Black Art Near + Far

Exhibits and Events

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

This edition features exhibits in Amsterdam (Ernest Cole), London (Black Artists From the American South),  Los Angeles (​Myrlande Constant),  Miami (Lonnie Holley),  New York (Wangechi Mutu),  New Orleans (Jacob Lawrence),  Paris (Faith Ringgold), Richmond, VA​( Isaac Julien),  Sharjah, UAE (Sharjah Biennial 15,  Okwui Enwezor), ​
Washington, DC (Bisa Butler, Amy Sherald), and more.  

Scroll down to find artists and exhibitions that interest you. 
​Come back often to see what's happening! 
​

South Florida

Genius Species

Genius Species explores the impact of Black womanhood. Influenced by figures from Toni Morrison to Nicki Minaj, the exhibition considers race, gender, and religion through the use of playful art. The exhibition features works by Christina Edwards, Grace Hampton, and more. Ten North Group f/k/a OLCDC, The ARC (Arts & Recreation Center), 675 Ali Baba Ave, Opa Locka. Runs through MAY., 31, 2023. ​

Ciara Newton, Redbone Swag, 2016

Lonnie Holley: If You Really Knew

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. Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami  770 NE 125th Street, North Miami, FL.
Runs May 10 through OCT., 1, 2023.

Photograph By Allen Chen / SLH STUDIO

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

Black American Portraits at Spelman College Museum of Fine Art

Black American Portraits travels to Atlanta’s Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, and reframes portraiture to center Black American subjects, this time placing Black women portrait artists center stage. A new painting by Calida Rawles, who celebrates her 25th anniversary as a Spelman College alumna this year, and a photograph of Spelman Alumna Stacey Abrams by Sheila Pree Bright join the collection. 350 Spelman Ln SW, Atlanta, GA.  Runs through JUN., 30, 2023.

Cambridge, MA

El Pasado Mio / My Own Past: Afrodescendant Contributions to Cuban Art

​El Pasado Mio / My Own Past: Afrodescendant Contributions to Cuban Art considers Cuban art through the lens of African influence. The exhibition features art and visual output from the nineteenth century to the present, highlighting African cultural influences on Cuba. The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, 102 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, The Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, Harvard University. Runs through JUN., 9, 2023.

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Los Angeles, CA

Myrlande Constant: The Work of Radiance

The Work of Radiance is a retrospective presenting the groundbreaking 30-year-long career of Myrlande Constant, an artist renowned for her monumental, hand-beaded textiles. The first U.S. museum exhibition devoted to the work of a Haitian female contemporary artist, the presentation and its accompanying publication trace the evolution of Constant’s artistic vision, innovative techniques, and impact on art-making in Haiti and the contemporary art world. Runs through JUL., 16, 2023 Fowler Museum, 308 Charles E Young Dr., N Los Angeles, CA.

​Myrlande Constant

Afro-Atlantic Histories

Afro-Atlantic Histories  is an exhibition charting the transatlantic slave trade and its legacies in the African Diaspora.  The exhibition features paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, photographs, time-based media, and ephemera including historical paintings by Frans Post and Édouard Antoine Renard to contemporary works by Kerry James Marshall, Alison Saar, Hank Willis Thomas, Kara Walker, and more. LACMA 5905 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA. Runs through SEP., 10, 2023.

Left to right: Allison Saar, Nolwen Cifuentes for The New York Times; Kerry James Marshall, 2006

New York, NY

Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined

Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined will feature over one-hundred works by Kenyan-born artist, Wangechi Mutu. Emphasizing the progression of Mutu’s process, Intertwined aims to provide a narrative to the artist’s personal experiences and Kenyan roots and its relationship to her art. A major solo exhibition, this will be a survey of Mutu’s multimedia approach to representing complex themes ranging from colonialism to Afrofuturism. New Museum, 235 Bowery, New York, NY.  Runs through JUN., 4, 2023.

