Category: Contemporary Art
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Artist a Day: Beauford Delaney
Beauford Delaney was born in Knoxville TN in 1901 and raised in a southern Baptist family with two budding artists. Beauford and his brother had a strong aptitude for art and their skills were cultivated locally until the artist moved to Boston to continue his studies. Delaney would later settle in New York and become…
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Artist a Day: Noah Davis
Over the last 3 weeks I’ve seen the laudatory reviews and images on Noah Davis’s solo show at David Zwirner and one painting keeps sticking out to me. It features a little girl in a dress with white knee-high socks and a pair of t-strap Mary Janes. The little girl’s hands are politely folded in…
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Artist a Day: David Hammons
I have few words today, so I will let David Hammons do the talking. Injustice Case (1971) is part of his body print series and is in reference to the judicial misconduct against Bobby Seale who was on trial for conspiracy as a member of the Chicago Eight. After Seale was refused an attorney of…
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Artist a Day: Lava Thomas
As we commemorate the birthday of Rosa Parks today, I wanted to highlight the work of an artist who not only honored Parks, but also created a series of works that celebrate the women of the Montgomery Alabama Bus Boycott of 1955-1956. These women are not as well known as Parks, but became an important…
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Artist a Day: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
Today’s post and featured artist is about process. Recently I’ve been hyper-focused on routines and how sometimes those routines fail us, leaving us caught in a terrible rut. When I find myself stuck, I try to make one small change in my daily routine. It may be a change of direction in my daily walks…
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Artist a Day, Super Bowl Edition: Ernie Barnes
Today, I’m celebrating Super Bowl Sunday my way, by honoring a great Black artist whose career began as a professional football player. Ernie Barnes was from Durham, North Carolina where he endured Jim Crow segregation and childhood bullying, using football and art to strengthen his body and his resolve. He earned a scholarship to play…
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A Case for Black Art History Month in Los Angeles
We tend to define key visual art moments through seminal shows that seek to define, map, and place an artist’s work in a historical context. In Los Angeles, many of these moments revolve around large-scale exhibitions like the Hammer’s Made in L.A. biennial or the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time. When they are executed well, these…
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Artist a Day: Evangeline J Montgomery
In 2017 I dedicated a series of Artist a Day posts to Ruth Waddy, whose influence guided and amplified the careers of Los Angeles artists in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Her impact and legacy in documenting Black art is immeasurable and “as a champion for African-American artists, Waddy’s advocacy created a powerful…
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Artist a Day: Cleveland Bellow
The hardest part of this Artist a Day series is when I come across an artist where limited biographical information exists. Bay area artist and printmaker Cleveland Bellow showed work in over 60 shows throughout his career and taught art in addition to his civic engagement as Alameda County’s Art Commissioner. Bellow passed away from…
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Artist a Day: Fred Eversley
“The genesis of energy is central to the mystery of our existence as animate beings in an inanimate universe.” Fred Eversley Fred Eversley was an electronic engineer who turned curiosity and experimentation into sculptures that capture his fascination with light and energy. His work beautifully merges art and science in a practice that’s defined by…
Colony Little, Culture Shock Art 