Rashid Johnson's Very Personal History
Ahead of a career-spanning new exhibition at the Guggenheim, the artist discusses the power in being present, the importance of looking inward, and the urgency he finds in living and creating right now
Friday, April 4, 2025
Wednesday, April 2, 2025
ATLANTA: CHRISTIAN WALKER
Christian Walker: The Profane and The Poignant
Feb 27, 2025 - May 25, 2025
ATLANTA CONTEMPORARY
535 Means Street NW
Atlanta, GA 30318
From atlantacontemporary.org:
Christian Walker: The Profane and the Poignant surveys the work of artist, critic, and curator Christian Walker (1953–2003). Walker was a path-making photographer who made compelling and experimental work about queer sexuality, race, and their intersections from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. In the mid-1980s, his artistic practice shifted from documentary photography and portraiture to alternative photographic processes involving multiple exposures, archival appropriation, and the integration of paint and nontraditional materials.
Walker was primarily active in Boston and Atlanta, and his artworks, criticism, and exhibition-making addressed a myriad subjects, including queer public sex, interracial intimacy, HIV/AIDS, censorship, drug use, and Blackness and whiteness in public and private image cultures.
This exhibition is the first and most comprehensive account of Walker’s artistic and cultural production to date, yet it contains gaps and inconsistencies. Walker’s work is not confined to a single archive or collection, no photographic negatives have been found, and existing prints have sometimes been precariously housed, on the verge of being lost.
Though Walker received significant critical and curatorial attention during his lifetime, his work has largely gone unrecognized since his death. Foregrounding archival materials, this exhibition chronologically contextualizes Walker within his artistic and activist communities; in doing so, it situates his photographs, critical writings, and curatorial projects as vital contributions to the histories of art and photography. Reconstructed from oral history interviews with friends, lovers, and artistic collaborators, this curatorial narrative is inseparable from a biographical project, generating connections and tracing throughlines across Walker’s life and work.
This exhibition has been organized by the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in New York City and is presented at Atlanta Contemporary under the curatorial guidance of independent curators Jackson Davidow and Noam Parness.
For more information, click here.
Feb 27, 2025 - May 25, 2025
ATLANTA CONTEMPORARY
535 Means Street NW
Atlanta, GA 30318
From atlantacontemporary.org:
Christian Walker: The Profane and the Poignant surveys the work of artist, critic, and curator Christian Walker (1953–2003). Walker was a path-making photographer who made compelling and experimental work about queer sexuality, race, and their intersections from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. In the mid-1980s, his artistic practice shifted from documentary photography and portraiture to alternative photographic processes involving multiple exposures, archival appropriation, and the integration of paint and nontraditional materials.
Walker was primarily active in Boston and Atlanta, and his artworks, criticism, and exhibition-making addressed a myriad subjects, including queer public sex, interracial intimacy, HIV/AIDS, censorship, drug use, and Blackness and whiteness in public and private image cultures.
This exhibition is the first and most comprehensive account of Walker’s artistic and cultural production to date, yet it contains gaps and inconsistencies. Walker’s work is not confined to a single archive or collection, no photographic negatives have been found, and existing prints have sometimes been precariously housed, on the verge of being lost.
Though Walker received significant critical and curatorial attention during his lifetime, his work has largely gone unrecognized since his death. Foregrounding archival materials, this exhibition chronologically contextualizes Walker within his artistic and activist communities; in doing so, it situates his photographs, critical writings, and curatorial projects as vital contributions to the histories of art and photography. Reconstructed from oral history interviews with friends, lovers, and artistic collaborators, this curatorial narrative is inseparable from a biographical project, generating connections and tracing throughlines across Walker’s life and work.
This exhibition has been organized by the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in New York City and is presented at Atlanta Contemporary under the curatorial guidance of independent curators Jackson Davidow and Noam Parness.
For more information, click here.
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
MEDIA NEWS: TRUMP VS. THE SMITHSONIAN
Monday, March 31, 2025
VIDEO: THE BLACK DANDY EXPLAINED
The Art of Black Dandyism: Dapper Dan, June Ambrose & Ali Richmond on Please Explain
In this episode of Please Explain, host Aria Hughes leads a compelling discussion on Black dandyism with fashion legends Dapper Dan, June Ambrose, and Ali Richmond. The conversation dives into what it means to be a Black dandy, who fits within that identity, and—perhaps more importantly—who the Costume Institute will likely overlook in its narratives.
Dapper Dan’s verbal and non-verbal communication style is as sharp as his tailoring, especially when he breaks down the nuances of “country” style versus city fashion. June Ambrose, always eloquent, situates Black dandyism within a contemporary cultural framework, illuminating its deeper significance beyond aesthetics.
This episode doesn’t just explore personal style; it interrogates history, power, and erasure in fashion. And if you’ve ever wondered why a Met Gala ticket costs a staggering $75,000, Hughes breaks it down in the Fashion $ense segment.
Please Explain continues to cut through the noise, bringing clarity—not confusion—to conversations about culture, fashion, and music.
Sunday, March 30, 2025
HOT LINKS
Tyler Mitchell’s Love Letter to Modern Black Dandyism
John Wilson, a Black Figurative Artist Nearly Lost to Time, Gets a Traveling RetrospectiveMeet Andrea Walls, The Artist Preserving Black Stories Through Photography
Black Panther artist's painting of jazz legend John Coltrane catches eye of Spike Lee
Show on Artists of African Descent Loses Funding Amid Trump DEI Crackdown
A brush with… Renée Green — podcast
“I Like to Kick the Door Open”: Shaniqwa Jarvis on Narrative, Nostalgia, and Art World Politics
Friday, March 28, 2025
NEW YORK: KENNEDY YANKO
Kennedy Yanko: Epithets
April 5 - May 10, 2025
JAMES COHAN GALLERY48 Walker Street
New York, NY
James Cohan is pleased to present Epithets, an exhibition of new work by Kennedy Yanko, on view from April 5 - May 10, 2025, at 48 Walker Street. This is Yanko’s first exhibition with the gallery. James Cohan will host a conversation between Kennedy Yanko and Dario Calmese at 5pm on April 5th. This will be directly followed by an opening reception from 6 - 8 PM. Epithets is presented in collaboration with Salon 94, where a concurrent major presentation of work by the artist is accompanied by an exhibition curated by Yanko.
