Category: Art
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Artist a Day Challenge No. 15: Samella Sanders Lewis
Artist and historian Samella Sanders Lewis does not shy away from confrontation. As a child she found her voice through artistic expression and she was staunchly protective of her voice, fighting any force that tried to intimidate her into silence. Her career, particularly her art history education in the 1940’s was fraught with hostility and confrontation, but…
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Artist a Day Challenge No. 14 “Art Is” by Lorraine O’Grady
One day I was sitting in my hair stylist’s studio where she has a small table with a dish of candy on it. A man in the studio, displeased by the offerings in the dish lamented, “Why don’t you have any black candy?”. “Black Candy?” A playful argument ensued, but I found the question absurdly random. Why must…
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Artist a Day Challenge No. 13: Performance Art
Admittedly, one area of conceptual contemporary art that I infrequently explore and struggle to comment on is Performance Art. In 2014 the Walker Art Center curated a performance art exhibition that showcases black artists and their contributions to this unique creative medium. Radical Performance was the first large-scale retrospective of its kind. Curator Valerie Cassel Oliver…
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Artist a Day Challenge No. 10 Basquiat & Golden Boys
In 1983 Basquiat took an extended leave from NYC to live in Los Angeles. Accompanying him was the reclusive, eclectic musician and artist Rammellezee and painter Torrick Ablack (aka Toxic). Basquiat was at the apex of his career at this time and during this trip to Los Angeles he tried to leverage his fame to encourage art world powerhouses to…
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Artist a Day Challenge No. 9: Lorna Simpson
This series of collages by Lorna Simpson of embellished photographs and cutouts from Ebony magazine just beg for a story to be told. These traditional photos with their bold swaths of color that form these beautiful plumes of smoldering smoke look like some type of artistic Rorshach test. Simpson purposefully wants us to draw our own conclusions from her…
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Artist a Day Challenge No. 8 Terry Adkins
Terry Adkins passed away one year ago today. It was clear that during his diverse career he was a creative catalyst for many as a professor and multi-disciplinary artist. I like the way he turns his subjects and concepts on their end by highlighting a little known or under-appreciated aspect of them. In this way he…
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Artist a Day Challenge No.5: Retna
One day, I will crack the code to Retna’s personalized alphabet that is a skillful fusion of Old English, Hebrew, Asian and Arabic calligraphy. In the meantime, I enjoy his work in abstraction. I love the symmetry and repetition in his murals. This particular one was painted for Jeffrey Deitch when he was at MOCA circa 2013.
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Artist a Day Challenge No.4: Elizabeth Catlett
In November I saw “Sharecropper” by Elizabeth Catlett at LACMA. I loved the depiction of the duality of strength and despair shown as byproducts of exploitation in this piece. As a graphic designer and sculptor in the 30’s and 40’s, much of Catlett’s art highlighted African-American and Mexican women as caretakers, patriarchs, workers and nurturers; her work was used as a platform…
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Artist a Day Challenge No.3: Alison Saar
“Spiral Betty” by Alison Saar is such a great piece because I think it cuts to the essence of black women and our relationship with our hair; it is a never-ending journey. For some it is a struggle, for others a mask, and with the renaissance of the natural hair movement, many celebrate it. Our hair journey is…
Colony Little, Culture Shock Art 