Select Upcoming African American Art Exhibitions: Highlights for 2013

This highlight features a few exhibitions that will be on view this coming year, 2013. Presenting the exhibitions as they approach their opening dates assures a freshness and currency of information for the visual art enthusiasts. A number of important traveling exhibitions from 2012 or earlier will still be on tour in 2013, and they are accessible from the sidebar of this Blog, Highlights of African American Exhibitions....  This sidebar is updated on a weekly basis by either adding newly discovered exhibitions or removing those that are approaching their expiration date. Its intent is to provide comprehensive coverage of current ongoing exhibitions on view for the current quarter of the year.


Black Art Project (BAP) welcomes any information or leads that you might have relating to Black art exhibitions, particularly regional exhibitions that are not traditionally marketed on a national scale. BAP will verify the accuracy of any information submitted. Thank you for any assistance that you provide.

 Belmont, California
Wiegand Gallery
Notre Dame de Namur University 

Mr. Imagination, Ghost Dress - 2000
Wire mesh, mother of pearl buttons - 48 x 36 x 36 inches
Created in 2011 for "The Roots of the Spirit" exhibition at L'Espace Re-Evolution, Venice, Italy.

The Roots of the Spirit: Lonnie Holley, Mr. Imagination, Charlie Lucas, Kevin Sampson will be on view at the Wiegand Gallery from September 15 to November 15, 2013. This exhibition was originally on view at L'Éspace Re-Evolution (Venice, Italy) where these four artists were invited by the American Folk Art Museum to exhibit during the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011.

Each of these artists "has acknowledged that divine intervention played an essential role in showing them their path. With the conviction of their African legacy, they began making art that honored their ancestors as an antidote to death and private grief. To witness Kevin Sampson’s shrines to deceased friends and relatives; the ancestor thrones of Lonnie Holley and Mr. Imagination; and Charlie Lucas’ metal sculptures that honor his grandparents by their material and method, is seeing through the eyes of the artists’ ancestors. Art is their testament to memory, healing and ultimately spiritual renewal."

Read more about these artists and view their works at The Roots of the Spirit.