For more information on Kennedy Yanko: Epithets, click here.
Kennedy Yanko: Retro Future
April 5 - May 3, 2025
SALON 94
3 East 89th Street
New York, NY
New York, NY
From salon94.com:
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
PITTSBURGH: RAYMOND SAUNDERS
Raymond Saunders: Flowers from a Black Garden
March 22 - July 13, 2025
CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF ART
4400 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA
Carnegie Museum of Art presents Raymond Saunders: Flowers from a Black Garden, the first major retrospective of the Pittsburgh-born artist and his most comprehensive exhibition to date.
Since the 1960s, Saunders (b. 1934) has created dynamic, improvisational works that blend abstraction and figuration. His large-scale paintings incorporate everyday objects, found imagery, and expressive markings, often set against a black background—a signature element that ties to his influential 1967 essay, Black Is a Color.
Saunders’ artistic journey began in Pittsburgh, where he attended Saturday art classes at Carnegie Museum of Art alongside figures like Andy Warhol. He later earned degrees from Carnegie Institute of Technology and the California College of Arts and Crafts before settling in Oakland, CA, where he has continued his practice as both an artist and educator.
Featuring around 35 works, this exhibition traces Saunders’ distinctive approach to painting, drawing inspiration from movements such as Dada, expressionism, and Pop art. Through his unconventional process and poetic visual language, Flowers from a Black Garden offers a profound exploration of history, identity, and artistic freedom.
Don’t miss this landmark exhibition celebrating a visionary artist’s lifelong dedication to pushing the boundaries of painting.
For more information, click here.
March 22 - July 13, 2025
CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF ART
4400 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA
Carnegie Museum of Art presents Raymond Saunders: Flowers from a Black Garden, the first major retrospective of the Pittsburgh-born artist and his most comprehensive exhibition to date.
Since the 1960s, Saunders (b. 1934) has created dynamic, improvisational works that blend abstraction and figuration. His large-scale paintings incorporate everyday objects, found imagery, and expressive markings, often set against a black background—a signature element that ties to his influential 1967 essay, Black Is a Color.
Saunders’ artistic journey began in Pittsburgh, where he attended Saturday art classes at Carnegie Museum of Art alongside figures like Andy Warhol. He later earned degrees from Carnegie Institute of Technology and the California College of Arts and Crafts before settling in Oakland, CA, where he has continued his practice as both an artist and educator.
Featuring around 35 works, this exhibition traces Saunders’ distinctive approach to painting, drawing inspiration from movements such as Dada, expressionism, and Pop art. Through his unconventional process and poetic visual language, Flowers from a Black Garden offers a profound exploration of history, identity, and artistic freedom.
Don’t miss this landmark exhibition celebrating a visionary artist’s lifelong dedication to pushing the boundaries of painting.
For more information, click here.
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
NEW YORK: JACK WHITTEN
Jack Whitten: The Messenger
Mar 23–Aug 2, 2025
MoMA
Mar 23–Aug 2, 2025
MoMA
11 West 53rd Street
New York, NY
From moma.org:
Jack Whitten: The Messenger presents a revelatory history of the artist’s exploration of race, technology, jazz, love, and war. From the upheaval of the 1960s to the end of his life in 2018, Whitten faced great pressure to pursue representational art as a form of activism. Yet he dared to invent forms of abstraction—and offered the world a new way to see.
From moma.org:
Jack Whitten: The Messenger presents a revelatory history of the artist’s exploration of race, technology, jazz, love, and war. From the upheaval of the 1960s to the end of his life in 2018, Whitten faced great pressure to pursue representational art as a form of activism. Yet he dared to invent forms of abstraction—and offered the world a new way to see.
For more information, click here.
Monday, March 24, 2025
VIDEO: 'BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE' BY DAVID GUETTA & SIA
Beautiful People and Song of Solomon: A Shared Leap
David Guetta and Sia’s Beautiful People music video unfolds like a dream—bodies in motion, light shifting like breath, choreography that feels both grounded and transcendent. But it’s the ending that lingers. As the dancers take flight, I’m reminded of the final pages of Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon.
Milkman’s leap is a moment of surrender and possibility, a gesture that blurs the line between flight and fall, between freedom and fate. The video’s closing scene echoes this energy. The dancers don’t just move; they ascend. They defy gravity, lifted by something beyond themselves.
It’s a striking parallel—one that speaks to the power of movement, both literal and metaphorical. Like Morrison’s novel, the video leaves us suspended in a space between certainty and myth, between what is and what could be.
----
Directed by Daniel Askill
A SERIAL PICTURES Production
Executive Producer: Violaine Etienne
Executive Producer: Sara Greco
Head of Production: JP Colombo
Line Producer: Christopher Lopez
Cinematography: Todd Martin
Featuring Jacob Jonas The Company
Choreographer: Jacob Jonas Art Director/Assistant
Choreographer: Emma Rosenzweig-Bock
Choreographer Producer: Jill Wilson
Dancers: James Blackston, Baptista Kawa, Marissa Labog, Alyse Rockett, Jill Wilson, Jarrett Yeary, Emma Rosenzweig-Bock
Sunday, March 23, 2025
HOT LINKS
Artist Rashid Johnson Models in Gabriela Hearst’s Fall 2025 Fashion Show
High low culture and the sickly sweetness of Tootsie Rolls: Derrick Adams in London
A long-lost Klimt painting of an African prince goes on showSaturday, March 22, 2025
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
VIDEO: KHADIJAH MORLEY
Monday, March 17, 2025
NEW YORK: VANESSA GERMAN
GUMBALL—there is absolutely no space between body and soul
April 3 – May 10, 2025
KASMIN GALLERY
509 West 27th Street
KASMIN GALLERY
509 West 27th Street
New York, NY
KASMIN GALLERY
514 West 28th Street
KASMIN GALLERY
514 West 28th Street
New York, NY
From kasmingallery.com:
Kasmin announces its second solo exhibition of sculptures by artist vanessa german (b. 1976), which will debut related bodies of work across two of the gallery’s exhibition spaces in New York. vanessa german: GUMBALL—there is absolutely no space between body and soul will deepen german’s singular approach to sculpture as a spiritual practice with the power to transform the lived experiences of all those who encounter it. Drawing from precolonial and African diasporic traditions, german’s sculptural technique involves assembling an expansive vocabulary of objects to create expressive figures undergirded by painted and drawn elements. The artist’s newest works for GUMBALL—there is absolutely no space between body and soul foreground german’s engagement in haptic communication, interpreting the energy and vibrations of her gemstone materials through physical touch.
In the gallery’s flagship 509 West 27th Street location, german will unveil a series of monumental heads adorned with mineral crystals, beads, and objects retaining the energy of the earth in which they originated. Each sculpture sparks reflective shimmers of rose quartz, blue lapis, chalcedony and other gemstones, which german uses to impart healing properties. Incorporating stars, words, and human and animal forms across the surfaces, german conceives of these sculptures as cosmic maps, proposing a cartography of consciousness charted through the works’ colossal presence. At 514 West 28th Street, german will present a new series of figures who are each caught in a dip, a move performed by vogue dancers and originating in ballroom culture. Capturing the drama of the pose, the figures balance on one leg as the other bends in the air. Described by the artist as an allusion to the fall of empire, the works foreground the resilient quality of the figures, inevitably poised to bounce back upward.
For more information, click here.
From kasmingallery.com:
Kasmin announces its second solo exhibition of sculptures by artist vanessa german (b. 1976), which will debut related bodies of work across two of the gallery’s exhibition spaces in New York. vanessa german: GUMBALL—there is absolutely no space between body and soul will deepen german’s singular approach to sculpture as a spiritual practice with the power to transform the lived experiences of all those who encounter it. Drawing from precolonial and African diasporic traditions, german’s sculptural technique involves assembling an expansive vocabulary of objects to create expressive figures undergirded by painted and drawn elements. The artist’s newest works for GUMBALL—there is absolutely no space between body and soul foreground german’s engagement in haptic communication, interpreting the energy and vibrations of her gemstone materials through physical touch.
In the gallery’s flagship 509 West 27th Street location, german will unveil a series of monumental heads adorned with mineral crystals, beads, and objects retaining the energy of the earth in which they originated. Each sculpture sparks reflective shimmers of rose quartz, blue lapis, chalcedony and other gemstones, which german uses to impart healing properties. Incorporating stars, words, and human and animal forms across the surfaces, german conceives of these sculptures as cosmic maps, proposing a cartography of consciousness charted through the works’ colossal presence. At 514 West 28th Street, german will present a new series of figures who are each caught in a dip, a move performed by vogue dancers and originating in ballroom culture. Capturing the drama of the pose, the figures balance on one leg as the other bends in the air. Described by the artist as an allusion to the fall of empire, the works foreground the resilient quality of the figures, inevitably poised to bounce back upward.
For more information, click here.
Sunday, March 16, 2025
HOT LINKS
Art Museum of the Americas Cancels Exhibitions by Black, Queer Artists
R.I.P. TURTEL ONLI, Comics Artist and Creator of the 'Black Age of Comics'
Today’s contemporary Black artists continue a legacy of transformation with their work
Trump Moves to Fire Caretakers of Federal Art Collections
Trump cut lifesaving foreign aid as State Department planned to buy expensive art for embassies
Arts groups sue NEA for new 'gender ideology'-related grant restrictions
R.I.P. TURTEL ONLI, Comics Artist and Creator of the 'Black Age of Comics'
Today’s contemporary Black artists continue a legacy of transformation with their work
Trump Moves to Fire Caretakers of Federal Art Collections
Trump cut lifesaving foreign aid as State Department planned to buy expensive art for embassies
Arts groups sue NEA for new 'gender ideology'-related grant restrictions
Friday, March 14, 2025
HOUSTON: JOE OVERSTREET
Joe Overstreet: Taking Flight
January 24 – July 13, 2025
THE MENIL COLLECTION
1533 Sul Ross St.
Houston, TX
From menil.org:
Joe Overstreet: Taking Flight is the first major museum exhibition in thirty years devoted to the work of this pioneering abstract painter. Renowned for his innovative approach to non-representational painting, American artist Joe Overstreet (1933–2019) consistently sought to intertwine abstraction and social politics.
This presentation will include his landmark Flight Pattern series of radially suspended paintings from the early 1970s, as well as related bodies of work from the 1960s and 1990s. Overstreet made a significant contribution to postwar art, positioning abstraction as an expansive tool for exploring the idea of freedom and the Black experience in the United States.
Joe Overstreet: Taking Flight will be accompanied by an exhibition catalogue with new scholarly texts and installation images from the exhibition, available in late spring.
Joe Overstreet: Taking Flight is organized by Natalie Dupêcher, Associate Curator of Modern Art, The Menil Collection, in collaboration with the artist’s estate.
For more information, click here.
THE MENIL COLLECTION
1533 Sul Ross St.
Houston, TX
From menil.org:
Joe Overstreet: Taking Flight is the first major museum exhibition in thirty years devoted to the work of this pioneering abstract painter. Renowned for his innovative approach to non-representational painting, American artist Joe Overstreet (1933–2019) consistently sought to intertwine abstraction and social politics.
