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.

College Park, Maryland
The David Driskell Center...at the University of Maryland

Ronald Beverly, "The Aurora: Series #1," 2010, Photography, 22.25" x 33.25".  Gift of Ronald Beverly to the David Driskell Center, © Ronald Beverly, 2012.

Convergence: Jazz, Films, and the Visual Arts unveils American arts interplay between jazz and the visual arts. The exhibition is organized by the David C. Driskell Center and the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, Missouri and will feature 65 works by innovative artists and filmmakers, mostly African Americans, whose works depict and/or are influenced by Jazz music and culture.

Convergence will open at the David C. Driskell Center on February 14 and will be on display through May 31, 2013. Read more at Convergence. 

Fort Worth, Texas

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth 

FOCUS: Gary Simmons will be on view at the Modern Art Museum of Fort  Worth from January 13 - March 24, 2013 as The Modern's inaugural Director's Council Focus exhibition for the 2012-2013 season. 

Gary Simmons, New York based artist, is known for his “erasure technique, which he began using in the early 1990s. Initially creating semi-erased works with chalk on blackboards, the artist’s process has since evolved to include works on paper, paint on canvas, and murals that mimic smudged chalk. The resulting ghostly images often refer to intersections of pop culture, race, and class." Read more about this upcoming exhibition at FOCUS.

Gary Simmons

Four Corner Burst, 2007
Pigment and oil paint on canvas
54 x 54 inches

Courtesy of the artist, Anthony Meier Fine Arts, 

San Francisco, and Metro Pictures, New York

The Director's Council, formed in 1985, plays a role in the selection process of artworks added to the collection. It assists the Museum with acquisitions through the FOCUS series. "The series features  three solo exhibitions organized annually by Curator Andrea Karnes. Each exhibition opens with an exclusive cocktail reception for Council members, giving them an opportunity to meet the featured artist and discuss his or her work. One work by each artist is chosen by the Museum to be part of the final selection for the Council's Purchasing Meeting. This format provides members with an in-depth understanding of the Modern's acquisitions process and offers a spirited and popular series of events." Read more about this Special Interest Membership.

Portland, Oregon

Portland Art Museum

Afro-Chic (video still), 2010. DVD, 5 minutes, 30 seconds. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery,    New York. © Carrie Mae Weems

The Portland Art Museum will feature Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video. This exhibition, which will present more than 200 photographs, videos, and installations tracing the evolution of Weems’ career, will be on view February 2 through May 19, 2013. 

"Opening during Black History Month, the exhibition’s presentation in Portland will engage audiences in discussions of the African-American experience through art. Programs and community partnerships include the Northwest Film Center’s film series Culture and Image: Black Identity in America, Portland Center Stage’s production of Clybourne Park, and the Oregon History Museum’s exhibition Pullman Porters: From Service to Civil Rights. Read more at Carrie Mae Weems.

Salem, Massachusetts

Peabody Essex Museum

Nick Cave's Soundsuits will be on view March 2 - June 2, 2013 in the Special Exhibition Galleries at Peabody Essex Museum (PEM). For the installation at PEM, three never-before-seen soundsuits will make their debut along with an immersive film projection. SEE images.

Following the Cave exhibition, PEM will feature In Conversation: Modern African American Art from June 1 - September 2, 2013. "This premier collection of paintings, photographs and sculpture by 43 prominent African American artists presents conversations about art, identity and the rights of the individual. The artworks reflect an America that celebrates the multi-faceted nature of society." In Conversation: Modern African American Art is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum.