2016 was a standard year by many measures, with one major difference (ahem you know what that is). Regime change is coming and like most in the art community, Artblog is greeting Jan. 20 with trepidation — and resolve. We are re-committing ourselves to our core mission of diversity — to write about and celebrate the excellence of artists, who are routinely shunned by the mainstream media. The task seems more urgent now than ever.
Read MoreI give this exhibit 3 out of 3 wishes, which means it made me wish for three things. It is a nice view of designs. The designs with bright, bold colors are like dresses I have never seen before. They are a fierce combination of a lot of different colors and shapes like chicken heads on straight fabric with a stained glass design on the ruffled fabric all on one dress! I wish there were kids’ fashions in the exhibit, too. I also wish that I could see how they are sold in Africa. What do the shops look like? Who gets to wear these clothes? I wish I could! They are interesting fashions and would make the person wearing them look bold and fierce. Three wishes means it made me imagine 3 things and that is why I love to go to museums!
Read MoreAccording to curator Anthony Elms, Rodney McMillian: The Black Show is an exhibition about transformation. You might prefer to call it an exhibition about flux. It is about fictions, literally literary, with numerous instances of homage to Octavia Butler, and metaphorically historical, as McMillian himself expounded in a preceding interview. It is about mutable spaces, fluid identities, the distance between material and perception, the so-called experience of this ‘reality,’ and the staking out of that reality itself as a constantly undulating landscape.
Read MoreChipaumire announces, “Tired of fighting. Tired of running. Tired of fucking.” The hare bounding over the ropes. The Champion hurling into them, into the ground. Until he, finally, –well, no, you should see it, you should try to feel it for yourself.
Read MoreThe Colored Girls Museum contains harrowing levels of metaphoric entryways into once traumatized eyes of the black girl. This provincial ghost overcame dishonorable past. Oppressive chains and tyrannical rulers whipped flesh off back and placed choke hold on her mind, body, and soul. Now released yet not entirely freed from damaged control, she tells many stories inherently stretched through visiting artists. Their works adhere to her walls, sleep on her mantles, stand on her floors.
Read MoreMartin’s striped paintings, such as “Gratitude” and “Untitled #2,” pictured here–soft acrylic washes thinly applied over layers of gesso in pinks, blues, and yellows–are beautiful, tranquil, serene, meditative, pristine, innocent, and exquisitely spare. They fulfill the artist’s intention to evoke abstract positive emotions, emotions “above the line”–happiness, love, and experiences of innocence, freedom, beauty, and perfection. “I would like [my pictures] to represent beauty, innocence and happiness,” Martin said. “I would like them all to represent that. Exaltation.”
Read MoreSize can create competition in some shows, larger works demanding more attention than small, but these more typical relationships were somehow absent from this show. Holes were drilled into the sides of display armatures, perfectly framing a small Fishman sculpture covered in paint, encouraging the viewer to look. You did not get the sense that you were supposed to spend less time looking at the smaller things.
Read MoreIt seems to me that NMAAHC has the opportunity, not yet fully realized, to bring to African American artists the attention and recognition they deserve, and to place them squarely in the cosmos of American art, and at the same time to “privilege the black voice.” Indeed, the museum brilliantly has accomplished that in its other Culture Galleries.
Read More“The Keeper,” the recently closed multi-floor exhibition at New York City’s New Museum, seeks to unravel the mystery of compulsive artistic creation and collection. The show comprises a wide range of media, including sculpture, paintings, illustrations, and photographs. It also includes a smattering of non-art objects, such as clothes, rocks, and found objects. According to an estimate by Artnet, the exhibition showcases over half a million objects by 30 artists and collectors.
Read MoreMierle Laderman Ukeles is a visionary whose work over the past 45 years has enlarged both the form and content of the art of our time. While revered among artists interested in feminism, performance art, social practice, and institutional critique, and a significant influence on two younger generations of artists, many of whom may not recognize her name, her work has not achieved the broad renown it deserves until now.
Read MoreHELLO!
Sign up to receive Artblog’s weekly updates and monthly Our Picks sent directly to your inbox.