Resources

Kapwani Kiwanga Explores the Links Between Nature, Technology, and Racial Oppression

By Glenn Adamson July 30, 2020 3:23pm “I’m very reluctant to talk about what’s happening now—the hot topic, the outrage of the moment. It seems necessary to ask: how did we get here?” The speaker, artist Kapwani Kiwanga, was in Paris; I was in New York. We did not dwell much, during that May 27 phone conversation,…

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‘There Should Be Greater Transparency’: Public Art Becomes a Political Battleground

BY ZACHARY SMALL August 4, 2020 2:51pm Artist Vinnie Bagwell could hear pandemonium erupting in the auditorium where seven hours of deliberation imploded as East Harlem residents clashed with New York City officials this past October over which artist’s proposal would be chosen to replace a 19th-century bronze statue honoring J. Marion Sims, the infamous “father of gynecology”…

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New Voice With Plenty to Say: Kenyan Painter Michael Armitage Bridges European Traditions and East African Modernism

by VICTORIA L. VALENTINE on Aug 3, 2020 • 1:58 pm ONE OF THE MOST THOUGH-PROVOKING figures in contemporary painting, Kenyan artist Michael Armitageprobes the politics and cultural history of East Africa. His fascinating narrative scenes have a mythical quality and abstract tendencies that draw on aesthetic tensions between European traditions and East African modernism.  In early July, Armitage told the Times…

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Ernie Barnes Retrospective Brings Renewed Attention to African American Artist Who Found Fame After Playing Pro Football

by VICTORIA L. VALENTINE on Sep 6, 2019 • 11:58 pm LOS ANGELES—A master storyteller, Ernie Barnes (1938-2009) painted from experience. He captured the brawn of football and the quotidian of life in the segregated South.  His representational images depict what he saw growing up in Durham, N.C., where black people gathered for communion and competition on porches and basketball…

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‘White Fragility’ is Everywhere. But does Antiracism Training Work?

By Daniel Bergner Published July 15, 2020, updated July 17, 2020 Robin DiAngelo’s best seller is giving white Americans a new way to talk about race. Do those conversations actually serve the cause of equality? Listen to This Article To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android. In early…

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The Art of Statues

Tonia Robertson Walker June 19, 2020 Educate yourself “In 1866, one year after the 13 Amendment was ratified (the amendment that ended slavery), Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina began to lease out convicts for labor (peonage). This made the business of arresting Blacks very lucrative, which is why hundreds…

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Toyin Ojih Odutola Calls Her Portrait of Zadie Smith a ‘Love Letter to Black Britain’

by VICTORIA L. VALENTINE on Jul 10, 2020 • 6:58 am THE MUTUAL ADMIRATION between storytellers Zadie Smith and Toyin Ojih Odutola is palpable. The British novelist has written about the Nigerian-born visual artist’s work for British Vogue and contributed an essay to her forthcoming catalog, “Toyin Ojih Odutola: A Countervailing Theory,” which will accompany a show at the Barbican Centre in London, the artist’s first-ever UK exhibition. …

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Nicolas Holiber: Birds on Broadway ~ Audubon Sculpture Project NYC

by AFineLyne on March 17, 2020 Broadway Malls, Upper West Side, Audubon Sculpture Project, Birds on Broadway, Nicolas Holibe The National Audubon Society, Gitler &___ , New York City Parks Department,  NYC Audubon and the Broadway Mall Association have a very special installation scheduled for May 17, 2019. Ten sculptures in reclaimed wood to call attention to New York City’s climate threatened birds. We’ve…

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Amid Rising Infections, Some US Museums Begin to Reopen

Art Forum News July 07, 2020 at 4:33pm As Covid-19 infection rates climb across the United States following a late-spring letup, some museums are starting to welcome visitors again after months of lockdown. Institutions that are opening their doors include the Milwaukee Art Museum; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Portland Art Museum; and…

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