portraiture

April 3, 2020 by Kinaya Hassane

A new exhibition captures the beautiful intimacy of Black hair rituals on canvas

Kinaya Hassane shares the experience of witnessing Patricia Renee’ Thomas’s solo gallery show, “Grapejuice,” at Kapp Kapp Gallery, which will be extended once the lockdown is lifted.

February 15, 2020 by Ray Simon

An artful climax, Simcoe’s ‘getting off’ at the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Center

Artblog contributor, Ray Simon, pays a visit to the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in Allentown, PA to catch their latest exhibition: getting off, which closes on Friday, February 21st.

October 11, 2019 by Alex Smith

How Are We Free? Lifelines Project pairs art by people in prison and artists outside, at Vox Populi

Alex reviews the project-based show at Vox Populi, “How Are We Free?” at Vox Populi through Sunday, Oct. 13, 2019.

January 21, 2019 by Artblog

Hans Charles on cinematography as portraiture and helping young filmmakers cross the finish line

If you’re still kicking yourself for missing MR. SOUL! at the 2018 BlackStar Film Festival, then we’ve got some good news for you. This Friday, January 25th, our friends at Scribe Video Center are hosting a Producer’s Forum screening of this joyous documentary about the life and work of Ellis Haizlip, who was not only a pioneering television host and black arts advocate, but also Scribe’s very first board chair. Director (and Ellis’s niece) Melissa Haizlip will be on hand for the screening, which will be preceded by Turnin’ the Tables, a documentary short by local youth filmmaker, J’Lynn Matthews. In this August 19, 2018 “From the Vault” post Imani Roach interviews MR. SOUL! cinematographer Hans Charles about his contributions to the film and his approach to filming black subjects. Read on and we’ll see you at Scribe on the 25th!

December 6, 2017 by Andrea Kirsh

Books for the Holidays 2017 Part 1

Andrea reports on four books you might consider getting for the bibliophile/art-loving person in your life. Two of the books, one on painter Alice Neel, and one on photographer Richard Avedon, are well-designed and richly illustrated exhibition catalogs of recent exhibitions; one, also a show catalog, well-organized and attractive, with a Barkley Hendricks image on the cover, aggregates scholarship and imagery of art made by African Americans in the Black Power era (1960s-70s); and one is an extremely alluring and seductive design anthology of African design — interior, architecture, household furnishings, fashion — that will have you running to the Internet to make immediate purchases! Read on.