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Two New Shows That Celebrate Black Women Artists
Two upcoming shows, one on each coast, will soon celebrate the myriad contributions of black women to the landscape of American art. “Power,” curated by Todd Levin at Sprüth Magers Los Angeles, is a major survey of work from the 19th century to the present, and includes pieces by Faith Ringgold, Mickalene Thomas and Kara Walker. The exhibition, titled after a 1970 gospel song, considers art as a means of resistance, whether in a pointed way — as in the case of contemporary photographer Nona Faustine’s nude self-portraits, meant to recall the slave trade — or merely by existing in the face of oppression, as is true of Alma Thomas’s ’60s-era abstract paintings.
Meanwhile, at the Brooklyn Museum, “We Wanted a Revolution” spans from 1965, the year of the Selma to Montgomery march, to 1985, exposing complexities of feminism, womanism, race and gender equality that we’re still sorting through. “It feels pressing now but it’s a conversation that black women have been having since the early 18th century,” says one of the exhibition’s curators, Rujeko Hockley, who helped select pieces by some 40 artists. One such work, a striking black-and-white photograph Lorna Simpson took of a young Carrie Mae Weems in Mexico, speaks to the bonds between black women and how those relationships inspire. Weems appears to be sitting alone, but of course Simpson is there with her, just behind the lens.
Art and Museums in New York City
A guide to the shows, exhibitions and artists shaping the city’s cultural landscape.
A bounteous and playful survey of Joan Jonas’s, career on the vanguard highway fills the museum and the Drawing Center with the 87-year-old artist’s work..
Francesca Woodman’s crowning achievement, “Blueprint for a Temple (II),” is accorded pride of place in a show that includes more than 50 lifetime prints.
Kiyan Williams, for their Whitney Biennial commission, recreated the column-lined facade of the White House from soil. Viewers can watch as it crumbles, sprouts plants and births insects.
A new installation at the New-York Historical Society acknowledges a notorious purchase 400 years ago — and lets the Lenape tell their side.
The Whitney Biennial, New York’s most prominent showcase of new American (or American-ish) art, is currently underway. Will this year’s edition go down as a notable one?
Looking for more art in the city? Here are the gallery shows not to miss in March.
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