimedia art, including narrative quilts. However, her award-winning accomplishments as a children’s book creator are less well known. This summer, the High will present the most comprehensive exhibition to date of original paintings and drawings made for more than a dozen of her children’s books, featuring more than 100 works, including several that have never previously been exhibited. These include original paintings from “If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks” (1999), “Dinner at Aunt Connie’s House” (1993) and “Tar Beach” (1991), in which Cassie, a Black child in 1930s Harlem, imagines a future where she can go anywhere that she dreams of from her apartment’s rooftop. Also on view will be complete artwork from the fable “The Invisible Princess” (1999) and “We Came to America” (2016), which examines the history of immigration in America. Together, the artworks in the exhibition illuminate critical aspects of Ringgold’s practice and convey how Ringgold, a lifelong educator, presents children as creative, purposeful art makers. The exhibition is the latest in the High’s popular series celebrating children’s book art and authors.

For more information, click here.

VIDEO: JORDAN CARTER

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Spotlight on Chelsea’s Art Scene

Take a walk through Chelsea’s pulsing art heart with Jordan Carter’s insider tour—captured at Frieze New York 2025. From sleek gallery spaces to jaw‑dropping installations, Carter’s lens brings you front‑row to contemporary art’s most thrilling expressions, blending artist interviews with close‑up shots of works that challenge, enchant, and provoke.

HOT LINKS: JUNE 22, 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Click a headline to read the article in full:

Growing a Pittsburgh artist's legacy with Flowers from a Black Garden

Howardena Pindell Is Still Breaking Down Barriers for Black Artists

Why Did It Take a Fire for the World to Learn of Altadena's Black Arts Legacy?

A Collective Portrait of Black Los Angeles, Told Through Artist Ben Caldwell

Canada’s First Black Woman Artist Is Celebrated in a Landmark Museum Show

Remembering artist Rob Stull, whose work spanned canvases and comics

Why Malcolm X keeps inspiring Black art

LOUISVILLE: G.C. COXE

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Sat, 21 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Louisville's Black Avant-Garde: Gloucester Caliman (G.C.) Coxe

June 7 - September 7, 2025

SPEED ART MUSEUM
2035 South Third Street
Louisville, KY

The Speed Art Museum presents the third installment of Louisville’s Black Avant-Garde, spotlighting the influential abstract painter G.C. Coxe, often called "the Dean of African American artists in Louisville." A trailblazer, Coxe was among the first Black artists to earn a Fine Arts degree from the University of Louisville in 1955. His career spanned decades as a mentor, co-founder of the Louisville Art Workshop, and a prolific creator who pushed the boundaries of form and material. Known for building his own frames, mixing his own pigments, and working with unconventional surfaces, Coxe’s practice was deeply shaped by his experiences as a display artist and illustrator.

Curated by fari nzinga, with research support from Sarah Battle, this retrospective brings together key works from both private and public collections, honoring Coxe’s enduring legacy and his vital contributions to Louisville’s Black artistic community.

For more information, click here.

LOS ANGELES: KEVIN BEASLEY

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

What delineates the edge

July 2 - August 16, 2025

REGEN PROJECTS
6750 Santa Monica Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA

Regen Projects presents What delineates the edge, Kevin Beasley’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. The show features new wall-mounted resin panels and freestanding sculptures that explore the concept of the threshold—examining the boundaries and meeting points between states of being. Beasley’s signature use of translucent resin transforms everyday objects like bedsheets, military uniforms, shoes, and personal protective equipment into luminous, memory-rich compositions.

The freestanding sculptural screens, constructed with hinges and multiple panels, invite viewers to navigate shifting physical and metaphorical spaces, emphasizing mobility and mutability. Surrounding these are Beasley’s large wall-mounted Synths: resin-embedded assemblages of materials that evoke personal and collective histories, acting like visual “synthesizers” that translate layered memories into vibrant, abstract forms.

Together, these works engage deeply with materiality, time, and the social and individual significance of everyday objects, offering an immersive experience that reflects on history, memory, and transformation.

For more information, click here.

NEW YORK: SAYA WOOLFALK

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Empathic Universe

April 12 - September 7, 2025

MUSEUM OF ARTS AND DESIGN
2 Columbus Circle

New York, NY

From madmuseum.org:

The first retrospective of Saya Woolfalk’s work traces over two decades of her immersive, world-building installations centered on the “Empathics,” a fictional race of women. Woolfalk weaves together vibrant visual languages, symbolism, and folklore inspired by African, African American, Japanese, European, and Brazilian traditions. Through garment-based sculptures, video, paintings, works on paper, and performance, she explores how cultures collide, blend, and evolve through shared understanding.

For more information, click here.

