black artists
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‘Quiet As It’s Kept’: Artist Kara Walker Creates the New Yorker’s Cover Tribute to Toni Morrison
Anyone familiar with the work of Toni Morrison knew it was a force, as was the woman who wrote it. The visions Morrison rendered were both unflinching and tender, exposing the sometimes shameful truths of our natures and whispering them back to us like a lover’s secret. The same could be said of the work…
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Figures of Speech: With His 1st Museum Exhibition, Virgil Abloh Says ‘I Was Speaking About Race the Whole Time’
“QUESTION EVERYTHING” reads the black and white flag waving in front of Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, coyly relabeled “City Hall” for the duration of Virgil Abloh’s new exhibition, Figures of Speech, which opens Monday. Abloh has certainly faced his share of questions, starting with how a first-gen Ghanaian-American from Rockford, Ill., rose to the…
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Homecoming: Virgil Abloh Returns to Chicago With Nike to Empower the City’s Youth
He’s conquered runways from New York City to Paris (and recently garnered significant criticism), but Virgil Abloh’s native Chicago is clearly never far from his heart, as proven by his newest venture. Teaming up with collaborator Nike, Abloh returns to his hometown to launch the NikeLab Chicago Re-Creation Center c/o Virgil Abloh from May 31…
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Artist Kara Walker Will Premiere New Work at England’s Tate Modern as the 2019 Hyundai Commission
She’s stunned audiences with her unflinching artistic analyses of antebellum slavery and post-colonial black iconography, and now, artist Kara Walker is bringing her bold, always conversational and sometimes controversial visions to Britain’s renowned Tate Modern museum, courtesy of Hyundai. As reported by Dazed Digital: The 2019 Hyundai Commission for the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall has…
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Spread Love: Alvin Ailey Embarks on Its 60th Anniversary National Tour
Still looking for the perfect gift to surprise your sweetie with this Valentine’s Day? How about a night filled with music, beauty, passion, and “Revelations”? Acclaimed dance company Alvin Ailey has now been stunning us for 60 years with dance, original choreography, and themes that celebrate the unique beauty and history of blackness in America.…
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Infinite Possibilities: Black Love Matters in Christina Anderson's How to Catch Creation
It’s impossible to talk about award-winning playwright Christina Anderson’s How to Catch Creation without talking about love; specifically, black love. In its world premiere at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre on Monday, Anderson’s multigenerational drama introduced six black characters whose love stories span almost a half century and explore the myriad and unique ways in which we…
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High Art: Artist Lorna Simpson to Receive the 2019 J. Paul Getty Medal
She’s a visionary who envisions us wholly; artist Lorna Simpson has been announced as one of 2019’s recipients of the J. Paul Getty Medal, the highest honor of the J. Paul Getty Trust, alongside Classicist Professor Mary Beard and fellow artist Ed Ruscha. “We award the Getty Medal to recognize outstanding achievement in the fields…
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Black Artists Unite to Revive Black Wall Street’s Legacy
At the turn of the 20th century, the thriving neighborhood of Greenwood, known as Black Wall Street, in Tulsa, Okla., was an epicenter of black wealth in the United States. From 1905 to 1921, it was a flourishing community filled with black families who owned businesses, homes, newspapers and churches. It was also the site…