Art
Off the Record Confronts Our Understanding of Objectivity
A forceful rejection of neutrality, the Guggenheim exhibition unearths the deeply biased natures of media and government systems.
Alexandra M. Thomas
Art
Lorraine O’Grady’s First Retrospective Is Both Invigorating and Overdue
O’Grady’s rebellious spirit has roused the mainstream art world for close to 50 years, and her latest exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum is no exception.
Books
Lessons on Propaganda: Visualizing Empire Counters the Colonial Archive
The Getty volume is replete with vital lessons on studying and historicizing imperial ephemera.
Art
Mildred Thompson’s Confounding, Cosmological Abstractions
There’s a certain irony to the fact that Thompson, an artist who was so in-tune with the patterns of nature and the universe, posed such a fundamental challenge to mainstream art histories.
Art
In Inky Blacks and Earthy Pastels, Reggie Burrows Hodges Crafts Collective Portraits
Dwelling somewhere between abstraction and figuration, Hodges’s impressionistic paintings enact a critique of rugged individualism.
Art
The Contours of Black American Life, According to Gordon Parks
Viewing Parks’s photographs in 2021 offers stark, graceful reminders of the ongoing fight for civil rights.
Art
Enter the Rich, Vibrant Worlds of Thornton Dial
Dial World offers an exciting, if selective, opportunity to gauge the artist’s formal impact — one long overdue.
Art
A Thought-provoking Teach-in on Anti-Blackness and the Art of Collective Care
Organized by La Tanya S. Autry, scholars, artists, and museum professionals including Christina Sharpe, Key Jo Lee, and William C. Anderson gathered to discuss the limits and possibilities of art to address anti-Blackness.
Art
With Incisive Urgency, Howardena Pindell Confronts the Lingering Impacts of Racism
Uniting the personal and the political, Rope/Fire/Water positions Pindell’s creative process as entry points towards learning and healing, for both herself and others.
Books
Lorraine O’Grady, in All of Her Literary Brilliance
The first book to offer a comprehensive overview of O’Grady’s writings, Writing in Space 1973 — 2019 affirms both the range and reach of the artist’s impact upon an art world that has only belatedly recognized her.
Art
Embodying a Queer, Pan-Africanist Approach to Spirituality
With Hybrid Spirit, Adejoke Tugbiyele proposes a visual language that explores the intimate connections between queerness, Indigenous African spirituality, and feminism.
Art
The Long, Rich History of Africa’s Sahel Region
More than merely a grand survey of art from the region, Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara mobilizes discussions around migration and contemporary cultural stewardship.