BROOKLYN: ESTÉBAN WHITESIDE

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Beyond Rage

May 30 - August 3, 2025

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN DIASPORIC ART (MoCADA)

MoCADA Culture Lab II

10 Lafayette Avenue (between Flatbush Avenue + Ashland Place)
Brooklyn, NY

Summary of Exhibition Overview Curated by Amy Andrieux (MoCADA):

In the exhibition overview for Estéban Whiteside’s first solo survey at MoCADA, curator Amy Andrieux frames rage as the central force driving the work—a sharp, satirical exchange between political critique and pop culture reflection. Rather than avoiding the harsh realities of colonialism and systemic oppression, the exhibition embraces rage as a necessary response that can sweeten the bitterness of our collective discontent.

Andrieux invites viewers to question the nature of rage: whether it is momentary or enduring, embodied or psychological, a protective instinct or a persistent companion. Drawing on James Baldwin’s assertion that Black consciousness in America is inherently tied to rage, she situates Whiteside’s work within this lineage of political awareness and emotional truth.

While the exhibition shares some kinship with MoCADA’s previous show Uncensored, which explored political critique through comedy, Andrieux emphasizes that Whiteside’s approach is more direct in confronting trauma and accountability. Referencing Brittney Cooper’s call for radical honesty and bell hooks’ concept of “constructive, healing rage,” Andrieux highlights the urgency of moving beyond broken systems toward a purpose-driven, community-centered vision.

Through over 30 mixed-media works made with paint, resin, found objects, and repurposed materials, Whiteside’s art becomes both a personal meditation and a communal declaration. As Andrieux describes, the exhibition channels rage as a clarifying, creative force—one that helps us see, question, and imagine new possibilities.

For more information, click here.

VIDEO: MR. WASH

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

WeTransfer Presents: Mr. Wash

In the deeply affecting documentary on Fulton “Mr. Wash” Washington, one of the most intimate and unforgettable moments takes place during a birthday celebration for his elder daughter. The family is seated outside on a patio, a pool glimmering in the background, sharing cake and laughter as Wash sings a delightfully off-key, off-pitch version of “Happy Birthday.”

But as the laughter fades, Wash turns to his younger daughter and asks a question that shifts the energy entirely: “What was it like to be raised up those years without a father?”

Her response is quietly devastating: “By the time I was an adult, a ‘dad’ was a foreign concept.”

Then the elder daughter speaks, and her answer is raw, complex, and deeply human—a flood of emotion, anger, frustration, and forgiveness all at once. It is as honest as a moment can get, and it lingers long after the conversation moves on.

Wash’s story is one of loss, love, and rebuilding. Sentenced to life in prison for a non-violent drug offense in the 1990s, he turned to painting as a way to survive and express himself while incarcerated. After being granted clemency by President Barack Obama, Wash has been working to piece his life and his family back together.

This film is not just about the carceral system—it’s about art, family, and the complicated, tender labor of second chances. That birthday scene on the patio, where cake and candor collide, reveals the heart of Wash’s journey: a man learning, in real time, how to show up—with humor, vulnerability, and the courage to face what was lost.

HOT LINKS: JUNE 15, 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Sun, 15 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Click a headline to read the article in full:

The Painter Chase Hall Has Several Tricks Up His Sleeve to Stay Motivated in the Studio

Tyler, the Creator on Delusion, Gatekeeping, and His Latest Collaboration With Converse

How Lorna Simpson Broke the Frame

At The Met, Lorna Simpson’s Paintings Take Center Stage

“You’re Either a Storyteller or a Liar”: Charles Burnett, in Conversation With Barry Jenkins

2026 Venice Biennale Will Hew to Late Curator Koyo Kouoh’s Vision

ELMHURST: BERNARD WILLIAMS

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

CROSSINGS

May 1 - August 17, 2025

ELMHURST ART MUSEUM
150 Cottage Hill

Elmhurst, IL

CROSSINGS is a campus-wide exhibition at the Elmhurst Art Museum showcasing Chicago-based artist Bernard Williams’ vibrant vehicle sculptures and large-scale paintings. Through bold, graphic forms, Williams explores mobility as both physical movement and the pursuit of greater opportunity. Known for his public murals and sculptures, Williams draws from overlooked histories to spotlight Black contributions to transportation and agriculture, honoring figures like pilot Bessie Coleman, NASCAR driver Wendell Scott, and the recent Black Farmers’ Settlement. The exhibition also pays tribute to Elmhurst native and NASCAR champion Fred Lorenzen (1934–2024), connecting national and local legacies of achievement.

For more information, click here.

CLEVELAND: ERYKAH TOWNSEND

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

“Happy” Holidays

June 27, 2025 - January 4, 2026

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CLEVELAND
11400 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH

“Happy” Holidays: Erykah Townsend’s Solo Museum Debut

Erykah Townsend’s first solo museum exhibition, “Happy” Holidays, offers a sharp yet humorous critique of how consumerism shapes the modern Christmas experience. Through multimedia works that blend pop culture, art history, and advertising, Townsend challenges the idealized holiday narrative, highlighting the stress and financial pressure often hidden beneath the festive surface.

