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Artist a Day: Njideka Akunyili Crosby
From the L.A. Times: “Njideka is an artist who has the capacity to really bring together worlds that may not stand in unison. Which is to say the continental African experience and that of black folks living in diaspora,” says Jamillah James, curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. In 2015, when James…
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Artist a Day: Jamel Shabazz
Before Rap Squats became a meme, any musical artist coming out of the 1980’s had to have a perfect album cover pose, and Jamel Shabazz’s photography captured the look. His portraits not only gave us a contemplative look at Brooklyn in the 1980’s and 1990’s, his ability to connect to his…
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Artist a Day: Purvis Young
In light of the recent Town Halls and discussions taking place between our youth and our anemic leadership on gun control, I am inspired by this particular moment that they have seized. Their work taps into a long legacy of youth advocates selflessly serving as catalysts for change. While we applaud these current efforts to…
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Artist a Day: Alexandra Bell
“Words work as release–well-oiled doors opening and closing between intention, gesture. A pulse in a neck, the shiftiness of the hands, an unconscious blink, the conversations you have with your eyes translate everything and nothing. What will be needed, what goes unfelt, unsaid-what has been duplicated, redacted here, redacted there, altered to hide or disguise—words…
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Artist a Day: Lubaina Himid
In many ways, Lubaina Himid’s art has helped me synthesize my thoughts and observations on London after my extended visit there this month. She’s been creating art for over 35 years and was recently awarded the Turner Prize by the Tate in 2017. As both the oldest recipient and the first black woman to receive…
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Artist a Day: Lezley Saar
“Cabinets of Curiosities” are small collections of ephemera curated by antiquarians and naturalists who used objects “to tell stories about the wonders and oddities of the natural world.” These collections of skulls, specimens, botanical sketches, and other flights of fancy were popularized during the 19th-century Victorian era and were displayed in small spaces…
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Artist a Day: David Hammons
It’s NBA All-Star Weekend here in L.A. (cue my extended eye roll) Much like my Superbowl post, this is as close to basketball as I want to get. Here are two examples of Hammons’ basketball drawings created from a charcoal covered basketball that’s repeatedly bounced on a sheet of clean…
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Artist a Day: Ruth E. Carter
I saw Black Panther today and just had to carve out some space here for stellar costume design. Ruth E. Carter’s career spans three decades with over 40 film credits under her belt including School Daze, Malcolm X, Crooklyn, What’s Love Got to Do With It and Selma. Her Afrofuturistic take on the regal, royal robes…
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Artist a Day: Khadija Saye
I spent some time in London recently and while there I wondered if the U.K. celebrates Black History Month-it turns out they do in October! My Artist a Day profiles have never been limited to U.S. artists so, in light of my recent travels, I thought I would highlight an artist whose life was tragically cut…
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Artist a Day: Lorraine Hansberry
In 1957, a 27-year-old Lorraine Hansberry was busy writing a play when out of sheer exhaustion and frustration she threw the manuscript into the trash. Two years later that discarded text became a theatrical hit when a Raisin in the Sun premiered on Broadway in 1959 and paved the way for Hansberry’s highly decorated career as…
Colony Little, Culture Shock Art 