Category: Contemporary Art
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Artist a Day: Jack Whitten
“There’s no destination, there’s only the journey.” Jack Whitten came of age in the South and was involved in the Civil Rights movement while he was a student at Tuskegee and Southern University. After a demonstration in Baton Rouge left an indelible mark on his psyche, Whitten left Louisiana to attend Cooper Union in New…
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Artist a Day 2018: Mapping Midpoints
It’s February and the Culture Shock Art Artist a Day challenge is back for its 4th year! I’m excited to bring you some incredible artists whose work I will share every day this month. Some posts will include narrative bios of the artists, while in other posts I will let the art speak for itself.…
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The Art that Helped Me Survive 2017
Look, I know it’s dramatic, but 2017 was tough and I’m not even going to try to sugar coat it. Despite this, I saw some incredible work that helped me make some sense of the world we find ourselves in today. Here are 9 highlights: 1. Kenyatta Hinkle, The Evanesced @ CAAM The Evanesced at CAAM…
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Angels in Alabama
When the results of Alabama’s special elections came in on Tuesday evening, I could feel the nation collectively breathe a sigh of relief, and for a brief moment, our moral compass recalibrated itself. Tuesday should be a reminder to all of us that every vote counts. Most importantly, black women not only showed up to the polls,…
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New Orleans Unfolds as the Canvas for Prospect.4
Prospect.4 officially kicked off Saturday, November 18 and the roster of international artists in the city-wide triennial is chock full of familiar and new talent whose work I’ve long admired. I was able to get a digital copy of the event’s catalog and after sampling the work from some of the artists chosen for the…
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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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On Monuments and Men
Our recollection of history is malleable, and confronting this paradox takes us down a tricky path of potholes filled with denial and subjectivities. The debate over Civil War monuments could have been a shorter one if we collectively had a better understanding of our history and the presence of mind to challenge our understanding…
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Yayoi Kusama Comes to the Broad in October
On September 1 the Broad will place 50,000 tickets on sale online for its highly anticipated fall show and anxious Angelenos hitting refresh on their browsers might end up feeling like they’re in an endless infinity loop. Consider it visual dexterity training for Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors opening in October. The traveling exhibition’s L.A. layover will feature 6…
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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…
Colony Little, Culture Shock Art 