BLACK ART NEAR + FAR

Paula Wilson: Toward the Sky’s Back Door presents nearly two decades of Paula Wilson’s paintings, sculptures, prints, collages, and videos, with different media frequently intermixed in a single work. Breaking down perceived boundaries to connect global and local narratives, the work explores subjects as wide-ranging as the moth that pollinates Yucca plants, ancient Greek vases, West African D’mba, and modern technologies. Using the same techniques and styles to make art for viewing on the gallery wall as for the rugs she walks on and clothes she wears, Wilson challenges the separations between art and everyday living. Often biographically oriented, her work investigates the polarities of human life, including her own identity as a Black biracial artist and her experiences living in both major metropolises and the small desert railroad town of Carrizozo, New Mexico. Wilson’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally and is in the permanent collections of The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Albuquerque Museum, the New York Public Library, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, the Yale University Art Gallery, and the Tang Teaching Museum, among others. Born in Chicago, Wilson earned her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis and her MFA from Columbia University in New York. She is the co-founder of the artist-run organizations Carrizozo Artist-in-Residency and MoMAZoZo. The exhibition title comes from a poem by Robin Coste Lewis, “Let Me Live in a House by the Side of the Road and Be a Friend to Man.” Paula Wilson: Toward the Sky’s Back Door is organized by The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College and curated by Tang Associate Curator Rebecca McNamara in collaboration with the artist. The exhibition and accompanying catalogue are supported by Friends of the Tang. The CAAM presentation is organized by Isabelle Lutterodt, Deputy Director, CAAM.

Mariane Ibrahim is pleased to present The Long Run, Clotilde Jiménez second solo exhibition at the gallery’s Parisian space, from June 7 and until September 28, 2024. The Long Run expands the artist’s explorations of movement, identity, community, and competition, building upon previous works, including the Official Olympic Posters series he created for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Traditional narratives of competition are challenged in works that foreground the importance of solidarity and shared experiences over individual victories. As an artist working in the medium of collage, Jiménez forges bonds between disparate elements, presenting them as a unified whole, mirroring the way athletes embody a fusion of community, nationality, family, and culture. His figures, composed of interlaced gestures and expressions, speak to the interconnectedness of our journeys and how individuals embody collective strength to overcome barriers. In La Danza del Listón, the characters features are intricately embedded, echoing Jiménez's words, 'I am thinking a lot about a group winning, and not just a singular athlete, as many of my figures are constructed with a multitude of faces and gestures that build the image.' Through the new works that compose The Long Run, the artist highlights the communal infrastructure of sports, which relies on cultural pride, global connection and mutual support. The artist's reflections on the Olympic Games reveal an even deeper narrative. The event serves as a celebration that also showcases societal dynamics, as athletes who might come from marginalized spheres in their home countries become celebrated on the world stage. This duality highlights the broader societal implications beyond mere patriotism, as people connect with athletes who reflect their own identities and personal narratives.

At The Precipice is an exhibit that explores the use of color, tactility, material, and data. The artwork explores how it feels to inhabit an irreversibly damaged planet facing a precarious future and considers the purpose of art and design in understanding how our collective trajectory must rapidly change direction. This exhibit features more than 10 artists. Design Museum of Chicago 72 East Randolph Street Chicago, IL, 60601 United States. Runs through Oct. 30, 2023.

Past Disquiet is a documentary and archival exhibition based on four art collections that were intended to be “museums in solidarity” or “museums in exile”. The exhibition reveals stories told with documents, photographs, pamphlets, press clippings, posters, interviews, and videos curated. Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa ​​V&A Waterfront Silo District, S Arm Rd, Waterfront, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa. Runs through Mar. 24, 2024.

With the understanding that Black girlhood is often fraught with societal hardships that can interfere with health and well-being, Sit A Spell features the work of six Black women artists who were paired with African American girls between the ages of 10 and 18. Their resulting portraits simultaneously evoke “movement and rest, contemplation and action.” The exhibition reminds us that while stillness and motion initially seem to be at odds, they actually sustain each other. 4613 Newhall St, Philadelphia, PA 19144. Ongoing.

This retrospective, Michael Richards: Are You Down?, showcases visionary artworks, including sculptures, drawings, installations, and video work. Of Jamaican and Costa Rican lineage, Richards’s artwork gestures toward both repression and reprieve from social injustices and the simultaneous possibilities of uplift and downfall as well as the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen, The Bronx Museum, 1040 Grand Concourse The Bronx, NY. Runs through Jan. 7, 2024.

“Njideka Akunyili Crosby: Coming Back to See Through, Again” includes New Paintings, presenting “a new vernacular and iconography in contemporary visual culture”. The show will travel to David Zwirner Gallery, New York in Sept. 2023. 519 West 19th Street New York, New York. Runs Sept. 14—Oct. 28, 2023

Give Me Wings To Fly, a solo exhibit honoring Norman Lewis, featuring sixty works dating from 1935 through 1978 that collectively trace major developments of the artist’s visual language and reveal his immense range in subject, technique, and style. An online catalog publishes new scholarship by art historian, Ruth Fine. Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 100 11th Ave New York, NY New York. Runs Sept. 7th - Nov. 4th 2023

Nick Cave’s glass mosaics in his installation, Everyone, at the 42nd St shuttle in New York capture motions of his “Soundsuits”. Colorful “figures on the wall are depicted leaping and twirling in mosaic Soundsuits”—Cave’s full body costumes that make noise when they move. “ ​​It’s almost like looking at a film strip,” Cave said. “As you’re moving down that from left to right, you see it in motion.” MTA New York, 42nd St Subway Connector. Permanent installation

Featuring specially curated content, events, and partnerships. Selected galleries at DaDa and la Mamounia will showcase curated selections of groundbreaking contemporary pieces by both emerging and established artists. The program includes events and gatherings across Marrakech that celebrate the rich cultural landscape of the city. La Mamounia Avenue Bad Jdid, Marrakech 40040, Morocco & DaDa 2, place Jemaa El Fna Marrakech Medina 40000, Morocco. February 8-11, 2024.

Lonnie Holley: If You Really Knew, provides an intimate look at Holley’s life and explores a decades-long career in his first major debut in the Southern United States. The exhibition showcases 70 works, including foundational “sandstone” sculptures, new works on paper, and quilt paintings. Holley’s influence on Southern art is highlighted throughout the exhibition, featuring works from a cohort of artists he championed, including Miami native Purvis Young, Thornton Dial, Mary T. Smith, and Hawkins Bowling.

"TO LET" is a studio residency of Unathi Mkonto, whose practice intersects art, design and architecture and engages the museum as a maze that his work is part of. Consisting of photographs, drawings, maquettes, sculptures, and installations, ‘TO LET’ is an open investigation that uses the physicality of space to engage and implicate the people who will encounter it. Zeitz MOCAA Silo District, V&A Waterfront, South Arm Road, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa. Runs through Feb. 25, 2024.

Fundação Bienal de São Paulo’s four curators—Diane Lima, Grada Kilomba, Hélio Menezes, and Manuel Borja-Villel—have selected 120 participants, with 92 percent of the artists identifying as Black, Indigenous, and/or non-white. The Bienal de São Paulo was initiated in 1951 and is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennial, which was established in 1895.Fundação Bienal de São Paulo Parque Ibirapuera, Portão 3, Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo BR - 04094-000, São Paulo, SP, Brasil. Runs through Nov. 26, 2023.

The African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) collaborated to present Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America, a multi-venue exhibition of new works examining: “Is the sun rising or setting on the experiment of American democracy?” Installations by 20 artists explore equality, free speech, and other tenets of democracy. Artists at AAMPinclude John Akomfram, Mark Gibson, Dread Scott, Renee Stout, Deborah Wilis and more. Concurrently at The African American Museum in Philadelphia, 701 Arch Street Philadelphia, PA & Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 118-128 N Broad Street Philadelphia, PA. Runs through Oct. 8, 2023.

Called to Create: Black Artists of the American South features: Thornton Dial, James “Son Ford” Thomas, Lonnie Holley, Mary T. Smith, Purvis Young, and other artists in the South who worked with little recognition, often using recycled materials as their art supplies and yards, porches, or boarded-up storefronts as their galleries. This exhibit brings their works to the public as prominent focal points within the National Gallery of Art. The National Gallery of Art West Building 6th St and Constitution Ave NW.​ Runs through Dec. 31, 2023.

Haitian painter Shneider Léon Hilaire’s first solo show in France, Nou ak sa n pa wè yo - Nous et les Invisibles, curated by Régine Cuzin, presents work influenced by voodoo, brought from Benin by enslaved Africans. Hilaire transcribes onto canvas the oral tradition of stories, tales and legends gathered from all over the country. MAGNIN-A, 118 Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, 75011 Paris, France. Runs through March 16, 2024.

Longshoremen Local 1416 is part of Miami Museum of Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora’s (Miami MoCAAD) public art mural series, Veo Veo, I See I See, Mwen Wè Mwen Wè. Miami MoCAAD's interactive mural honors the International Longshoremen Association (ILA) Local 1416, an essential part of the Overtown community since its founding in 1936. ​The mural, created by Miami-based artist Reginald O'Neal and curated by Donnamarie Baptiste, features QR codes containing oral history videos about Miami’s Black Longshoremen and Overtown. On view at ILA Local 1416 Union Hall, 816 NW 2nd Ave, Miami, FL. Ongoing with corresponding website at murals.miamimocaad.org.

