LOS ANGELES: ALICE COLTRANE

Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal

Feb 9 – May 4, 2025

HAMMER MUSEUM
10899 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA

From hammer.ucla.edu:

The exhibition Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal is inspired by the life and legacy of jazz musician, devotional leader, and mother Alice Coltrane (b. 1937, Detroit). The title takes its name from her book Monument Eternal (1977), which reflected her newfound spiritual beliefs; the loss of her husband, the saxophonist John Coltrane; and the path to healing and self-discovery. The exhibition presents works by contemporary American artists paired with ephemera from Coltrane’s personal archive. Featuring a range of mediums including video, installation, performance, and sculpture together with Coltrane’s archival handwritten sheet music, unreleased audio recordings, and rarely seen video footage, Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal explores themes including spiritual transcendence, sonic innovation, and architectural intimacy to honor Coltrane’s cultural output and practice.

This exhibition is part of a larger initiative called “The Year of Alice," and in partnership with the John & Alice Coltrane Home.

For more information, click here.

LOS ANGELES: LUTHER VANDROSS

Luther Vandross: Artistry and Elegance 

Nov 20, 2024 - June 15, 2025

GRAMMY MUSEUM
800 West Olympic Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA

From grammymuseum.org:

Luther Vandross: Artistry and Elegance celebrates the extraordinary life and legacy of Luther Vandross, an eight-time GRAMMY® winner, revered songwriter, arranger, producer, performer, and one of the most gifted vocalists in music history. The exhibit offers an intimate glimpse into Vandross’ creative process and showcases his ornate stage wardrobe, exclusive performance footage from his popular tours, and a never-before-heard recording of him in the studio.

For more information, click here.

BOSTON: JOHN WILSON

Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson

February 8 - June 25, 2025

MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS BOSTON
465 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA

From mfa.org:

Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson is the largest-ever exhibition of Wilson’s work, co-organized by the MFA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Featuring approximately 110 works by the artist in a wide range of media—prints, drawings, paintings, sculpture, and illustrated books—the exhibition explores the many ways Wilson called attention to racial, social, and economic injustices through his art. Challenging both biases and omissions, Wilson explored subjects that include anti-Black violence, the civil rights movement, labor, and family life—with a particular focus on fatherhood.

The exhibition was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.


For more info, click here.

NEW YORK: DAWOUD BEY

Stony the Road

January 10 - February 22, 2025

SEAN KELLY GALLERY
475 Tenth Avenue
New York, NY

From Sean Kelly web site:

Sean Kelly is delighted to announce the exhibition, Dawoud Bey: Stony the Road, the gallery’s third exhibition with the artist. The exhibition will feature the artist’s newest photographic series, Stony the Road, (2023), and his related film, 350,000, (2023) which center on Richmond, Virginia, as the historical terrain where African captives first arrived in the United States and were marched into enslavement.

Commissioned and first exhibited by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in 2023, Bey’s Stony the Road series is the third chapter in the artist’s ongoing exploration of the deep connections between African American history, the American landscape and the traumas embedded in those landscapes. Dawoud Bey: Stony the Road marks the series New York debut, opening at Sean Kelly with a reception for the artist on Thursday, January 9, 2025 from 6-8pm.

To read the full press release CLICK HERE.

TRANSITION: PEGGY COOPER CAFRITZ (1947 - 2018)

Peggy Cooper Cafritz, grande dame of Washington arts and education scene, dies at 70

WE GO THROUGH CHANGES: LORNA SIMPSON

Lorna Simpson, America's Most Defiant Conceptual Artist, Makes A Radical Change -- To Painting

RESIDUAL EFFECTS: KERRY JAMES MARSHALL

A Kerry James Marshall painting sold for $5 million, but he didn’t see any of it

NEW YORK: SERGE ALAIN NITEGEKA

Personal Effects in BLACK
January 11 - February 24, 2018

MARIANNE BOESKY GALLERY
509 & 507 West 24th Street
New York, NY

From Marianne Boesky Gallery e-blast:

The exhibition features a new body of work by Serge Alain Nitegeka with geometric compositions that arise spontaneously on the wood panels. Matte and glossy blacks appear in wide strokes and in fine, delicate lines across crisp whites, warm yellows, and cool blues, creating a complex web of layers that seem to reach further and further beyond the surface field. Perceptions of depth are further complicated by the incorporation of additional wood panels and forms, producing a physical depth in some works that is only perceived in others. The flow between the real and imagined is further heightened by the installation in the gallery’s corridor.