This presentation will include his landmark Flight Pattern series of radially suspended paintings from the early 1970s, as well as related bodies of work from the 1960s and 1990s. Overstreet made a significant contribution to postwar art, positioning abstraction as an expansive tool for exploring the idea of freedom and the Black experience in the United States.
Joe Overstreet: Taking Flight will be accompanied by an exhibition catalogue with new scholarly texts and installation images from the exhibition, available in late spring.
Joe Overstreet: Taking Flight is organized by Natalie Dupêcher, Associate Curator of Modern Art, The Menil Collection, in collaboration with the artist’s estate.
For more information, click here.
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
VIDEO: KHALIF TAHIR THOMPSON
Cherry: Khalif Tahir Thompson is on view from January 31 - August 17, 2025, at The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture in Charlotte, NC.
Produced by the Gantt Technology & Innovation Group
Image credits: Khalif Tahir Thompson, "Ballad of Blue and Brown," detail, 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery.
For more information, click here.
For more information, click here.
CHARLOTTE: DAREMEN J.
DaRemen J.: the longest way home
March 14 - September 7, 2025
MINT MUSEUM UPTOWN
at Levine Center for the Arts
500 South Tryon Street
Charlotte, NC
From mintmuseum.org:
DaRemen J. blends the seen and unseen in his photography and filmmaking, creating visuals that reveal emotional depth and subtlety. His “method shooting” approach captures not just images, but sound and sentiment, resonating with emotional attunement. With two decades of experience shaped by afro-surrealist and futurist influences, DaRemen uses his artistry as a tool for Black liberation and world-building. Beginning his creative journey as a child experimenting with cameras, he later co-founded Dream Studios in 2019. Through his work, DaRemen intertwines his personal vision with shared Black experiences, creating imagery that both reflects and dreams of future possibilities, all while remaining deeply attuned to the present moment.
For more information, click here.
March 14 - September 7, 2025
MINT MUSEUM UPTOWN
at Levine Center for the Arts
500 South Tryon Street
Charlotte, NC
From mintmuseum.org:
DaRemen J. blends the seen and unseen in his photography and filmmaking, creating visuals that reveal emotional depth and subtlety. His “method shooting” approach captures not just images, but sound and sentiment, resonating with emotional attunement. With two decades of experience shaped by afro-surrealist and futurist influences, DaRemen uses his artistry as a tool for Black liberation and world-building. Beginning his creative journey as a child experimenting with cameras, he later co-founded Dream Studios in 2019. Through his work, DaRemen intertwines his personal vision with shared Black experiences, creating imagery that both reflects and dreams of future possibilities, all while remaining deeply attuned to the present moment.
For more information, click here.
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
NEW YORK: JENNIE C. JONES
The Roof Garden Commission: Jennie C. Jones, Ensemble
April 15 - October 19, 2025
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY
From metmuseum.org:
For the 2025 Roof Garden Commission, Jennie C. Jones (born 1968, Cincinnati, Ohio) will produce Ensemble. Only her second outdoor sculptural installation, the project will explore the sonic potential of stringed instruments as well as their formal possibilities. In the artist's unique response to modernism, these acoustic sculptures propose the line of the string as a proxy for art history, unbroken and continuous.
In her paintings, sculptures, works on paper, installations, and audio compositions, Jones uses sound to respond to the legacy of minimalism and to modernism itself. Drawing on her immersion in Black improvisation and avant-garde music, she deploys sound and listening as important conceptual elements of her practice, from the acoustic fiberglass panels she affixes to canvas, which absorb sound and affect the acoustic properties of the environment, to the lines and bars she creates through her compositions that refer to elements of musical notation. Her work across media offers new possibilities for minimalist abstraction, challenging how—and by whom—it is produced.
For more information, click here.
April 15 - October 19, 2025
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY
From metmuseum.org:
For the 2025 Roof Garden Commission, Jennie C. Jones (born 1968, Cincinnati, Ohio) will produce Ensemble. Only her second outdoor sculptural installation, the project will explore the sonic potential of stringed instruments as well as their formal possibilities. In the artist's unique response to modernism, these acoustic sculptures propose the line of the string as a proxy for art history, unbroken and continuous.
In her paintings, sculptures, works on paper, installations, and audio compositions, Jones uses sound to respond to the legacy of minimalism and to modernism itself. Drawing on her immersion in Black improvisation and avant-garde music, she deploys sound and listening as important conceptual elements of her practice, from the acoustic fiberglass panels she affixes to canvas, which absorb sound and affect the acoustic properties of the environment, to the lines and bars she creates through her compositions that refer to elements of musical notation. Her work across media offers new possibilities for minimalist abstraction, challenging how—and by whom—it is produced.
For more information, click here.
Monday, March 10, 2025
NEW YORK: LORNA SIMPSON
Lorna Simpson: Source Notes
May 19 - November 2, 2025
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
1000 Fifth Avenue
May 19 - November 2, 2025
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY
From metmuseum.org:
This presentation of work by New York–based artist Lorna Simpson is the first exhibition to consider the entirety of her painting practice to date. Simpson came to prominence in the 1980s with her pioneering approach to conceptual photography. Since then, she has produced works in multiple media that continue to probe the nature of images and how they construct meaning. Lorna Simpson: Source Notes focuses on a significant new development in her work of the last 10 years: paintings that advance her incisive explorations of gender, race, identity, representation, and history. Through more than 30 works, this focused exhibition presents a selection of Simpson’s major paintings, including examples from her acclaimed Venice Biennale debut in 2015 and her celebrated series Special Characters, along with recent sculptures and related collages.
For more information, click here.
