Category: black history
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Radical Women Take Center Stage in Two Important L.A. Exhibitions
Two exhibitions at the Hammer Museum and CAAM in Los Angeles have taught me one important thing: radical women get things done. If you silence them, they find a way to speak, if you hide them, they will be seen, and if you ignore their work, they will make their presence known. History has an…
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Artists Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley to Paint Obama Portraits
It’s a good week for contemporary artists of color. While the MacArthur Fellowship announcements kept me buoyed all week, the news that the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery announcement was extra special. Michelle and Barack Obama have chosen Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley to paint their respective portraits which will be debuted by…
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Poems and Portraits: Revealing and Reclaiming Blackness in Western Art
The cover of Robin Coste Lewis’ book, Voyage of the Sable Venus features a Harlem Renaissance era photo of a slim black woman standing on a sidewalk deep in thought. With one hand resting on her hip and the other cradling her chin, the woman is pondering what lies behind the glass window in front…
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Kerry James Marshall’s Mastry Examines the Power of the Image
In 2008, artist Kerry James Marshall was the subject of an oral history interview with the Smithsonian Institute where he recalled his childhood memory of the Watts riots of 1965. He remembered hearing sirens and seeing smoke, miles away coming from where he used to live in Nickerson Gardens. Over the course of the afternoon…
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Last Call! Signifying Form at the Landing Gallery
To signify means, “to make a sign or signal”. In a NYT book review penned by professor John Wideman in 1988, the writer explains how the practice of “signifying” assumes a more nuanced connotation within the black community. “In black vernacular, Signifying is a sign that words cannot be trusted, that even the most literal utterance…
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National Pink Day, Through Art
So today is National Pink Day and everyone is busy sharing pictures of their best selves donning pink clothes and drinking frosé (I had no idea frozen rosé was a thing until last week). But for me, the first thing I thought of was James Turrell’s Breathing Light which just wrapped its legendary 5 year…
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A Word on Juneteenth
Today’s Instagram Post on @cultureshockart “Juneteenth is a day of mixed emotions for me. A wise, dear friend says this is a reminder of how close joy and grief are often connected. The joy comes from thinking of the beautiful history of my family today and the grief is tied to the complexities in knowing…
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Extreme Times Call for Extreme Heroines: Betye Saar at the Craft & Folk Art Museum
Wall color plays a specific role in Betye Saar’s latest exhibit at the Craft and Folk Museum in Los Angeles. The second floor gallery is painted in a soft shade of stone blue and in the world of laundry products, blue is a color reflector that makes whites appear whiter. The color has been a…
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Holding a Mirror to Ourselves: Genevieve Gaignard in The Powder Room
“We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay – and rise!” ~Dr. Maya Angelou We are arguably our most vulnerable when we are alone with a mirror. It’s…
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New Definitions (and Questions) of Power Emerge in a Show Featuring Black Women Artists
For 3 years I have dedicated the month of February to daily posts that celebrate black artists. It was a personal writing challenge as much as it was an artistic one because I wanted to expand my knowledge of black contemporary artists that were underrepresented in traditional arts publications. The artists I featured have greatly influenced the work that…
Colony Little, Culture Shock Art 