Developed during her 2022 residency at moCa, the show continues Townsend’s investigation into Western commercialism’s grip on everyday life. As she explains, “I use pop culture as a medium itself—exploring the spaces it fills in our lives and questioning how real is the imaginary.” A Cleveland Institute of Art graduate, Townsend brings a bold and reflective voice to the contemporary art scene.

For more information, click here.

CLEVELAND: CLOTILDE JIMÉNEZ

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Shapeshift

June 27, 2025 - January 4, 2026

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CLEVELAND
11400 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH

Clotilde Jiménez: Shapeshift

Shapeshift is the most comprehensive exhibition to date of Clotilde Jiménez’s work, tracing his evolving practice across collage, painting, sculpture, and ceramics. Known for his inventive use of everyday materials—wallpaper, clothing, Mexican craft paper—Jiménez explores themes of identity, transformation, and the societal pressures placed on the body through race, gender, and sexuality.

With a layered approach that draws from both ancient and contemporary sources, Jiménez’s work reflects a personal and artistic evolution. His figures, composed from fragments, embody fluidity, interconnectedness, and the strength found in reinvention. The exhibition features newly commissioned pieces alongside early student work and process materials, offering insight into his ongoing journey of becoming.

For more information, click here.

BOUND: JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Books, monographs, and lives in print.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Making of an Icon by Doug Woodham

Forthcoming from W. W. Norton on October 14, 2025, Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Making of an Icon is the first major biography of the artist in over 25 years. Written by art-world insider Doug Woodham and based on more than 100 interviews, the book offers a deeply researched and revelatory look at Basquiat’s life, art, and posthumous rise to global fame.

Woodham examines Basquiat’s complex identity, childhood trauma, and struggles with addiction—topics often glossed over in institutional narratives. He also uncovers the pivotal role of collectors, gallerists, and Basquiat’s father in reviving interest in the artist’s work after his death. With 54 illustrations and never-before-told stories, this book not only humanizes Basquiat but also pulls back the curtain on how cultural icons are made—and remade—by the art world.

Publication Date: October 14, 2025 (Available for pre-order)
Pages: 296
Size: 6 inches x 9 inches
Publisher: W.W. Norton
Composition: Hardcover
Price: $34.95

WASHINGTON, DC: ADAM PENDLETON

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Love, Queen

Apr 04, 2025–Jan 03, 2027

HIRSHHORN MUSEUM AND SCULPTURE GARDEN
Independence Ave SW and 7th St SW
Washington, D.C.

Adam Pendleton Makes D.C. Debut with Love, Queen at the Hirshhorn

On view at the Hirshhorn Museum through January 3, 2027, Adam Pendleton: Love, Queen marks the artist’s first solo exhibition in Washington, D.C. Featuring new and recent paintings alongside a striking video installation, the show highlights Pendleton’s innovative approach to abstraction, language, and layered visual process.

Best known for his Black Dada project, Pendleton blurs boundaries between painting, drawing, photography, and performance. A highlight of the exhibition is Resurrection City Revisited (Who Owns Geometry Anyway?)—a floor-to-ceiling video work that reimagines the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign encampment through archival footage, found images, and a dynamic score.

Curated by Evelyn C. Hankins, Love, Queen positions Pendleton’s work in dialogue with the Hirshhorn’s permanent collection and the charged political history of the National Mall.

For more information, click here.

VIDEO: DEREK FOURJOUR

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Derek Fordjour in conversation with Trevor Noah

In this thought-provoking episode, artist Derek Fordjour reflects on his creative journey and the intersections of art, African identity, and societal values. He opens up about his experiences navigating professional spaces as a Black artist, the evolution of Black representation in the art world, and how art can act as a "passive buff" to societal changes.

Fordjour discusses the significance of storytelling in human connection and its central role in both personal and collective identity. He delves into the unique challenges Black artists face while also exploring how art can serve as a catalyst for cultural and social transformation.

Further, the conversation touches on how art intersects with comedy as a powerful form of expression and the ways it shapes cultural narratives. Fordjour also unpacks the art market’s history and influence, providing a deeper understanding of how art is valued and commodified in society.

This episode offers a rich dialogue on the evolving landscape of art and its essential role in shaping societal narratives, with a special focus on the African diaspora and the Black experience.

HOT LINKS: JUNE 8, 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Sun, 08 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Click a headline to read the article in full:

At 98, Thaddeus Mosley Is Still Building His Forest of Wood Sculptures

Thaddeus Mosley by Osman Can Yerebakan

An Oral History with Todd Gray by jill moniz

Charles Burnett by Carlos Valladares

Thanks to Tourmaline, the Long-Awaited Biography of Marsha P. Johnson Is Here.