From metmuseum.org:
This presentation of work by New York–based artist Lorna Simpson is the first exhibition to consider the entirety of her painting practice to date. Simpson came to prominence in the 1980s with her pioneering approach to conceptual photography. Since then, she has produced works in multiple media that continue to probe the nature of images and how they construct meaning. Lorna Simpson: Source Notes focuses on a significant new development in her work of the last 10 years: paintings that advance her incisive explorations of gender, race, identity, representation, and history. Through more than 30 works, this focused exhibition presents a selection of Simpson’s major paintings, including examples from her acclaimed Venice Biennale debut in 2015 and her celebrated series Special Characters, along with recent sculptures and related collages.
For more information, click here.
Sunday, March 9, 2025
MEMPHIS: CALIDA RAWLES
Calida Rawles: Away With the Tides
March 19 - September 7, 2025
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
1934 Poplar Avenue
Memphis, TN
From brooksmuseum.org:
In her first solo museum presentation, Calida Rawles envisions water as a space for Black healing. Merging hyperrealism, poetic abstraction, and water's cultural and historical symbolisms, Rawles creates unique portraits of Black bodies submerged in and interacting with bright and mysterious bodies of water. The water, a sort of character within the paintings, is embodied as a vital, organic, multifaceted material and historically charged space that signifies historical trauma and racial exclusion but also physical and spiritual healing.
In this body of work, Rawles depicts members of Miami’s historically Black Overtown, a neighborhood that went from a thriving cultural and commercial hub for Black people to a community dismantled by gentrification, systemic racism, and mass displacement. Rawles partnered with members of this community and worked with them as models. In this series, Rawles takes her practice further by photographing some of her subjects in natural waters for the first time at the historic Virginia Key Beach, which was once racially segregated. By photographing Black subjects in the ocean for the first time, Rawles probes the Atlantic’s history as the site of the supremely exploitative transatlantic slave trade. The finished works critically engage with the water-entwined climate and mine the history of beauty, oppression, and resilience in the Overtown community and the diaspora.
For more information, click here.
March 19 - September 7, 2025
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
1934 Poplar Avenue
Memphis, TN
From brooksmuseum.org:
In her first solo museum presentation, Calida Rawles envisions water as a space for Black healing. Merging hyperrealism, poetic abstraction, and water's cultural and historical symbolisms, Rawles creates unique portraits of Black bodies submerged in and interacting with bright and mysterious bodies of water. The water, a sort of character within the paintings, is embodied as a vital, organic, multifaceted material and historically charged space that signifies historical trauma and racial exclusion but also physical and spiritual healing.
In this body of work, Rawles depicts members of Miami’s historically Black Overtown, a neighborhood that went from a thriving cultural and commercial hub for Black people to a community dismantled by gentrification, systemic racism, and mass displacement. Rawles partnered with members of this community and worked with them as models. In this series, Rawles takes her practice further by photographing some of her subjects in natural waters for the first time at the historic Virginia Key Beach, which was once racially segregated. By photographing Black subjects in the ocean for the first time, Rawles probes the Atlantic’s history as the site of the supremely exploitative transatlantic slave trade. The finished works critically engage with the water-entwined climate and mine the history of beauty, oppression, and resilience in the Overtown community and the diaspora.
For more information, click here.
Friday, March 7, 2025
CHICAGO: MIKE CLOUD
Circle Chat
March 7 - April 26, 2025
CORBETT VS. DEMPSEY
2156 West Fulton Street
Chicago, IL
March 7 - April 26, 2025
CORBETT VS. DEMPSEY
2156 West Fulton Street
Chicago, IL
From corbettvsdempsey.com:
In the North Gallery, Corbett vs. Dempsey is delighted to present Circle Chat, an exhibition of new paintings by Mike Cloud. This is the gallery's first show with the artist.
Mike Cloud (b. 1974) is a Chicago-based artist whose complex and vibrant paintings often utilize conventional support materials organized in unconventional ways. Stretcher bars, normally brought together at perpendicular angles, are instead conjoined into star or diamond shapes, one sometimes crossing in front of another like a highway offramp; canvas may be affixed to the front of the bar, rather than stretched around it, and thin strips of canvas might cross the field like streamers or banners. Are Cloud's paintings abstract? This is a complicated question to address. Are they representational? Yes, they represent specific and concrete things in the world – people, places, objects. Do they represent these things through visual likeness? Not so much. Instead, Cloud invokes other forms of semiosis, producing meanings through a variety of means – written language, linguistic permutations, website urls, hieroglyphs, pictograms, and other symbolic imagery such as hand-birds. Again, are they abstract? Yes, Cloud's paintings are abstract in the sense that they condense vast amounts of information into a limited space. In the new works presented in Circle Chat, Cloud has included two canvases that utilize hinges to fold into floor sculptures, one hinged horizontally like a construction site sign ("Oyster Oil"), the other hinged vertically, sitting on the floor like a scrim ("Kingdom of Luang Phrabang"). Highly specific, yet mysterious and spring-loaded, these virtuosic, operatic works are ultimately meditations on the fundaments of painting – color, facture, form, speed – and the relationship between the act of interpretation and being in the world.
For more information, click here.
In the North Gallery, Corbett vs. Dempsey is delighted to present Circle Chat, an exhibition of new paintings by Mike Cloud. This is the gallery's first show with the artist.
Mike Cloud (b. 1974) is a Chicago-based artist whose complex and vibrant paintings often utilize conventional support materials organized in unconventional ways. Stretcher bars, normally brought together at perpendicular angles, are instead conjoined into star or diamond shapes, one sometimes crossing in front of another like a highway offramp; canvas may be affixed to the front of the bar, rather than stretched around it, and thin strips of canvas might cross the field like streamers or banners. Are Cloud's paintings abstract? This is a complicated question to address. Are they representational? Yes, they represent specific and concrete things in the world – people, places, objects. Do they represent these things through visual likeness? Not so much. Instead, Cloud invokes other forms of semiosis, producing meanings through a variety of means – written language, linguistic permutations, website urls, hieroglyphs, pictograms, and other symbolic imagery such as hand-birds. Again, are they abstract? Yes, Cloud's paintings are abstract in the sense that they condense vast amounts of information into a limited space. In the new works presented in Circle Chat, Cloud has included two canvases that utilize hinges to fold into floor sculptures, one hinged horizontally like a construction site sign ("Oyster Oil"), the other hinged vertically, sitting on the floor like a scrim ("Kingdom of Luang Phrabang"). Highly specific, yet mysterious and spring-loaded, these virtuosic, operatic works are ultimately meditations on the fundaments of painting – color, facture, form, speed – and the relationship between the act of interpretation and being in the world.