New work by Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze entitled The Poetics of Space will be presented in a solo exhibition. She has designed the frames and plinths, in desire to emulate her interest in an architectural dimension, beyond the paper and plane. Mariane Ibrahim Paris, 18 Av. Matignon, 75008 Paris, France. On view from September 1 to Oct. 7, 2023.

The African Origin of Civilization exhibition features collections from west and central Africa alongside art from ancient Egypt for the first time in The Met’s history. The exhibit allows introspection of different African cultures and eras while providing a rare opportunity to appreciate the extraordinary creativity of the continent across five millennia. The Met Fifth Avenue 136, 1000 5th Ave, New York, NY.

“Strange Fruits'', curated by Yuneikys Villalonga, presents recent work by Marielle Plaisir, a Miami-based multimedia artist. Working in paint, drawing, sculpture, fashion and performance, Plaisir creates intense visual experiences exploring her French-Caribbean heritage against the backdrop of Postcolonialism. In April 2024, Plaisir will present new digital artworks and a multimedia piece that were commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora (Miami MoCAAD) as a recipient of a 2022 New Work Award from the Knight Foundation. Coral Gables Museum, 285 Aragon Avenue Coral Gables, FL. Runs through April 28, 2024.

The Roof Garden Commission: Lauren Halsey, created a personal monument to Black lives and urban energy. Using 750 glass-fiber-reinforced concrete tiles, Halsey constructed a 22-foot-tall structure that resembles an Egyptian-style temple. Four large-scale sphinx statues with faces that are portraits of Halsey’s immediate family and her life partner stand as guardians, through which visitors can walk. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue , 82nd Street New York, NY. Runs through Oct. 22, 2023.

OVERtown: Our Family Tree is part of Veo Veo, I See I See, Mwen Wè Mwen Wè, an interactive public art project exploring Overtown through visual art, storytelling and technology commissioned by Miami MoCAAD and curated by Donnamarie Baptiste. The mural, created by Miami-based artist Anthony “Mojo” Reed II, honors Miami's first Black judge, the late Judge Lawson E. Thomas, who as a lawyer fought fearlessly for civil rights of Black people during the 1940s and 1950s Jim Crow era. Judge Thomas owned the Overtown law office building where the mural incorporates QR codes containing oral history videos about Judge Thomas and Overtown. On view at 1021 NW Second Ave, Miami, FL. Ongoing with corresponding website at murals.miamimocaad.org.

"Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience" explores the Black Lives Matter Movement, social protests and the struggle for equality. The exhibition includes images and artwork by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sheila Pree Bright, Bisa Butler, Shaun Leonardo, David Hammons and more. Bisa Butler’s, I Go To Prepare A Place For You presents a quilt of multiple bright-colored cotton, silk and velvet fabrics depicting Harriett Tubman seated against a dark floral background majestically gazing down at the viewer. The exhibit offers an augmented-reality experience allowing visitors to use their mobile devices to connect the artwork with other objects and themes in the museum to create an interactive, immersive, digital experience. National Museum of African American History and Culture, 1400 Constitution Ave, NW, Washington, DC Ongoing.

Chakaia Booker: Surface Pressure celebrates work of multimedia artist Chakaia Booker who is renowned for her expert manipulation of unconventional materials. This exhibit presents her signature sculptures composed of recycled tires alongside innovative creations in printmaking and painting. Sarasota Art Museum Ringling College Museum Campus, 1001 South Tamiami Trail Sarasota, FL 34236. Runs through Oct. 29, 2023.

REACH, a collaborative installation, by contemporary artists Hank Willis Thomas and Coby Kennedy, featuring two monumental hands reaching out to each other, has been installed at O’Hare International Airport. The installation is above escalators in the airport’s Multi-Modal Facility. The sculptural commission and installation was organized by the Chicago Department of Aviation and Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and is part of the Expo Chicago fair's program for large-scale and site-specific works.

Artist Kerry James Marshall designed "The Now and Forever Windows" stained-glass windows showing Black Americans holding protest signs bearing the words “Fairness” and “No foul play”, replacing stained-glass windows honoring Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson after a gunman shot and killed nine Black worshippers in Emanuel AME Church (“Mother Emanuel '') in Charleston, SC in 2015. Washington National Cathedral, 3101 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Washington, DC. Permanent installation.