Black Art Near + Far

Exhibits and Events

This page is dedicated to Black art exhibitions and events, locally, nationally, and internationally.  Come back often to see what's happening! 

South Florida

 Miami, FL

Rembrandt Reframed: Charles Humes, Jr., Jennifer Printz, and Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz

Rembrandt Reframed :Charles Humes, Jr, Jennifer Printz, and Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz presents  the expansive visual art practice of Charles Humes, Jr.   For over fifty-years, the artist has centered Black experiences, racial inequities, historic atrocities and celebrated Black families, Black lives, and daily life experiences.  Currently, the Miami native is experiencing a local renaissance as a featured contemporary artist in the Rembrandt Reframed exhibition at Frost Museum running through  January 8, 2023: Modesto Maidique Campus 10975 SW 17th Street Miami, FL. 33199 , and with solo shows at the Oolite Walgreens Window on Miami Beach: Walgreens Windows, 7340 Collins Ave Miami Beach - Miami, FL, USA 33141 that runs through November 13, 2023, and at the Center for Global Black Studies at the University of Miami:Merrick Building, Room 305 5202 University Drive Coral Gables, FL 33146, which runs through  May 1, 2023.

Miami MoCAAD: OVERtown: Our Family Tree

OVERtown: Our Family Tree is part of a mural series, 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 Museum of Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora (Miami MoCAAD) and curated by Donnamarie Baptiste. The mural, created by Miami-based artist Anthony “Mojo” Reed II,  honors 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.

Courtesy of Miami MoCAAD

Coral Gables, FL

The World As I know It; Recent Works by Edouard Duval Carrié

The World As I know It; Recent Works by Edouard Duval Carrie gathers over twenty-five mixed-media engravings and one large-format sculpture by Haitian-American artist Edouard Duval-Carrie. Works are filled with references to Caribbean history and literature, as well as to its popular religions and culture. The Haitian Revolution and other historical passages; the popular stories of the Loas or saints in the Vodou belief; slavery and the life and myths of symbolic characters such as Haitian slave Ti Noel, the central figure of author Alejo Carpentier´s novel, The Kingdom of this World, are recurrent themes. Coral Gables Museum, 285 Aragon Avenue, Coral Gables. Runs through Jan. 29, 2023

Edouard Duval-Carrié

Charles White: A Little Higher

Charles White: A Little Higher is a solo presentation that features nearly fifty works by Chicago-born artist Charles White (1918–79), all drawn from the Primas Family Collection. Best remembered for meticulously rendered drawings and paintings of his fellow African Americans, White's “images of dignity” invite us to contemplate his subjects' humanity, self-worth, and agency while also acknowledging the nefarious effects of systemic racism. Lowe Art Museum 1301 Stanford Drive, Coral Gables, FL 33124. Runs November 10, 2022 – February 26, 2023

Charles White

Miami Beach, FL

​Rosie’s Fare: Germane Barnes

Germane Barne’s “Rosie’s Fare” explores black identity and spaces in America by constructing a non-traditional kitchen in the gallery. Barnes’ kitchen space will be paired with audio interviews from Puerto Rican, Jamaican and Haitian families in Miami, on the role the kitchen has played in their lives. Barnes sees the exhibition as a way to pay tribute to his grandmother and celebrate Black tradition and contributions to American cuisine that are often removed or ignored. Oolite Arts: 928 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, FL 33139. Runs through December 11, 2022.

Germane Barnes. Photo © Blair Reid

North Miami, FL

Art on the Plaza: Chire “VantaBlack” Regans’ “To What Lengths”

 VantaBlack’s “To What Lengths,” will showcase a key component to her artistic practice by reflecting on legacy building and preservation as foundational to Black culture and other diasporic peoples. VantaBlack will explore how ideas about legacy are woven into everyday actions by activating five palm trees on the MOCA Plaza with large-scale braids, adorned with beads, metal, and artificial sunflowers and gardenias. The braids of each tree will follow stylings representative of the women in VantaBlack’s family. At the base of each tree will be a round mat with cushions for seating, inviting viewers to engage with the work while looking up. MOCA-North Miami, 770 NE 125th St., North Miami. Runs through Jan. 20, 2023.

Didier William: Nou Kite Tout Sa Dèyè ​

Didier William: Nou Kite Tout Sa Dèyè  is the largest retrospective of Didier William’s career. Translated as “We’ve Left That All Behind,” the show presents an in-depth look at the North Miami-raised artist’s career and memory among the very neighborhood where he once grew up. Curated by Erica Moiah James, Ph.D, the exhibition will feature over forty works spanning multiple mediums, and including some of his newest paintings. Complementing the painted work, and speaking to the close relationship of painting and printmaking in William’s practice, are new drawings and artist books. The show also includes William’s first monumental sculpture: a 12-ft.-tall wooden body emblematic of a religious column present in Haitian worship rituals. On December 2, 2022 Didier William's will be in conversation with Kymberly Pinder, Dean of the Yale School of Art as well he'll be in conversation with curator Erica Moiah James, Ph.D on December 3, 2022 at MOCA-North Miami, 770 NE 125th St., North Miami. Runs through April 16, 2023.

