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Artist a Day Challenge (24): Mark Bradford’s Homage to the Roxy
I have this mythologized view of New York that I have created entirely from the city’s nightclub scene between 1973 and 1987. The Loft, the Gallery, the Paradise Garage and the Roxy sit at the center of this utopia, with the music in these venues acting as the heartbeat of the city. Notice I didn’t mention Studio 54, because in my…
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Artist of the Day Challenge (23): Devin Allen
In 2015 I watched the events of Baltimore unfold after the death and burial of Freddie Gray through the lens of Devin Allen. His photography captured the bitter pain that sat at the core of the emotional protests against police brutality. Over the years I’ve watched his career flourish; he’s been in numerous shows, has been featured in…
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Artist a Day Challenge (22): Faith Ringgold
While today’s post is a short one, the power in this piece makes up for my brevity. The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles is an homage to strong black women, solidarity and the power of community. The 8 women surrounding a communal quilt of sunflowers are CJ Walker, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Fannie Lou Hammer, Harriet Tubman, Rosa…
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Artist a Day Challenge (21): Kahlil Joseph, Shabazz Palaces and Kelsey Lu present, “Music is My Mistress”
The Kenzo team snuck around and dropped off this video, tip toeing away like it was a secret gift. It’s a visual stunner which comes as no surprise with Kahlil Joseph as director. Music is My Mistress is a short film featuring Jesse Williams as an Easy Rawlins style private eye who’s tracking down a man and his mistress for Tracee Ellis Ross; Kelsey Lu and…
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Artist a Day Challenge (20): Dr. Lowery Stokes Sims
1999 was steeped in Y2K mania. Prince’s 1999 and R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World” made notable musical comebacks and served as the soundtrack for our collective psyche dealing with the pending certainty that the world was hurtling toward a computer programmed apocalypse. The turn of the century came and went without much as much of a blip but that didn’t…
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Artist a Day Challenge (18, 19): Sanford Biggers and Looking to the Past to Question the Present
The other day when I was looking through Jennie C. Jones’ paintings I came across a photo that seemed out of place in relation to her current body of work; what I didn’t realize was that the picture was an important point of departure for the creation of her subsequent work. Homage to an Unknown Suburban Black Girl circa 1969 features a young black woman…
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Artist a Day Challenge (17): Mindfulness and Modernism with Jennie C. Jones
Many years ago I took up the practice of Yoga during three important periods of my life. When I first moved away from home for college, when I moved to Los Angeles 2001 and when I moved out of west L.A. in 2006. The benefits of yoga and meditation were important keys to me adjusting…
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Artist a Day Challenge (16): Genevieve Gaignard at CAAM
It’s easy to compare Genevieve Gaignard’s photographic portraits to artists like Cindy Sherman, but once you walk into Smell the Roses, Gaignard’s immersive three-part installation at CAAM, the experience is very different; she invites you to walk into her portraits. With small-scale furniture and mini appliances fit for a tiny home, Gaignard creates wildly complex backdrops that guide viewers on an emotional journey…
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Artist a Day Challenge (15): James Baldwin
James Baldwin, 1945. Portrait by Richard Avedon. Photo Credit, National Portrait Gallery Yesterday’s post about Dawoud Bey took a close look at his 2013 Birmingham Project, a photographic examination of church bombings and deaths that took place in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963. Bey’s work was an attempt to reconcile the present through an examination…
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Artist a Day Challenge (14): Dawoud Bey
As an eleven year old growing up in Queens, Dawoud Bey came upon a copy of a book published by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee called “The Movement”. With text by Lorraine Hansberry accompanied by photographs from numerous artists, the book captured the pain, political vitriol, emotion and hatred that swirled around Civil Rights workers in the early…
Colony Little, Culture Shock Art 