The Monument Maker: The World is Catching Up to Barbara Chase-Riboud

Allison Glenn to Curate 2026 Toronto Biennial

Adam Pendleton’s Painterly Language Encourages Close Inspection and Deep Introspection

DETROIT: LAKELA BROWN & MARIO MOORE

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Sat, 07 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Beneath Our Feet

May 31 - July 30, 2025

LIBRARY STREET COLLECTIVE
1260 Library Street
Detroit, MI

LaKela Brown and Mario Moore Unearth Layers of History and Value in Beneath Our Feet

Now on view at Library Street Collective through July 30, 2025, Beneath Our Feet brings together Detroit-born artists LaKela Brown and Mario Moore in a powerful two-person exhibition exploring land, labor, and legacy. Through sculpture and painting, the artists examine how land shapes identity and agency, and who holds the right to narrate its meaning.

Brown’s sculptural reliefs blend the visual languages of ancient storytelling and 1990s hip-hop culture, reclaiming personal and cultural symbols often excluded from traditional art history. Moore’s paintings, rich with diasporic symbolism and inspired by Dutch devotional still life, elevate everyday objects to icons of Black resilience and self-determination.

At the exhibition’s center is The Smoke Coin, a monumental bronze bas-relief collaboratively created by the artists—one side bearing a portrait of Brown by Moore, the other a bouquet of collard greens sculpted by Brown. Together, it becomes a meditation on value, representation, and care.

Beneath Our Feet invites viewers to rethink what lies below the surface—of land, of history, and of ourselves—and to imagine new systems of worth rooted in community and shared inheritance.

For more information, click here.

DETROIT: THE SEA AND THE SKY, AND YOU AND I

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

The Sea and the Sky, and You and I
Curated by Allison Glenn

May 17 - August 30, 2025

THE SHEPHERD
1265 Parkview Street
Detroit, MI

Detroit’s Past, Present, and Possible Futures Converge in The Sea and the Sky, and You and I

On view at the Shepherd through August 30, 2025, The Sea and the Sky, and You and I is the second chapter in a two-part exhibition series presented by Library Street Collective. Curated by Allison Glenn, the show brings together over two dozen artists and cultural organizers whose work explores the deep, often overlooked relationships between people and landscapes—both real and imagined—in Detroit and beyond.

Taking its title from a line in Miles Davis’ 1959 composition All Blues, the exhibition reflects on how land is remembered, altered, and cared for in the face of climate change and shifting political landscapes. More than half the participating artists are based in Detroit, grounding the exhibition in the city’s rich legacy of self-organized, artist-led public art and community engagement.

Works reference everything from Drexciyan mythologies to industrial debris, and themes range from land use and environmental justice to ancestral memory and speculative futures. Participating artists include Dawoud Bey, Halima Afi Cassells, LaKela Brown, Ebony G. Patterson, Mario Moore, and Jamea Richmond-Edwards, among others.

A dynamic slate of programming runs alongside the exhibition, in collaboration with long-standing community partners such as Dabls Mbad African Bead Museum, The Heidelberg Project, and The Garage. Together, the exhibition and its partners offer a kaleidoscopic view of how artists are reimagining relationships between humans, land, and legacy.

For more information, click here.

MEMPHIS: BAYARD RUSTIN

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Speaking Truth to Power: The Life of Bayard Rustin

March 28 - December 31, 2025

THE NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM
450 Mulberry Street
Memphis, TN

Bayard Rustin’s Legacy Comes to Life in Powerful New Exhibition

Now on view at the National Civil Rights Museum, Speaking Truth to Power: The Life of Bayard Rustin marks the debut of the newly acquired Bayard Rustin Collection. The exhibition offers an intimate look at Rustin’s enduring legacy as a visionary civil rights leader, global activist, and advocate for nonviolence and human rights.

Curated by art historian Gay Feldman and featuring photography by David Katzenstein, the show includes over 200 personal items—from passports and letters to fine art photographs and memorabilia from the March on Washington. Speaking Truth to Power runs through December 31, 2025, and is included with general admission.

For more information, click here.

BOUND: DAVID HAMMONS

noreply@blogger.com (Black Artist News) — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Books, monographs, and lives in print.

From shophauserwirth.com:

This post-exhibition catalogue revisits David Hammons’ 2019 show at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles. A singular book created entirely under the artist’s direction, this publication illustrates the most expansive exhibition of this legendary artist’s work to date.

Publication Date: February 2025

Pages: 404

Size: 11.73 inches x 11.73 inches
Publisher: Hauser & Wirth Publishers
Composition: Hardcover
Price: $95.00