Wangechi Mutu

The Roof Garden Commission: Lauren Halsey

The Roof Garden Commission: Lauren Halsey, the artist and activist Lauren Halsey installed 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

Lauren Halsey Photograph By Allen Chen / SLH STUDIO

Listen Until You Hear ​

Listen Until You Hear invites audiences to approach photography, film, sculpture and performance on display, with curiosity and intentional awareness. Each of the exhibiting artists explores the idea of deep listening as healing with work that is deeply personal, political, and imaginative through a variety of media.. The artists include Hank Willis Thomas, Cassils, Maia Ruth Lee, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Eric Gottesman and Kameelah Janan Rasheed. All from diverse backgrounds. Fotografiska Museum, 281 Park Ave S, New York, NY. Runs through OCT., 22, 2023. ​

Eric Gottesman - The Encounter (2023)

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

Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter: “ Ain’t I a Woman”

Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter: “Ain’t I a Woman” showcases film and photographic work to discuss reproductive injustices that many Black women and girls face in the United States. Baxter references her own experiences and exploitative photographic works of Thomas Eakins to investigate inequalities in representation that many Black people face. Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY. Runs through AUG., 13, 2023.

Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter

New Orleans, LA

Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club

Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club explores connections between African American artist Jacob Lawrence and his contemporaries based in the Global South through the Nigerian journal Black Orpheus. The exhibit  features over 125 objects, including Lawrence’s little-known 1964–65 Nigeria series and also presents the work William H. Johnson, Ibrahim El-Salahi, Uche Okeke, Malangantana Ngwenya, Jacob Afolabi, Colette Oluwabamise Omogbai, Francis Newton Souza, Twins Seven-Seven, Wilson Tibério, Genaro de Carvalho, Agnaldo Manoel dos Santos, Susanne Wenger, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Demas Nwoko, and Avinash Chandra, among others. New Orleans Museum of Art.  Runs through MAY., 7, 2023.  Then at Toledo Museum of Art JUN., 3–SEP., 3, 2023.

Jacob Lawrence

Philadelphia, PA

Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America

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 8 OCT., 2023.

Alison Saar, “Hygiea” (2020)

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

Richmond, VA

Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour—Frederick Douglass 

Lessons of the Hour—Frederick Douglass is an immersive, poetic exhibition surrounding the great 19th-century abolitionist. In this resonating art experience of enthralling visuals and sound, internationally renowned London-born artist and filmmaker Sir Isaac Julien brings the integral historical figure to focus for all. 200 N. Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Arthur Ashe Boulevard Richmond, VA 23220. Runs through JUL., 9, 2023.

Isaac Julien, 2017, courtesy of the Barnes Foundation. Photo credit: Thierry Bal.

​Washington, DC

​“Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.”

 Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience explores the Black Lives Matter Movement, social protests and the struggle for equality.  Amy Sherald’s portrait of Breonna Taylor in a magnificent  blue flowing gown stands regally as the sole artwork in a gallery room.  The Breona Taylor portrait, which first appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair’s September 2020 issue, is buttressed by 27 newly exhibited 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. ​

On loan from Amy Sherald, © Amy Sherald, Breonna Taylor

Bisa Butler, Harriet Tubman

Called to Create: Black Artists of the American South

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.

Missouri Pettway, 1900 – 1981, "Path through the Woods",

International 

Cape Town, South Africa

Freedom is Going Home: Faith Ringgold & Hank Willis Thomas

Freedom is Going Home presents an intergenerational dialogue between Faith Ringgold and Hank Willis Thomas. The exhibition showcases new work by Thomas responding to Ringgold’s iconic story quilts, paintings and posters and marks the first time these artists engage in a dual presentation. Drawing on both artists’ exploratory approach to their mediums and pulling together visual references between the US and multiple African countries, the show speaks to their commitment to articulating Black stories and the desire for liberation across geographies. Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, 37A Somerset Rd, Green Point, Cape Town, 8051, South Africa. Runs through JUN., 2023.

Left to Right: Hank Willis Thomas, Faith Ringgold

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Ernest Cole House of Bondage

Ernest Cole House of Bondage is a large-scale overview of the work of South African Ernest Cole who photographed the lives of Black South Africans under apartheid: a regime of institutionalized racial segregation that lasted from 1948 to the early 1990s. This exhibition shows the rediscovery of 60,000 negatives and contact prints in the vault of a Swedish bank in 2017. Foam Keizersgracht 609, 1017 DS Amsterdam, Netherlands. Runs through JUN., 14, 2023.