Didier William

Leah Gordon: Kanaval

 Kanaval (Opening November 9, 2022), a retrospective by photographer, filmmaker, curator, collector and writer Leah Gordon that documents twenty years of Carnival in Haiti. Curated by MOCA Curator Adeze Wilford, the exhibition consists of a series of black-and-white photographs taken on a mechanical medium format camera. The images are contextualized by a series of oral histories related by the leaders of various troupes who oversee the design of the costume and generate the narratives surrounding Carnival. Their stories reflect the wealth of invention, fable, and self-generated mythology prevalent in much of Haitian culture. MOCA-North Miami, 770 NE 125th St., North Miami. Runs through Nov 9, 2022 - April 16, 2023.

Leah Gordon

Arlington, VA

Cast/Recast

Mason Exhibitions is honored to present Cast/Recast, a group exhibition of photography, video, sculpture, painting, site-specific installation, and live performative work for select programs. Curated by Alissa Maru in collaboration with Hannah Barco and Sue Wrbican. Cast/Recast fills the gallery at Mason Exhibitions with installations, sculptures, altars, manifestos, performance documentation, paintings, photographs, wallpaper, a soundtrack, and a portal. Participating artists include: Rahne Alexander, Laure Drogoul, Cheryl Edwards, Heloisa Escudero, Maggie Gourlay, Mira Hecht, Kay Hwang, Veronica Jackson,  Jessica Kallista, Maria Karametou, Isabel Manalo, Ceci Cole McInturff, Meeting Ground (Susan Main and MJ Neuberger), Zia Palmer, Judith Pratt, Lisa Rosenstein, Nicole Salimbene, Asha Santee, Katherine Thompson, Jessica Valoris, and Naoko Wowsugi. Mason Exhibitions: Arlington 3601 Fairfax Dr, Arlington, VA 2220. Runs through December 3, 2022.

Bentonville, AR

We the People: The Radical Notion of Democracy

We the People: The Radical Notion of Democracy presents a rare opportunity to view one of the 12 known original copies of the United States Constitution. This free exhibition is displayed with conversation on the diverse American perspectives on the nation’s founding principles and themes of equality, freedom, and justice. The exhibit features works by John Mathies, Jacob Lawrence and Gordon Parks among others. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art 600 Museum Way, Bentonville, AR.  Runs through January 2, 2023

Jacob Lawrence, . . . is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?—Patrick Henry, 1775 , Panel 1, 1955, from Struggle: From the History of the American People, 1954–56, egg tempera on hardboard. Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © 2022 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Boston, MA

Touching Roots Black Ancestral Legacies in the Americas

Touching Roots Black Ancestral Legacies​ in the Americas exhibit focuses on artworks that derive from rich legacies of the African Continent. The exhibition brings to the forefront artists from the Americas, including Allan Rohan Crite, Napoleon Jones-Henderson, Ifé Franklin, Bryan McFarlane, Karen Hampton, and Stephen Hamilton.  Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Avenue of the Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA.  Runs through May 21, 2023.

John Wilson, maquette for Eternal Presence, modeled 1985, cast 1998 Bronze. William Francis Warden Fund. © John Wilson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Cambridge, MA

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

El Pasado Mio/My Own Past: Afrodescendant Contributions to Cuban Art is an exhibition that looks to reconstruct the traditional lens viewed of Cuban art and focus on its African heritage and their descendants whose contributions are seldom acknowledged, identified, attributed, and studied. The exhibition features 43 artists born  1700s to 1980s,  including Vincente Escobar y Flores; Roberto Diago Querol;  Choco (Eduardo Roca Salazar); Belkis Ayon; and Carlos Martiel.  The Harvard Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, 102 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge MA.  Runs through December 23, 2022.  

Davis, CA

Young, Gifted, and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi
​ Family Collection of Contemporary Art

Young, Gifted, and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art, curated by Antwaun Sargent and Matt Wycoff, highlights the emerging generation of black artists, including ​​LaToya Ruby Frazier, Jordan Casteel, Chiffon Thomas. Paul Mpagi Sepuya, and D'Angelo Lovell Williams. Manetti Shrem Museum, 254 Old Davis Rd, Davis, CA. Runs through December 19, 2022.

Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Blue Dancer, 2017. Oil on canvas. 68 x 54 in. © Tunji Adeniyi-Jones.