To read the full press release CLICK HERE.

SPOTLIGHT: GENEVIEVE GAIGNARD

With Costumes and Camp, Genevieve Gaignard Is Telling New Stories about Race and Beauty

NEW YORK: PHILEMONA WILLIAMSON

Hovering Tales
October 13 - November 14, 2017

JUNE KELLY GALLERY
166 Mercer Street
New York, NY

New paintings by East Coast-based artist.

TO BE LOVED: BETYE SAAR TO RECEIVE THREE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT HONORS

The artist "will be honored on three occasions for her invaluable contributions to contemporary art history over the past six decades."

SPOTLIGHT: NAIMA J. KEITH

Naima Keith's Electric Vision: Giving the California African American Museum a Jolt of Energy

NEW YORK: WILLIAM VILLALONGO

Keep On Pushing
October 26 - December 9, 2017

Artist Reception: Thursday, October 26, 2017, 6 pm to 8 pm

SUSAN INGLETT GALLERY
522 West 22nd Street
New York, NY

From Susan Inglett Gallery e-blast:

Susan Inglett Gallery is pleased to present Keep on Pushing, an exhibition of new cut-paper work and paintings on panel by William Villalongo.

Known for irreverent riffs on the art historical "muse," Villalongo has made episodic paintings and works on paper, which underscore historical erasure and master narratives of desire. In his fifth solo exhibition at Susan Inglett Gallery, the artist turns his attention to the black male figure, while returning to his signature cut velvet paper works.

This new body of work suggests a re-imagining of the black male figure at a time when current events and statistics reflect a social reality of limited expectations, contingency, and disproportionate fear. Within the dark tones of these meditations on physiology, the artist uses metaphors of invisibility, nature, and reformation as necessary conditions of being. Much like fallen autumn leaves, Villalongo's men navigate their world, subject to an unpredictable wind - piling, spinning, and re-collecting. The work conjures spaces of sensuality, humor, and history. Titled after Curtis Mayfield's 1970 hit song, "Keep on Pushing," this body of work speaks to the inherent human spirit's will to persevere and to find a way.

HEADS UP: CHARLES WHITE RETROSPECTIVE

From artdesignchicago.org:

Charles White: A Retrospective unites a selection of the artist's finest works, speaking to their universal appeal and stunning beauty and their relevance to audiences today. The exhibition’s focused and overdue consideration of White's work and influence in Chicago proves invaluable in understanding the ongoing themes of his art and his later artistic development even after his departure from the city. While centered on White, the exhibition also seeks to further understanding of Chicago's immense contributions to American art history and deepen understanding of White's artistic production through the close examination of his early and later work in light of his context to Chicago.

Exhibition venues and dates: 

THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO, June 10, 2018 - September 3, 2018

MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (New York), October 7, 2018 – January 13, 2019 

LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART, March 3, 2019 – June 9, 2019.

NEW YORK: VAGINAL DAVIS

Vaginal Davis & Louise Nevelson: Chimera
September 8 - October 22, 2017

INVISIBLE-EXPORTS
89 Eldridge Street
New York, NY

From invisible-exports.com:

INVISIBLE-EXPORTS is proud to present, Chimera,  a two-person show featuring two grandstanding, iconoclastic, and spectacular women.

CHICAGO: GERALD WILLIAMS

Gerald Williams

September 9 - December 2, 2017

KAVI GUPTA

219 North Elizabeth Street

Chicago, IL

From kavigupta.com:

Kavi Gupta is pleased to present Gerald Williams, the first solo exhibition of the work of AfriCOBRA co-founder Gerald Williams in more than 20 years.

NEW YORK: BARBARA CHASE-RIBOUD

Barbara Chase-Riboud - Malcolm X: Complete
September 9 - November 4, 2017

MICHAEL ROSENFELD GALLERY
100 Eleventh Avenue @ 19th
New York, NY

From michaelrosenfeldart.com:

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery proudly presents Barbara Chase-Riboud—Malcolm X: Complete, an exhibition celebrating her now complete series of monumental bronze and fiber sculptures that the artist created in honor of the slain human rights leader. The exhibition, her second large-scale solo show at the gallery, will be accompanied by a fully illustrated color catalog featuring a recent interview with the artist by Carlos Basualdo, the Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator of Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

NEW YORK: SADIE BARNETTE

Compland
September 14 - October 28, 2017

FORT GANSEVOORT
5 Ninth Avenue
New York, NY

From Fort Gansevoort press release:

Barnette’s inaugural exhibition with the gallery features a mergence of photography, drawing and installation to create a dynamic exploration of the abstraction of urban space and the transcendence of the mundane to the imaginative. The title Compland suggests a mythical cultural space, though geographically impossible, blending the California cities of Compton and Oakland. For the artist, these cities each hold equal parts biographical significance and importance as iconic places defining west coast culture, from Black Power to hip hop. Family photographs and ephemera punctuate Barnette’s imagined space with evidence of the real. California 1970’s living rooms, stacks of money and coins, sidewalk cracks and fences, stucco buildings and hello kitty toys are viewed alongside splashes of glitter and otherworldly holographic iridescence.

Press:

Jay-Z and Beyoncé privately tour hot new art show

NEW YORK: KARA WALKER

SIKKEMA JENKINS AND CO. IS COMPELLED TO PRESENT THE MOST ASTOUNDING AND IMPORTANT PAINTING SHOW OF THE FALL ART SHOW VIEWING SEASON! COLLECTORS OF FINE ART WILL FLOCK TO SEE THE LATEST KARA WALKER OFFERINGS, AND WHAT IS SHE OFFERING BUT THE FINEST SELECTION OF ARTWORKS BY AN AFRICANAMERICAN LIVING WOMAN ARTIST THIS SIDE OF THE MISSISSIPPI. MODEST COLLECTORS WILL FIND HER PRICES REASONABLE, THOSE OF A HEARTIER DISPOSITION WILL RECOGNIZE BARGAINS! SCHOLARS WILL STUDY AND DEBATE THE HISTORICAL VALUE AND INTELLECTUAL MERITS OF MISS WALKER’S DIVERSIONARY TACTICS. ART HISTORIANS WILL WONDER WHETHER THE WORK REPRESENTS A DEPARTURE OR A CONTINUUM. STUDENTS OF COLOR WILL EYE HER WORK SUSPICIOUSLY AND EXERCISE THEIR FREE RIGHT TO CULTURALLY ANNIHILATE HER ON SOCIAL MEDIA. PARENTS WILL COVER THE EYES OF INNOCENT CHILDREN. SCHOOL TEACHERS WILL REEXAMINE THEIR ART HISTORY CURRICULA. PRESTIGIOUS ACADEMIC SOCIETIES WILL WITHDRAW THEIR SUPPORT, FORMER HUSBANDS AND FORMER LOVERS WILL RECOIL IN ABJECT TERROR. CRITICS WILL SHAKE THEIR HEADS IN BEMUSED SILENCE. GALLERY DIRECTORS WILL WRING THEIR HANDS AT THE SIGHT OF THRONGS OF THE GALLERY-CURIOUS FLOODING THE PAVEMENT OUTSIDE. THE FINAL PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WILL VISIBLY WINCE. EMPIRES WILL FALL, ALTHOUGH WHICH ONES, ONLY TIME WILL TELL.

September 7 - October 14, 2017

SIKKEMA JENKINS & CO.

530 West 22nd Street

New York, NY

The show's title says it all. #nuffsaid

Press:

Kara Walker is tired of Talking. But Her Canvases Scream.

Kara Walker's Ghosts of Future Evil

Kara Walker Traces Slavery's Bitter Legacy With New Ways of Drawing

CHICAGO: SENGA NENGUDI

Senga Nengudi: Improvisational Gestures 
September 7 - December 10, 2017

DEPAUL ART MUSEUM 
935 West Fullerton Avenue
Chicago, IL

From museums.depaul.edu:

Senga Nengudi: Improvisational Gesture is the artist’s first solo museum survey and features work from the 1970s to the present, including documentation of early performances.

“Senga Nengudi is one of the most important American artists of the past 50 years, yet she is still under-recognized,” said Julie Rodrigues Widholm, director and chief curator of the DePaul Art Museum. “Her work continues to be relevant as we think about the body, identity and ways art can be innovative and connect people.”

EVANSTON: CARRIE MAE WEEMS

Carrie Mae Weems: Ritual and Revolution
September 12 - December 10, 2017

MARY AND LEIGH BLOCK MUSEUM OF ART
40 Arts Circle Drive
Evanston, IL

From blockmuseum.northwestern.edu:

Ritual and Revolution (1998) is an immersive, gallery-sized installation that marks one of the artist’s earliest forays into three dimensions. Composed of 18 diaphanous printed cloth banners organized in a semi-architectural formation and a poetic audio track, Ritual and Revolution explores the historic human struggle for equality and justice, including references to the Middle Passage, the French Revolution, World War II, among others.

