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
“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
Good storytelling, just like a good joke, lives and dies on timing. It comes as no surprise that photographer Beuford Smith knows a thing or two about timing. His black and white photography capturing the streets of New York all bear the same marker of sublime, serendipitous timing. Smith’s photographs are mementos of moments which … Continue reading Artist a Day: Beuford Smith
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
When learning about the work of Emma Amos, I read an interview where she recounted an interesting story about Romare Bearden and Spiral. They were planning their first group show, which was simply titled “works in black and white”, and during one of their weekly meetings Bearden threw a bunch of black and white clippings … Continue reading Artist a Day: Romare Bearden
Before Rap Squats became a meme, any musical artist coming out of the 1980’s had to have a perfect album cover pose, and Jamel Shabazz’s photography captured the look. His portraits not only gave us a contemplative look at Brooklyn in the 1980’s and 1990’s, his ability to connect to his … Continue reading Artist a Day: Jamel Shabazz
“Words work as release–well-oiled doors opening and closing between intention, gesture. A pulse in a neck, the shiftiness of the hands, an unconscious blink, the conversations you have with your eyes translate everything and nothing. What will be needed, what goes unfelt, unsaid-what has been duplicated, redacted here, redacted there, altered to hide or disguise—words … Continue reading Artist a Day: Alexandra Bell
I recently encountered two similar works of art, one in L.A. and the other online: the first is by an artist with a 40+ year career who has self selected out of the U.S. art scene for over 2 decades and the second is from a Kenyan born artist with a Brooklyn based practice … Continue reading Talking Heads: Jimmie Durham & Wangechi Mutu
I have this mythologized view of New York that I have created entirely from the city’s nightclub scene between 1973 and 1987. The Loft, the Gallery, the Paradise Garage and the Roxy sit at the center of this utopia, with the music in these venues acting as the heartbeat of the city. Notice I didn’t mention Studio 54, because in my … Continue reading Artist a Day Challenge (24): Mark Bradford’s Homage to the Roxy
Culture Shock Art 