For more information, click here.
Thursday, March 6, 2025
WEST HOLLYWOOD: CHARLES GAINES
Numbers and Trees: The Tanzania Baobabs
February 19 - May 24, 2025
HAUSER & WIRTH WEST HOLLYWOOD
8980 Santa Monica Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA
From hauserwirth.com:
For nearly six decades, pioneering conceptual artist Charles Gaines has used systems to create series of works that mine the complex relationship between perception and meaning. This February, following a major 2023 – 24 museum survey and an acclaimed public commission, Gaines returns to his hometown of Los Angeles to present a new sequence of his signature Plexiglas works at Hauser & Wirth West Hollywood—the most elaborate treatment yet of his ongoing Numbers and Trees series, first conceived by the artist in 1987. Consisting of nine large-scale triptychs and a suite of new watercolor diptychs, all works are based on photographs of baobab trees the artist shot during a trip to Tanzania in 2023.
For more information, click here.
February 19 - May 24, 2025
HAUSER & WIRTH WEST HOLLYWOOD
8980 Santa Monica Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA
From hauserwirth.com:
For nearly six decades, pioneering conceptual artist Charles Gaines has used systems to create series of works that mine the complex relationship between perception and meaning. This February, following a major 2023 – 24 museum survey and an acclaimed public commission, Gaines returns to his hometown of Los Angeles to present a new sequence of his signature Plexiglas works at Hauser & Wirth West Hollywood—the most elaborate treatment yet of his ongoing Numbers and Trees series, first conceived by the artist in 1987. Consisting of nine large-scale triptychs and a suite of new watercolor diptychs, all works are based on photographs of baobab trees the artist shot during a trip to Tanzania in 2023.
For more information, click here.
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
CLEVELAND: KARAMU ARTISTS INC (GROUP SHOW)
Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community
March 23 – August 17, 2025
CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART
March 23 – August 17, 2025
CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART
11150 East Boulevard
Cleveland, OH
From clevelandart.org:
The graphic arts played a groundbreaking role at Cleveland’s Karamu House, one of the nation’s preeminent Black community art centers. Initially founded as a settlement house in 1915, Karamu House became one of the best-known sites for Black American culture. Although noted today for its theater program, the institution housed a printmaking workshop beginning in the 1930s, where artists and community members alike—including a young Langston Hughes—could experiment with various techniques, playing on printmaking’s fundamental accessibility and democracy. This exploration led to the foundation of Karamu Artists Inc., a group that counted some of the most recognized Black printmakers of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) era—such as Elmer W. Brown, Hughie Lee-Smith, Charles Sallée, and William E. Smith—among its members. While a landmark 1942 traveling exhibition celebrated these printmakers’ expression of collective and personal identity, this exhibition is the first to place Karamu Artists Inc. and its innovative use of the graphic arts within the broader context of American art during the 1930s and ’40s, such as the WPA and the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance.
Karamu Artists Inc. presents more than 50 prints created by the group’s members, including works from the museum’s collection as well as important loans from local and national institutions. It is accompanied by a richly illustrated publication, featuring essays by leading scholars of Black American art.
The graphic arts played a groundbreaking role at Cleveland’s Karamu House, one of the nation’s preeminent Black community art centers. Initially founded as a settlement house in 1915, Karamu House became one of the best-known sites for Black American culture. Although noted today for its theater program, the institution housed a printmaking workshop beginning in the 1930s, where artists and community members alike—including a young Langston Hughes—could experiment with various techniques, playing on printmaking’s fundamental accessibility and democracy. This exploration led to the foundation of Karamu Artists Inc., a group that counted some of the most recognized Black printmakers of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) era—such as Elmer W. Brown, Hughie Lee-Smith, Charles Sallée, and William E. Smith—among its members. While a landmark 1942 traveling exhibition celebrated these printmakers’ expression of collective and personal identity, this exhibition is the first to place Karamu Artists Inc. and its innovative use of the graphic arts within the broader context of American art during the 1930s and ’40s, such as the WPA and the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance.
Karamu Artists Inc. presents more than 50 prints created by the group’s members, including works from the museum’s collection as well as important loans from local and national institutions. It is accompanied by a richly illustrated publication, featuring essays by leading scholars of Black American art.
For more information, click here.
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
MEMPHIS: FLOYD NEWSUM
Floyd Newsum: House of Grace
February 9 - April 6, 2025
February 9 - April 6, 2025
DIXON GALLERY AND GARDEN
4339 Park Avenue
Memphis, TN
From dixon.org:
Floyd Newsum was fond of saying: “You can delay my success, but you cannot determine it,” a variation of the well-known maxim, “success delayed is not success denied.” Newsum’s career exemplified this idea, having only achieved widespread recognition for his art relatively late in his life. The artist was well known in the art scene in Houston where he had lived and worked as a professor of art at the University of Houston-Downtown for 48 years. Newsum was also one of the founders of Project Row Houses, a work of social art created from a group of shotgun cottages located in Houston’s historically Black Third Ward that includes curated “art houses” serving as artists’ studios and exhibition spaces, residences for young single mothers, spaces for entrepreneurial businesses, and venues for events. Despite his fame in Houston, the artist viewed Floyd Newsum: House of Grace—the first major exhibition of his art in Memphis—as a homecoming. The show was an opportunity for him to demonstrate his talent and to give back to the communities where he was born, raised, and educated, first at Hamilton Elementary and Hamilton Junior and Senior High Schools, and at the Memphis Academy of Arts (later Memphis College of Art) where he was a member of the class of 1973.
