black artists
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The Exhibit ‘Black Women: Power and Grace’ Shows the Timeless Strength and Beauty Within Us All
Long before social media liberated unadulterated images of black women’s beauty, there was Kamoinge. The Kamoinge photographers collective, founded in Harlem in 1963 under the direction of the venerable photographer Roy DeCarava, author of The Sweet Flypaper of Life, is officially opening its newest exhibition, “Black Women: Power and Grace,” Thursday night at the National…
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Artist Hank Willis Thomas Shines Spotlight on the Power of Protest
America’s No. 1 protest artist? Forget Banksy—meet Hank Willis Thomas. The African-American conceptual artist challenges ideas and oppression through themes of pop culture. He’s gained a huge following in the art and celebrity community, among them art lover Swizz Beats. Whether it’s photography, sculptures, installations or video, the messages are deeper than they appear on…
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Watch: Kerry James Marshall Just Sold the Most Expensive Painting by a Living African-American Artist [Updated]
Updated: Friday, May 18, 2018, 11:14 a.m. EDT: Plot twist—turns out, none other than Sean “Diddy” Combs was the mystery buyer of the Kerry James Marshall painting. The mogul made his bid through another buyer via phone. Marshall’s dealer told the New York Times that Combs was introduced to the artist’s work by fellow producer…
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Lynching Memorial: Ghanaian Artist Hopes Sculpture Captures Shared Pain Between African Americans and the Motherland
Kwame Akoto-Bamfo’s visa application for entry into the United States was denied last year. He’s from Ghana and was invited by the Equal Justice Initiative to build sculptures of African slaves at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which is dedicated to the victims of lynching in America. The memorial, along with the Legacy…
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We Got the Golden Ticket! Glowing Up at Studio Museum in Harlem’s Spring Luncheon
The Studio Museum in Harlem Spring Luncheon is the hot ticket event of the social season for Manhattan’s most powerful and influential black women. I know it’s spring when the #BlackGirlMagic telegraph starts buzzing in celebration of who’s going, who’s sitting with whom and, of course, what everyone’s wearing. Like Chirlane McCray, New York City’s…
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Mad Hatters: B.M. Franklin Has Your Custom Crowns
Is hat-making a lost art? No way. At B.M. Franklin & Co., a black-owned bespoke haberdashery in the heart of New York City, founded by classically trained hat-maker B.M. Franklin, the art of hat-making is thankfully alive and well. Recently, The Glow Up’s Veronica Webb dropped into the studio to find out how we can…
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Sean John x Jean-Michel Basquiat: A 20th-Anniversary Collaboration Honoring the Radiant Child
For the 20th anniversary of his Sean Jean clothing brand, Sean “Puffy” Combs’ latest artist collaboration is a partly posthumous one: a five-piece T-shirt-and-denim capsule collection featuring the work of painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. Combs—obviously also known as “Diddy”—and Jay-Z both collect the late painter and revere him in their lyrics. As Diddy rhymes in the…
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Forget That White Lady’s Emmett Till Painting; These Black Artists Are Truly Representing at the Whitney Biennial
At this year’s Whitney Biennial, the award for the most discussed and divisive piece of art easily goes to white artist Dana Schutz’s painting of the dead body of Emmett Till called Open Casket. The painting has provoked protests and sparked debates about white exploitation of black trauma, freedom of expression and censorship. As a…
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Beyoncé Should Win All the Grammys This Weekend, but It Won’t Make Up for How This Show Treats Black Women and Black Art
On its surface, when news hit of Beyoncé leading the 2017 Grammy Awards with nine nominations, it read as nothing short of a win for the behemoth pop star. The Houston native has scored nods in the three big categories: Album of the Year, for her sixth studio offering, Lemonade; and Song of the Year…