Category: black history
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Octavia E. Butler: Telling My Stories
When artists leave us too soon we are reminded of their greatness in the items they left behind. Musicians have libraries of unreleased tracks or compositions, photographers leave behind negatives, contact sheets and undeveloped film, painters have hidden canvases or incomplete work and writers leave behind their words—ideas that weren’t fully developed, concepts that never came to…
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Talking Heads: Jimmie Durham & Wangechi Mutu
I recently encountered two similar works of art, one in L.A. and the other online: the first is by an artist with a 40+ year career who has self selected out of the U.S. art scene for over 2 decades and the second is from a Kenyan born artist with a Brooklyn based practice…
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Artist a Day Challenge, 2017 Finale (28): Augusta Savage
As we close out Black History Month and usher in Women’s History Month, today’s post on Augusta Savage made sense for a number of reasons — the most important being that today is the artist’s birthday. Born on a leap year 125 years ago, Augusta Savage’s life story still resonates and her career exemplifies an unyielding determination to her art and a strong dedication to her…
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Artist a Day Challenge (27): Kerry James Marshall
As I near the end of my Artist a Day Challenge for Black History Month, I bring you to the very first name on my list of artists to feature this year, and that is Kerry James Marshall. Mastry, Marshall’s critically acclaimed and highly anticipated retrospective is finally coming to MOCA Los Angeles in March after its two successful runs…
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Artist of the Day Challenge (26): Henry Taylor
Upon graduating from Cal Arts in the mid 90’s, Los Angeles artist Henry Taylor has cultivated a career as a portrait artist who uses his medium to connect with his subjects. That familiarity shows through in his work as most of his portraits come from impromptu encounters with the people who find themselves in his orbit: family, friends andhomeless people in…
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Artist of the Day Challenge (25):Kevin Beasley
I’m currently writing a separate piece on Kevin Beasley’s current installation at the Hammer Museum, but I thought I would highlight him in my artist a day challenge as well. Artists that incorporate sound into their work interest me these days because they activate their environments in an entirely new way. Some of Beasley’s ghost like…
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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 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…
Colony Little, Culture Shock Art 