Black Art Near + Far

Exhibits and Events

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Black Art Near + Far 
​Lists art exhibitions locally, nationally, and internationally.  

This edition features exhibits in Atlanta (Harmonia Rosales), Cape Town (Mary Evans), Chicago (Hank Willis Thomas, Coby Kennedy), London (Windrush Generation),  Miami (Lonnie Holley),  New York ( Tracy Rose, Kandy Lopez), São Paulo (Fundação Bienal )  ​and more.  
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Scroll down to find artists and exhibitions that interest you. 
​Come back often to see what's happening! 
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South Florida

Longshoremen Local 1416 ​

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.

Reginald O'Neal, Longshoremen Local 1416, ​Courtesy Miami MoCAAD

Miami MoCAAD: OVERtown: Our Family Tree

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.

Mojo, OVERtown: Our Family Tree, Courtesy Miami MoCAAD

Atlanta, GA

Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative

Master Narrative presents twenty paintings and a large-scale sculptural installation by the Los Angeles-based Afro-Cuban American artist, Harmonia Rosales, who entwines tales and characters of the Yorùbá religion, Greco-Roman mythology and Christianity with canonical works and artistic techniques of European Old Masters. Rosales highlights the beauty and strength of Black people, particularly women, while touching upon narratives of creation, tragedy, survival and transcendence. Spelman College Museum of Fine Art 350 Spelman Ln. SW, Atlanta, GA. Runs through Dec. 2, 2023. ​

Harmonia Rosales

Chicago, IL

REACH

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. Chicago O'hare Airport 10000 W Balmoral Ave, Chicago, IL 60666. On-going. ​

Left to Right: Hank Willis Thomas, Coby Kennedy

New York, NY

Norman Lewis: Give Me Wings To Fly

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 through Nov. 4, 2023

Norman Lewis, © Peter A. Juley & Son Collection, Smithsonian American Art Museum J0001863

Michael Richards: Are You Down?

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. ​

Michael Richards

Barkley L. Hendricks: Portraits at the Frick

Hendricks: Portraits at the Frick celebrates the remarkable work of Barkley L. Hendricks with an unprecedented display of paintings drawn from private and public collections.  Hendricks (1945–2017) revolutionized contemporary portraiture with his vivid depictions of Black subjects that emphasize the dignity and individuality of his sitters. The Frick Collection, Frick Madison, 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street New York,. Runs through Jan. 7, 2024

Barkley L. Hendricks

The African Origin of Civilization ​

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.   Ongoing.

​Tiona Nekkia McClodden’s 
​The Brad Johnson Tape, X – On Subjugation

Tiona Nekkia McClodden’s The Brad Johnson Tape, X – On Subjugation beacons Brad Johnson (American, 1952–2011), a Black gay poet whose “embrace of violence, sex, cruising, and, more importantly, his investment in love” shaped his work.   Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, Manhattan, The David Geffen Wing. Ongoing.

Tiona Nekkia McClodden at Brooklyn Museum during Black Lunch Table's Wikipedia Editathon for We Wanted A Revolution: Black Radical Women 1965-85 with guest photographer Noelle Théard

​Everyone

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

Nick Cave

Philadelphia, PA

Sit A Spell at The Colored Girls Museum

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.

Gina Giles - Fan Mask #2

​Washington, DC

The Now and Forever Windows

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. ​

Kerry James Marshall Rachel Murray/Getty Images for MOCA

​“Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.”

 Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience explores the Black Lives Matter Movement, social protests and the struggle for equality. 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. ​

Bisa Butler, Harriet Tubman

International 

Cape Town, South Africa

MARY EVANS: ‘GILT’

.GILT is a solo exhibition presenting art by Nigerian-born, British artist Mary Evans. The title of the exhibition is a play on the words ‘gilt’ and ‘guilt’.  She assembles many silhouetted figures in a narrative form, which she calls ‘history paintings’. The large-scale works act as a type of  coded visual language that counters difficult Black histories. The figures function as a familiar device to provide viewers with an entryway into the artist’s work. Zeitz MOCAA Silo District, V&A Waterfront, South Arm Road, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa.  Runs through Nov. 19, 2023.

Mary Evans, May 2023 Photo: Christa Holka

UNATHI MKONTO: ‘TO LET’

‘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.

Unathi Mkonto

PAST DISQUIET

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.  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.

London, UK
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WINDRUSH: PORTRAITS OF A PIONEERING GENERATION

The Windrush generation is being celebrated in a series of ten new portraits that will go on public display for the first time at Edinburgh’s Royal Palace. The portraits were commissioned by His Majesty The King. The portraits were created by Black artists personally selected by His Majesty The King Charles.  National Portrait Gallery St. Martin's Place London, WC2H 0HE.  Runs through Mar. 2024.

Edna Henry, painted by Amy Sherald.

A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography

​A World in Common showcases the work of numerous photographers across various generations. Their images reimagine narratives of the diaspora from the perspective of the artist as they explore themes of spirituality, identity, urbanism and climate emergency.  Tate Modern Bankside London SE1 9T.   Runs through Jan. 14, 2024

Aida Muluneh Water Life Series, Star Shine, Moon Glow 2018 commissioned by WaterAid and supported by the H&M Foundation © Aida Muluneh

São Paulo, SP, Brasil

The Biennale Architettura 2023

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.

35th Bienal de São Paulo – choreographies of the impossible

35th Bienal de São Paulo – choreographies of the impossible, showcases the work of 121 artists and over 1,100 works. Moving away from traditional norms this exhibition aims to cover all art forms and perspectives from across the world.  Throughout its run, the exhibition in addition to the works will have performances, panels, a catalog and an audio guide. Curated by Diane Lima, Grada Kilomba, Hélio Menezes, and Manuel Borja-Villel. Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, Ibirapuera Park – Gate 3, Passarela Ciccillo Matarazzo, Sao Paulo, State of Sao Paulo 04094-010 Brazil. Running through Dec. 10, 2023.

Torkwase Dyson at the 35th Bienal de São Paulo – choreographies of the impossible © Levi Fanan