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.

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.

"Entryways: Nontsikelelo Mutiti" is the inaugural project for a new series that commissions artists to activate the façade of ICA’s building in partnership with Maharam, North America’s leading creator of textiles for commercial and residential interiors. For the 2024 edition, ICA invited Nontsikelelo Mutiti, a Zimbabwean-born visual artist and educator, to reimagine the windows. In the resulting work, Mutiti combined African hair braiding patterns and hair clips with symbols often found in ironwork. Mutiti is deeply interested in the cultures and communities that are formed in hair salons globally, and often incorporates braids in her work as markers of identity, migration, and culture. Similarly, the use of symbols in ironwork, particularly Adinkra symbols from West Africa, are present visually almost everywhere these decorative architectural features are found. These forms were first created by enslaved blacksmiths from West Africa and have become a shared diasporic visual language. The designs are now found across the African diaspora including in Philadelphia and the broader United States. In the same way that hair braiders continue the practice of these braiding systems, ironworkers, and now restoration workers, ensure the survival and persistence of these symbols as important cultural markers." -