Captioned Black Art
Your Curated Art Museum
Get cultured in five minutes or less . . .
“Harmony, radiance, and simplicity, all the essentials of spiritual beauty in the race they had marked for destruction.”
— Nella Larsen, Quicksand
A Snippet:
Did you know that first editions of Nella Larsen’s works are rare, as she mysteriously disappeared from Harlem’s literary and arts community after publishing two successful novels and becoming the first African-American woman to win a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1930?
Learn more . . .
169. “ma foreva thang” (2019)
“I feel honored to archive, in a community sense, all of our contributions, ones that I’m alive to experience, but also ones that came before me.”
— Lauren Halsey
Did you know?
Did you know Lauren Halsey (b. 1987, Los Angeles) is rethinking the possibilities for art, architecture, and community engagement with her Summaeverythang (Some of Everything) Community Center—a space bringing art, health and wellness, and education to kids in South Central?
Halsey produces both standalone artworks and site-specific projects, particularly in the South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles where her family has lived for many generations.
Critiques of gentrification and disenfranchisement are accompanied by real-world proposals as well as celebration of on-the-ground aesthetics. Inspired by Afrofuturism and funk, Halsey creates a visionary form of culture that is radical and collaborative.
170. “A clear unspoken granted magic” (2017)
“Self-narration is something that we didn’t, as Black people, have the opportunity for. Filling up that cultural space for me has become really important.”
— Amy Sherald
Did you know?
Did you know, in 2017, Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley were selected by former President Barack Obama (Wiley) and former First Lady Michelle Obama (Sherald) to paint their official portraits, becoming the first African-Americans ever to receive presidential portrait commissions from the National Portrait Gallery?
Amy Sherald received her MFA in Painting from Maryland Institute College of Art (2004) and BA in Painting from Clark-Atlanta University (1997), and was a Spelman College International Artist-in-Residence in Portobelo, Panama (1997).
In 2016, Sherald was the first woman and first African-American to win the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition grand prize; she also received the 2017 Anonymous Was A Woman award and the 2019 Smithsonian Ingenuity Award.
171. “International Detroit Playa: Sheefy” (2022)
“One thing that I’m interested in is, what are we going to look back at as times move forward?”
— Mario Moore
Did you know?
Did you know that Mario Moore (b. 1987), who lives and works in Detroit, Michigan, is creating work that seeks to enshrine the presence of everyday Black folk?
Moore received a BFA in Illustration from the College for Creative Studies (2009) and an MFA in Painting from the Yale School of Art (2013).
He has been awarded the prestigious Princeton Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University and has participated as an artist-in-residence at Knox College, Duke University, Fountainhead residency and the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation.
Moore’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions including The Smart Museum, Chicago; the Smithsonian Museum traveling Sites Exhibition; Xavier University Art Gallery, New Orleans; the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI; David Klein Gallery, Detroit; and the Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, New York.
“I feel honored to archive our contributions.”
(Breathe In . . . Breathe Out)
Filling up that cultural space
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