Floyd Newsum: House of Grace features large paintings on paper and maquettes for public sculptures that represent the artist’s interest in social practice. The works in this exhibition were made between 2002 and 2024, a period of intense artistic flowering for Newsum marked by a shift in his style towards greater abstraction. His densely layered images include paintings in oil and acrylic with collaged photo transparencies and embedded three-dimensional objects including plastic forks, doll-house-sized wooden ladders, and the remnants of artistic materials such as partially used pastels or their paper labels.
Newsum was relentlessly positive as a person and as an artist. Visually, he articulated his optimistic and upbeat attitude through fabulous pulsating color combinations and a deeply personal, whimsical, and recurring vocabulary of images that produced expressive meditations on African American history, ancestors, spirituality, and, above all, freedom, faith, joy, and hope. His unexpected and untimely death on August 14, 2024, deepens the poignancy of this exhibition, and makes it all the more necessary for the Dixon Gallery and Gardens to celebrate Newsum’s art and life in his hometown.
Floyd Newsum was fond of saying: “You can delay my success, but you cannot determine it,” a variation of the well-known maxim, “success delayed is not success denied.” Newsum’s career exemplified this idea, having only achieved widespread recognition for his art relatively late in his life. The artist was well known in the art scene in Houston where he had lived and worked as a professor of art at the University of Houston-Downtown for 48 years. Newsum was also one of the founders of Project Row Houses, a work of social art created from a group of shotgun cottages located in Houston’s historically Black Third Ward that includes curated “art houses” serving as artists’ studios and exhibition spaces, residences for young single mothers, spaces for entrepreneurial businesses, and venues for events. Despite his fame in Houston, the artist viewed Floyd Newsum: House of Grace—the first major exhibition of his art in Memphis—as a homecoming. The show was an opportunity for him to demonstrate his talent and to give back to the communities where he was born, raised, and educated, first at Hamilton Elementary and Hamilton Junior and Senior High Schools, and at the Memphis Academy of Arts (later Memphis College of Art) where he was a member of the class of 1973.
Floyd Newsum: House of Grace features large paintings on paper and maquettes for public sculptures that represent the artist’s interest in social practice. The works in this exhibition were made between 2002 and 2024, a period of intense artistic flowering for Newsum marked by a shift in his style towards greater abstraction. His densely layered images include paintings in oil and acrylic with collaged photo transparencies and embedded three-dimensional objects including plastic forks, doll-house-sized wooden ladders, and the remnants of artistic materials such as partially used pastels or their paper labels.
Newsum was relentlessly positive as a person and as an artist. Visually, he articulated his optimistic and upbeat attitude through fabulous pulsating color combinations and a deeply personal, whimsical, and recurring vocabulary of images that produced expressive meditations on African American history, ancestors, spirituality, and, above all, freedom, faith, joy, and hope. His unexpected and untimely death on August 14, 2024, deepens the poignancy of this exhibition, and makes it all the more necessary for the Dixon Gallery and Gardens to celebrate Newsum’s art and life in his hometown.
For more information, click here.
Monday, March 3, 2025
VIDEO: MCARTHUR BINION
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2025
Sunday, March 2, 2025
PLEASANTVILLE: TONIKA JOHNSON
Tonika Johnson: Englewood
February 27 - April 18, 2025
THE GORDON PARKS FOUNDATION GALLERY
February 27 - April 18, 2025
THE GORDON PARKS FOUNDATION GALLERY
48 Wheeler Avenue
Pleasantville, NY
Tonika Johnson, a 2024 Gordon Parks Foundation Art Fellow, is a photographer and activist from Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. Through her work, she explores the impact of segregation and discriminatory housing practices like redlining, while reshaping the narrative surrounding South Side communities.
Inspired by Gordon Parks’s photography as a teenager, Johnson chose the camera as a tool for social justice. Her early work focused on capturing the everyday resilience, pride, and joy of her community, challenging negative stereotypes about Englewood. Over time, her efforts grew to include collaborations, public art projects, and community-driven initiatives that have fostered policy changes, historic preservation, and neighborhood revitalization, ultimately contributing to the economic empowerment of Englewood residents.
This exhibition showcases highlights from Johnson's projects, alongside films documenting her work, a poem by local author Leslé Honoré, and historical photographs by Gordon Parks from his time in Chicago. Johnson’s approach extends Parks’s legacy, illustrating how art can drive social change and advocacy.
For more information, click here.
Tonika Johnson, a 2024 Gordon Parks Foundation Art Fellow, is a photographer and activist from Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. Through her work, she explores the impact of segregation and discriminatory housing practices like redlining, while reshaping the narrative surrounding South Side communities.
Inspired by Gordon Parks’s photography as a teenager, Johnson chose the camera as a tool for social justice. Her early work focused on capturing the everyday resilience, pride, and joy of her community, challenging negative stereotypes about Englewood. Over time, her efforts grew to include collaborations, public art projects, and community-driven initiatives that have fostered policy changes, historic preservation, and neighborhood revitalization, ultimately contributing to the economic empowerment of Englewood residents.
This exhibition showcases highlights from Johnson's projects, alongside films documenting her work, a poem by local author Leslé Honoré, and historical photographs by Gordon Parks from his time in Chicago. Johnson’s approach extends Parks’s legacy, illustrating how art can drive social change and advocacy.
For more information, click here.
Saturday, March 1, 2025
NEW YORK: KIANJA STROBERT
Pennies from Heaven
February 27 - April 5, 2025
MARINARO
678 Broadway, Floor 3
New York, NY
Marinaro is excited to present Pennies from Heaven, Kianja Strobert's second solo exhibition with the gallery, showcasing her innovative approach to abstraction, sculpture, and the interplay of color and texture. The exhibition features pewter benches, handmade from wood, plastic, and metal, symbolizing public spaces of leisure and contemplation. Strobert incorporates objects like bread, ladles, and rope, evoking themes of memorialization, tension, and the weight of everyday items. The exhibition also includes vibrant fabric installations and sculptures, exploring instability, transformation, and the tension between permanence and decay. Strobert’s work masterfully blends abstraction with material experimentation, inviting personal reflection and commentary on consumer culture.
