This week I sat down numerous times to recall the highlights of 2021 and how they shaped my writing this year. So many of these positive memories were nearly eclipsed by personal loss and the neverending distractions from the news cycle. Throughout this year I found solace in the visual image. Art continues to be … Continue reading Guideposts to Grace
Last month the Getty Research Institute announced that they have pledged an initial $5M dollar investment to fund an ambitious program dedicated to curatorial research and scholarship of African-American art. The African American Art History Initiative will place the GRI at the center of scholarly research in Black art on the west coast and will … Continue reading The Getty Acquires Betye Saar’s Artistic Archive and Dedicates $5M for Scholarly Research of African American Art
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 … Continue reading The Art that Helped Me Survive 2017
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 … Continue reading Extreme Times Call for Extreme Heroines: Betye Saar at the Craft & Folk Art Museum
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 … Continue reading New Definitions (and Questions) of Power Emerge in a Show Featuring Black Women Artists
The human brain works as a binary computer and can only analyze the exact information-based zeros and ones (or black and white). Our heart is more like a chemical computer that uses fuzzy logic to analyze information that can’t be easily defined in zeros and ones. ~Naveen Jain One world deals in absolutes: “Black vs White” … Continue reading The Price of Passage: Betye Saar at Roberts & Tilton
All month I’ve been highlighting African American Art in various forms. One of the California artists I learned about through this process is assemblage artist Betye Saar. Saar was born and raised in Los Angeles/Pasadena, graduated from UCLA and taught art at both Otis and the University of California. Her influences in assemblage began when … Continue reading Black History Art #9: Betye Saar
Culture Shock Art 