Category: Visual Artist Spotlight

September marks the beginning of “Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980,” a collaboration of more than 60 cultural institutions across Southern California, including San Diego, Santa Barbara and Palm Springs Initiated through grants from the Getty Foundation, this groundbreaking milestone event highlights the birth of the Los Angeles art scene post-World War II and …

Continue reading “EYE ON ART: Three Area Art Museums Highlighted In L.A.”

“Posing Beauty in African American Culture,” presented by the USC Fisher Museum of Art, delivers a visual feast of stunning photographs attempting to discuss what it has meant to be “black and beautiful” throughout black history. The leading themed section, “Constructing a Pose,” offers a snapshot into the lives of blacks through both natural and …

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The new SCAD Museum of Art is a significantly expanded and re-imagined contemporary art and design museum conceived and designed expressly to enrich the educational milieu for SCAD students, professors, and art and design enthusiasts. SCAD Museum of Art re-opens to the public on Saturday, October 29. Inaugural exhibitions at the new museum include: Bill …

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When the Mint Museum opens its major retrospective of work by noted collage artist Romare Bearden in September, Raleigh and Thelmetia Bynum plan to be among the opening night visitors. But they might feel more at home among these masterpieces than most viewers. Not only do the Bynums have their own collection of works by …

Continue reading “"Back Home" sweet home”

On August 28, 1963, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington. On Sunday August 28, 2011, exactly 48 years later, community members gathered in Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Park at 4055 Nicollet Avenue South to celebrate the MLK Memorial in Washington, …

Continue reading “MLK Park and ‘Freedom Form #2’ sculpture rededicated”

The “Collard Greens” Circuit: An Alternative Model for the Distribution and Exhibition of African-American Independent Cinema All too often in the African-American community our conformist tendencies and moral conservatism leads us to a moribund complacency that is just as dangerous for our community as a whole as it is for our culture and the art …

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The lifelong passion of a man has found a new home in Tuscaloosa. The Paul R. Jones Gallery of Art, located at 2308 Sixth St., is currently housing a 1,700-piece collection of American art estimated at over $4.8 million. The collection, donated to the University of Alabama in 2008 by Alabama native Paul R. Jones, …

Continue reading “Gallery helps create epicenter for art”

The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts dedicates a special night to the military community every year. The free open house, held Aug. 18, honored active duty, Reserve, Guard, retirees and their families in the River Region. “This evening is our special way of demonstrating our appreciation for the contributions made by current and retired military …

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Save the date for the, “15th Annual Baltimore County African American Cultural Festival” on Saturday, September 17th from 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. at Towson Courts Patriot Plaza, 400 Washington Avenue in Towson. Entertainment will feature: Anthony David, Art Sherrod, Trina Broussard, Noel Gourdin, Marcus Johnson and April Sampe. Participants interested in the Idol Competition …

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The Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial, to be dedicated Sunday, is the first monument to a black leader on the National Mall, a landscape devoted to American cultural and political iconography. In Philadelphia, there is no such memorial, to King or any other black leader, in Center City. No African Americans have been favored …

Continue reading “An absence of tributes to black leaders”

Nick Ashford, who along with wife Valerie Simpson helped set the gold standard for R&B duets, both as songwriters and performers, died of throat cancer Monday in a New Yorkhospital. He was 69. Ashford & Simpson — you can’t think of one without the other — penned and produced almost all of the ’60s hits …

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“Summertime,” one of the most recorded songs in music history, has been reinterpreted by everyone from Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, to Brian Wilson and Janis Joplin. But the lullaby was first heard in “Porgy & Bess,” a 1935 American folk opera by George Gerswhin, his brother Ira Gershwin, and author DuBose Heyward. Now, 76 …

Continue reading “‘Porgy & Bess:’ Tweaking A Classic For The 21st Century”

Kevin Jerome Everson’s short films about ordinary African-American life are completely unordinary. Yet despite their frequent appearance in film festivals and on museum film programs, they have yet to sink fully into art world consciousness. Even when Mr. Everson’s striking seven-minute “Emergency Needs” was in the 2008 Whitney Biennial, it was sidelined, as biennial films …

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Emilio Sosa is making it work. The 45-year-old “Project Runway”-finalist landed the plum role of costumer for “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess,” which opened last night at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime production,” Sosa said of the revival opera that will head to Broadway after its fall run. A.R.T.’s controversial production, …

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Savannah steals a little thunder this fall with the opening of a major showcase for African-American art, but Atlanta doesn’t lack for big cultural events of its own. Here’s a quick sampling: The Walter O. Evans Center for African American Studies, adding an exemplary collection of African-American art collected by the retired Savannah surgeon to …

Continue reading “African-American art in Savannah, fests, more in store”