February 27 - April 5, 2025
MARINARO
678 Broadway, Floor 3
New York, NY
Marinaro is excited to present Pennies from Heaven, Kianja Strobert's second solo exhibition with the gallery, showcasing her innovative approach to abstraction, sculpture, and the interplay of color and texture. The exhibition features pewter benches, handmade from wood, plastic, and metal, symbolizing public spaces of leisure and contemplation. Strobert incorporates objects like bread, ladles, and rope, evoking themes of memorialization, tension, and the weight of everyday items. The exhibition also includes vibrant fabric installations and sculptures, exploring instability, transformation, and the tension between permanence and decay. Strobert’s work masterfully blends abstraction with material experimentation, inviting personal reflection and commentary on consumer culture.
For more information, click here.
Friday, February 28, 2025
NEW YORK: TYLER MITCHELL
Ghost Images
February 27 - April 5, 2025
GAGOSIAN
541 West 24th St
New York, NY
Gagosian presents Ghost Images, a new exhibition by Tyler Mitchell. This marks Mitchell’s debut solo exhibition in New York and the first since joining the gallery's global representation in late 2024. Drawing on Southern gothic themes and his Southern roots, Mitchell’s 2024 works explore the psychological space of memory, questioning how photography can capture unseen presences and document history. Shot on Jekyll and Cumberland Islands, off the coast of Georgia, his images feature veiled figures and utilize innovative techniques like printing on mirrors and fabric, exploring ephemerality and the layering of past and present. Ghost Images invites reflection on memory, history, and self-determination.
For more information, click here.
February 27 - April 5, 2025
GAGOSIAN
541 West 24th St
New York, NY
Gagosian presents Ghost Images, a new exhibition by Tyler Mitchell. This marks Mitchell’s debut solo exhibition in New York and the first since joining the gallery's global representation in late 2024. Drawing on Southern gothic themes and his Southern roots, Mitchell’s 2024 works explore the psychological space of memory, questioning how photography can capture unseen presences and document history. Shot on Jekyll and Cumberland Islands, off the coast of Georgia, his images feature veiled figures and utilize innovative techniques like printing on mirrors and fabric, exploring ephemerality and the layering of past and present. Ghost Images invites reflection on memory, history, and self-determination.
For more information, click here.
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
NEW YORK: AMANDA WILLIAMS
Run, Together and Look Ugly After the First Rain
February 28 - April 26, 2025
CASEY KAPLAN
121 West 27th St
New York, NY
From caseykaplangallery.com:
Amanda Williams’ debut exhibition at Casey Kaplan, Run Together and Look Ugly After the First Rain, reimagines George Washington Carver’s 1927 Prussian Blue pigment formula, bringing it to life as "Innovation Blue." In collaboration with chemistry students at The University of Chicago and Xavier University, Williams revives Carver’s use of local Alabaman red clay to create a new blue pigment, exploring the intersections of color, Black identity, and social significance. Her works, including paintings and collages, use the pigment to create abstracted shadows and corporeal impressions, reflecting on history, memory, and the power of color as a marker of liberatory space.
For more information, click here.
February 28 - April 26, 2025
CASEY KAPLAN
121 West 27th St
New York, NY
From caseykaplangallery.com:
Amanda Williams’ debut exhibition at Casey Kaplan, Run Together and Look Ugly After the First Rain, reimagines George Washington Carver’s 1927 Prussian Blue pigment formula, bringing it to life as "Innovation Blue." In collaboration with chemistry students at The University of Chicago and Xavier University, Williams revives Carver’s use of local Alabaman red clay to create a new blue pigment, exploring the intersections of color, Black identity, and social significance. Her works, including paintings and collages, use the pigment to create abstracted shadows and corporeal impressions, reflecting on history, memory, and the power of color as a marker of liberatory space.
For more information, click here.
Saturday, February 22, 2025
NEW YORK: MYRLANDE CONSTANT
Myrlande Constant: The Spiritual World of Haiti
February 28, 2025 – April 26, 2025
February 28, 2025 – April 26, 2025
FORT GANSEVOORT
5 Ninth Avenue
New York, NY
From fortgansevoort.com:
Fort Gansevoort presents an exhibition celebrating the evolution of internationally renowned Haitian artist Myrlande Constant’s groundbreaking textile artistry. Since the 1990s, Constant has redefined drapo Vodou—a traditionally male-dominated Haitian art form—through her intricate hand-beaded and sequin-embroidered works. Trained in tambour embroidery while working alongside her mother in a Port-au-Prince wedding dress factory, she has elevated this technique to fine art, breaking gender barriers and honoring the overlooked craftsmanship of Haitian women. Her signature style, marked by rich textures and vibrant colors, transforms fabric into resplendent, painterly compositions of striking optical impact.
For more information, click here.
5 Ninth Avenue
New York, NY
From fortgansevoort.com:
Fort Gansevoort presents an exhibition celebrating the evolution of internationally renowned Haitian artist Myrlande Constant’s groundbreaking textile artistry. Since the 1990s, Constant has redefined drapo Vodou—a traditionally male-dominated Haitian art form—through her intricate hand-beaded and sequin-embroidered works. Trained in tambour embroidery while working alongside her mother in a Port-au-Prince wedding dress factory, she has elevated this technique to fine art, breaking gender barriers and honoring the overlooked craftsmanship of Haitian women. Her signature style, marked by rich textures and vibrant colors, transforms fabric into resplendent, painterly compositions of striking optical impact.
For more information, click here.
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