NEW YORK: JEFF SONHOUSE

Masked Reduction
September 14 - October 28, 2017

TILTON GALLERY
8 East 76th Street 
New York, NY

From Tilton Gallery Press Release:

Masked Reduction [is] an exhibition of new works by Jeff Sonhouse. This is the artist's fourth solo exhibition with the gallery. 

CHICAGO: NATHANIEL MARY QUINN

Nothing's Funny
September 8 - October 21, 2017

RHONA HOFFMAN GALLERY
118 North Peoria Street
Chicago, IL

The Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based artist's second solo show with the gallery.

NEW YORK: SANFORD BIGGERS

Selah
September 7 - October 21, 2017

MARIANNE BOESKY GALLERY
507 West 24th Street
New York, NY

From Marianne Boesky Press Release:

Marianne Boesky Gallery is pleased to present Selah, Sanford Biggers’ first solo exhibition with the gallery. Through symbolic gestures and imagery Biggers creates an experience that highlights often overlooked cultural and political narratives in American History. The artist’s expansive body of work encompasses painting, sculptures, textiles, video, film, multi-component installations, and performance. Biggers’ syncretic practice positions him as a collaborator with the past, adding his own voice and perspective to those who made and used the antique quilts, African sculptures, and cultural imagery he references. His work speaks to current social, political, and economic happenings as well as to the historic context that bore them.

LONDON: JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT

Basquiat: Boom for Real
September 21, 2017 - January 28, 2018

BARBICAN CENTRE
Silk Street
London, UK

The first large-scale exhibition in the UK of the work of American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Press:

The first major UK Basquiat exhibition is coming

DETROIT: SAY IT LOUD

Say It Loud: Art, History, Rebellion

July 23, 2017 - January 2, 2018

THE CHARLES H. WRIGHT MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY
315 East Warren Avenue
Detroit, MI

From thewright.org:

Say It Loud: Art, History, Rebellion is a two-part exhibition that commemorates the 1960s rebellions, observes the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Detroit Rebellion, and compares the uprisings of the past to the upheavals that shocked our nation in the 21st century.

The first part of Say It Loud [is] installed outside on the museum’s grounds. Using photographs and quotes, which present the events that led up to the Detroit rebellion and describe what occurred in its aftermath. United We Stand, the 24-foot sculpture by Charles McGee, serves as a symbol for the only way that Detroit can continue to manifest and maintain change for the future. We invite visitors to view these installations anytime of the day or night.

The second part of Say It Loud [is] presented inside the museum’s AT&T and Chase Galleries, during regular museum hours. This exhibition brings together more than 40 nationally recognized artists from multiple generations and relies on works across disciplines to help illustrate the awe, tragedy, and potential for transformation when the people rebel.

DETROIT: ART OF REBELLION

Art of Rebellion: Black Art of the Civil Rights Movement
July 23 - October 22, 2017

DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS (DIA)
5200 Woodward Avenue
Detroit, MI

From dia.org:
Explore powerful artworks by African American artists who formed collectives during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. These collectives, made up of artists working together in distinct groups, created art specifically for African American audiences that asserted black identity and racial justice.

This exhibition includes 34 paintings, sculptures, installations and photographs produced by artists working both collectively and independently to address social and political issues surrounding the Civil Rights Movement and today. Situated within the story of these collectives is the Detroit rebellion of 1967.

MINNEAPOLIS: THE SHOP

The Shop: An Exhibition Based on the Iconography and Culture of the Black Barbershop
July 1 - July 15, 2017

Curated by CRICE Kahlil

Featuring works by

Noah Lawrence-Holder
CRICE Khalil
Seitu Jones
Candice Davis
Ta–coumba Aiken 
Emma Eubanks 
Bobby Rogers
Keith Williams


From publicfunctionary.org:

The Shop is a multi-media art exhibition based on the iconography and culture of the Black barbershop. The exhibition recalls the Afro-centric rumination central to the barbershop experience. Black hair, historically an object of ridicule, has evolved into a symbol of pride and rebellion. The barbershop is a microcosm of the African American experience. It is a place where the past, present and future combine and authenticity is valued most.

