I miss museums. There’s something about hearing the faint echoes of hushed conversations within galleries while the sounds of loose hardwood planks slowly creak with each step as I walk through an exhibit. It’s comforting. I miss the carefully engineered skylights and windows that let the right amount of light in and give me a … Continue reading Dawoud Bey: An American Project
On the heels of Jordan Casteel’s 2019 show, The Practice of Freedom, the artist is celebrating her first solo museum show in New York this month at the New Museum. Within Reach examines the evolution of Casteel’s career where the subjects of her portraits are reflections of the surroundings that shaped her oeuvre. Her latest … Continue reading Artist a Day: Jordan Casteel
I love highlighting photographers on the blog and noticed that in prior year’s Artist a Day posts I focused on the work of Black male photographers, with the one exception being Ming Smith. I thought it was time to highlight current photographers who are forging new paths in fashion photography that radically define redefine how … Continue reading Artist a Day: Adrienne Raquel
Today’s post combines math, data visualization, and mysticism all within a single song. Yesterday while I writing, I was listening to some jazz and John Coltrane’s 11383 (Take 1) randomly played. About three-quarters of the way through the song, a bass solo by Jimmy Garrison suddenly reminded me of a hip hop sample that was … Continue reading Artist a Day: John Coltrane
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 … Continue reading Artist a Day: Beauford Delaney
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 … Continue reading Artist a Day: Noah Davis
Art fairs are like glorified prom nights for collectors and as such, galleries are the poor chauffeurs, dress makers, and florists that have to cater to whims of giddy, hopeful, attendees– Frieze L.A. was no exception. For those of us who are outside both the blue chip collector class and the P&L engines that drive … Continue reading Artist a Day: Frieze Edition
I’ve spent the better part of this rainy week devoting time in the Artist a Day series to the incredible black and white photography created by artists in the Kamoinge Workshop; one common thread among them is that many were represented by the now shuttered Steven Kasher Gallery in New York. Kasher wound down his … Continue reading Artist a Day: Louis Draper
“Any photographer that’s been out here in the world, you see 2 people in white, you follow them…” Shawn Walker, VMFA 2017. As one of the founding members of Kamoinge, Shawn Walker dedicated his life’s work to black and white photography. He counts Roy DeCarava as one of his strongest influences, and in his 2017 … Continue reading Artist a Day: Shawn Walker
As a young model in New York, Ming Smith was drawn to photography and portraiture. Her friendship with photographer Anthony Barboza cultivated her artistic interests and she eventually became the first woman to join New York’s Kamoinge’s photography collective. In 1975 MoMA acquired one of her works making Smith the first Black woman photographer represented … Continue reading Artist a Day: Ming Smith