Ernest Cole

London, UK
​

Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers:
​Black Artists from the American South

Souls Grown Deep Like the Rivers: Black Artists from the American South brings together sculpture, paintings, reliefs, drawings, and quilts, most of which will be seen in the UK and Europe for the first time. It will also feature the celebrated quiltmakers of Gee’s Bend, Alabama and the neighboring communities of Rehoboth and Alberta. Artists featured include Thornton Dial, Lonnie Holley, Ronald Lockett, Hawkins Bolden, Bessie Harvey, Charles Williams, Mary T. Smith, Purvis Young, Mose Tolliver, Nellie Mae Rowe, Mary Lee Bendolph, Marlene Bennett Jones, Martha Jane Pettway, Loretta Pettway, and Henry and Georgia Speller.  Working in near isolation from established practices, they have created masterpieces that articulate America’s painful past – the inhuman practice of enslavement, the cruel segregationist policies of the Jim Crow era, and institutionalized racism. Souls Grown Deep Like the Rivers. Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BD.  Runs  MAR., 17, 2023 — JUN., 18, 2023.

Thornton Dial, Stars of Everything, 2004.

Eric Gyamfi: Fixing Shadows - Julius and I

Eric Gyamfi: Fixing Shadows - Julius and I presents monochromatic photographs functioning as an homage to African American composer, Julius Eastman. Gyamfi aims to emphasize the importance of photography and its role in altering histories and legacies. Autograph, Rivington Place, London EC2A 3BA, UK. Runs through SEP., 2, 2023.

Eric Gyamfi

Paris, France

Zohra Opoku: I Have Arisen…Part 2

Zohra Opoku: I Have Arisen…Part 2 is a continuation of Opoku’s debut show, The Myths of Eternal Life, that took place in Chicago in 2022. Taking inspiration from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Opoku connects the past and the present. This  multimedia exhibition brings together ancient histories and contemporary practices, emphasizing the importance of resistance in cultural production. Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, 18 Avenue Matignon, 75008 Paris, France. Runs through JUN., 3, 2023. ​

Zohra Opoku

FAITH RINGGOLD:  BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL

Faith Ringgold is a major figure in American feminist art. This exhibition is the first to bring together, in France, a group of major works by Faith Ringgold. Her work links the rich heritage of the Harlem Renaissance to current art of young Black American artists. Through her rereadings of modern art history, she engages in a critical dialogue with the Parisian art scene of the early 20th century, particularly with Picasso and his "Demoiselles d’Avignon".  Musée National Picasso-Paris 5 rue de Thorigny 75003 Paris, France.  Runs through JUL., 2, 2023.

Faith Ringgold © DailyMail/Solo Syndication

L'Appel de la Lumière (The Call of the Light)

L'Appel de la Lumière (The Call of the Light) presents paintings, assemblages, and works on paper by Mildred Thompson (1936-2003) who lived and worked in Germany and France from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. this exhibition celebrates Thompson’s representations of light and energy, utilizing modernist visual language to interpret natural and cosmic phenomena and charting early influences from her time living and working in Paris in the mid-1980s to later works created upon her return to the United States. Galerie Lelong & Co. Paris, 13 rue de Téhéran, Paris. Runs through JUL., 13, 2023. ​

©ESTATE OF MILDRED THOMPSON/COURTESY GALERIE LELONG & CO., NEW YORK

Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present

Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present features over 300 pieces by more than 150 artists. Curated by Hoor Al Qasimi, the exhibition draws on the work of the late Okwui Enwezor, a curator who reimagined the contemporary art space. The biennial connects the city of Sharjah to discourses touching on concepts of postcolonialism, race, and modernity, emphasizing the convergence between the past and present. Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah, UAE. Runs through JUN., 11, 2023. ​

Okwui Enwezor. Photo: Joerg Koch/Getty Images.