The works will showcase a wide array of artistic disciplines including paintings, photography, screen prints, drawings and digital art, sharing different perspectives in response to the importance of the barbershop experience to the Black community. The show will feature both emerging and established Black artists creating work around the theme, a rare cross-generational collective show highlighting African American artists collectively engaging with the broader Minneapolis arts scene.

Press:

More than a shave and a haircut: Artists explore the black barbershop at Public Functionary in Minneapolis

EAST HAMPTON: COLOR PEOPLE (CURATED BY RASHID JOHNSON)

Color People
July 1 - July 25, 2017

Participating artists:

Marina Adams
McArthur Binion
Robert Colescott
Sam Gilliam
Alteronce Gumby
Mary Heilmann
Loie Hollowell
Tony Lewis
Walter Price
Nathaniel Mary Quinn
Amy Sherald
Bob Thompson
Mary Weatherford

RENTAL GALLERY
87 Newton Lane
East Hampton, NY

From Rental Gallery e-blast:

"Color People is an exhibition I've long considered organizing. It's born of a twenty-year obsession with the work of the artist Bob Thompson. The artists included are a wide range of painters whose works perform differently but with a shared radicality in their employment and understanding of color. This exhibition doesn't speak to a time or place. The relationships formed here between works are often opaque and intentionally diverse. Some of these artists are heroes of mine, while others I've only recently been introduced to. They're bonded by my interest in their work. I've often found that artist-organized exhibitions are most successful when the artist chooses to include works they wish they'd made themselves. This exhibition follows that philosophy."  –Rashid Johnson

HEADS UP: AUGUSTA SAVAGE

Cummer Museum to host Augusta Savage exhibit

NEW YORK: ALVIN BALTROP

At the Hudson River Piers
June 29 - August 19, 2017

Images selected by Douglas Crimp

GALERIE BUCHHOLZ
17 East 82nd Street
New York, NY 

From Third Steaming (3S) e-blast:

"The photographs of Alvin Baltrop (1948-2004) were virtually unknown during the artist’s lifetime. A working-class African-American many of whose photographs are sexually explicit, Baltrop encountered only rejection. In the past decade, his work has belatedly begun to be exhibited, including at Third Streaming and MoMA/PS1 in New York City, the Reina Sofia in Madrid, and the Contemporary Art Museum, Houston. By far the largest cache of Baltrop’s extant photographs depicts the scene at the dilapidated Hudson River piers adjacent to Greenwich Village and the Meat Packing District. During the 1970s and into the 1980s, when Baltrop photographed there, the piers were a site of pleasure and danger for men seeking sex, sunbathing, making a provisional home, or just hanging out and taking in the splendor of the industrial ruins. More nefarious deeds also took place: theft, gay-bashing, even murder." - Douglas Crimp

MILWAUKEE: RASHID JOHNSON

Hail We Now Sing Joy

June 23 - September 17, 2017

MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM

700 North Art Museum Drive

Milwaukee, WI

From mam.org:

Hail We Now Sing Joy is an exhibition of new paintings and sculptures by acclaimed Chicago native Rashid Johnson. Using his signature materials of white ceramic tile, red oak flooring, shea butter, black soap, and wax, Johnson examines themes of race, history, yearning, anxiety, and escape and investigates the relationship between art, society, and personal identity. Fourteen of the artist’s large-scale works will fill the Museum’s entire feature exhibition space; their impact is as monumental as their size.

CINCINNATI: NJIDEKA AKUNYILI CROSBY

The Predecessors
July 14 - October 1, 2017

CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTER
44 East 6th Street
Cincinnati, OH

The Predecessors mines deep into Akunyili Crosby's past, collecting portraits of her Nigerian family in a range of domestic settings. This exhibition will unite this seminal series for the first time, bringing together individual pieces from London, Johannesburg, New York and Los Angeles to celebrate a formative body in an artist's rapidly emerging voice.

NASHVILLE: WESLEY CLARK

The Prophet's Library
May 13 - July 8, 2017

TINNEY CONTEMPORARY
237 5th Avenue
Nashville, TN

From tinneycontemporary.com:

Wesley Clark's work focuses on the issues faced by African-Americans and the African diaspora. He explores race, politics, and history using various tactile materials. Clark describes The Prophet's Library as "a narratively driven collection of artifacts." His previous showing at Tinney Contemporary offered pieces made mostly from wood, but this new work experiments with resin sculpture, mixed media printmaking, and painting.

ON BLAST: THEASTER GATES

Cracks in the Foundation: Former employees of Theaster Gates's Rebuild Foundation allege mistreatment