Duluth, MN

There Is a Woman in Every Color

There Is a Woman in Every Color explores various representations of Black women over the past two centuries. The exhibit brings together over forty works of art that show their presence in American art history and overcomes the historical marginalization they faced. Currently on view at the Tweed Museum of Art – University of Minnesota, Duluth, 1049 University Drive Duluth, MN.  Runs through December 18, 2022

© 2022 Mickalene Thomas / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

“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  depicts 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

New York, NY

Tropical Is Political: Caribbean Art Under the Visitor Economy Regime

​Tropical Is Political: Caribbean Art Under the Visitor Economy Regime explores  intertwined dualities of  natural and fiscal paradise and the geographical coincidence of these concepts within the Caribbean region where tourism and finance form the “visitor economy regime.” Tropical is Political features works by 19 contemporary artists from the Caribbean and its diasporas, including Allora & Calzadilla, Sofía Gallisá Muriente, Gwladys Gambie, Abigail Hadeed, Joiri Minaya, José Morbán, , Oneika Russell,Through video, installation, painting, and sculpture, the exhibition underlines the effects of tourism and finance on subjects including economic policy, self-image, and artistic production. Americas Society's Gallery, 680 Park Avenue New York, NY.  Runs through December 17, 2022

Xaviera Simmons: Crisis Makes a Book Club

Crisis Makes a Book Club is a comprehensive presentation  of Xaviera Simmons’ practice including photography, painting, video, sculpture, and installation. Featuring new monumental projects, Simmons examines how conditions of the United States’ empire and the art industry are shaped by the construction of whiteness, labor politics, and institutional failures that are both intentional and deep-rooted. Queens Museum, New York City Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, Runs through March 5, 2023.

Courtesy of Xaviera Simmons

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. The exhibit is 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, Every one, 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

Norfolk, VA

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.The Mbari Artists & Writers Club was an artistic organization of Nigerian-based artists, writers, and dramatists promoting modern African and international artistic practice with  galleries in Lagos, Ibadan and Osogbo, Nigeria, presenting the work of Jacob Lawrence, 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. Chrysler Museum of Art, One Memorial Place, Norfolk, Virginia 23510. Runs through January 8, 2023.  The exhibit continues: New Orleans Museum of Art February 10–May 7, 2023, Toledo Museum of Art June 3–September 3, 2023

Jacob Lawrence

San Francisco, CA

Faith Ringgold: American People

Faith Ringgold: American People showcases fifty years of work. This is the most comprehensive exhibition to date of Faith Ringgold’s groundbreaking vision. The works span across Ringgold’s most notable series and follows her evolutionary works in her figurative style as it evolved to meet the socio-political demands of her time. de Young Museum: Golden Gate Park. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, CA. Runs through November 27, 2022.  ​

Faith Ringgold

​Washington, DC

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 March 26, 2023, then travels to Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BD, Runs from 17 March 2023 — 18 June 2023.

International 

London, UK
​

EUGENE PALMER: STANDING STILL

Ed Cross Gallery presents Standing Still, an exhibition of new work by Jamaican-born British artist Eugene Palmer. Sourcing images from life, pop culture and beyond, Palmer begins with a photograph before passing it through his painterly filter; figuring his own family as a repository of cultural history and memory, archival images and family photographs have been at the core of his practice since the 1980s.ED Cross Gallery, 19 Garrett Street, London EC1Y 0TY 1716 December 16, 2022.

Eugene Palmer Self Portrait with Grandchild (Rory), 2021 Oil on canvas

THE NEW BLACK VANGUARD: PHOTOGRAPHY BETWEEN ART AND FASHION

The New Black Vanguard features 15 international Black photographers contributing to a new vision of the Black figure and reframing representation in art and fashion. This exhibition celebrates Black creativity in-front of and behind the camera, featuring works of stylists, models, make-up artists and creative directors who are bringing a radically new set of references and experiences to image making. Antwaun Sargent, curator, explores a new aesthetic of Black portraiture while examining the cross-pollination between art, fashion and culture in the making of images. Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York's HQ, King's Rd, London SW3 4RY, United Kingdom. Runs through January 22, 2023.

Africa Fashion

Africa Fashion, the largest ever exhibition on African Fashion, takes visitors on an iconic tour of fashion from the mid-20th century to current contemporary trends. The exhibit showcases fashion through photographs, textiles, music and visual arts. Africa Fashion implores the viewer to see fashion as a global phenomenon viewed through lens that are as diverse as the African continent. Victoria & Albert Museum South Kensington, Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL, United Kingdom.  Runs through April 16, 2023.

Mbeuk Idourrou collection, Imane Ayissi, Autumn/Winter 2019, Paris, France. Photo: Fabrice Malard / Courtesy of Imane Ayissi

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  March 17, 2023 — June 18, 2023.