Showing posts with label Sheila Pree Bright. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sheila Pree Bright. Show all posts

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Upcoming Art Talks, Symposiums: Spring/Summer 2016

 Atlanta, Georgia 
High Museum of Art
Talk: Franklin Sirmans


On Thursday, May 12, 2016 at 7:00 pm Franklin Sirmans, director of Pérez Art Museum Miami, will discuss celebrated artist Jean-Michel Basquiat's focus on the psychological and spiritual terrain of the American South, the subject of his 2014 book.

Baltimore, Maryland
Galerie Myrtis
Talk: The Intelligent Collector
Untitled, Lois Mailou Jones (1905‐1998), Oil on Canvas, 24” x 20” framed, Ruth and Sam Williams Collection
This gallery talk, The Intelligent Collector, will be presented by Myrtis Bedolla on Sunday, April 17, 2016 from 4:00 - 6:00 pm. Myrtis Bedolla, art adviser and curator, will demystify the collecting process and offer insider tips on building a collection that is culturally rich, aesthetically beautiful and financially rewarding.

The gallery talk is one of the opening events accompanying the upcoming exhibition, Art of the Collectors V, which is on view April 17 - June 11, 2016. Art of the Collectors V explores the role of the collector in preserving culture and building legacy through art collecting and giving. Featured are works created by prominent and lesser known artists, along with African art.  Offerings include rare paintings, original prints, photographs and sculptures held in private hands for generations, and important works of art from institution holdings.

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan 
 Cranbrook Art Museum
Talk: Valerie Cassel Oliver,
Radical Presence: Black Artists and Contemporary Art

Photo by Eric Hester
Valerie Cassel Oliver, Senior Curator Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, will present an overview of her curatorial practice over the last decade. The presentation will highlight a series of exhibitions that have made visible the presence and impact of black artists working in a variety of media from abstract painting to film and video to performance art and beyond. Radical Presence: Black Artists and Contemporary Art is scheduled for Monday, May 2, 2016 at 6:00 pm at Cranbrook Art Museum. 

Charlottesville, Virginia
The Paramount Theater
Artist Talk: Sheila Pree Bright: 1960Now

Image © Sheila Pree Bright

This Artist Talk:  Sheila Pree Bright: 1960Now will be held at the Paramount Theater at 215 West Main Street on Saturday, June 18, 2016 from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. Bright’s current and most ambitious project to date, 1960Now, examines race, gender and generational divides, to raise awareness of millennial perspectives on civil and human rights. 1960Now is a photographic portrait series of emerging young leaders affiliated with the Black Lives Matter Movement.

Chicago, Illinois
Art Institute of Chicago
            Talk: A Matter of Public Health-Black Doctors and 
Free Clinics in the Art of Jacob Lawrence

Jacob Lawrence, Free Clinic, 1938. H Karl and Nancy von Maltitz Endowment.
This lecture is a part of the American Art Up Close lecture series at the Art Institute of Chicago; it will be held on Thursday,  May 26, 2016 from 6:00 - 7:00 pm. Tanya Sheehan, Colby College, will address public health and medical care in urban America as depicted in modernist Jacob Lawrence’s art from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Art Institute of Chicago
 Talk: Invisible Man: Gordon Parks and Ralph Ellison in Harlem

Exhibition curator Michal Raz-Russo provides a behind-the-scenes look at the process of uncovering work from Parks and Ellison’s collaborations. This lecture will be held in Fullerton Hall on Thursday, June 30, 2016 from 6:00 - 7:30 pm.


Dallas, Texas
Valley House Gallery and Sculpture Garden
Artist Talk: Sedrick Huckaby: Three Forbidden F Words: Faith, Family, and Fathers 



The Artist Talk featuring Sedrick Huckaby will be held on Saturday, April 23, 2016 at 11:00 am. The artist will speak to his latest exhibition, Three Forbidden F Words: Faith, Family, and Fathers, on view at the Valley House Gallery through May 7, 2016. This exhibition includes paintings, sculpture, and drawings from his studio, as well as prints and works on paper resulting from residencies at the University of North Texas P.R.I.N.T. Press, STUDIO-f at The University of Tampa, and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art’s Davidson Family Fellowship.

Evanston, Illinois
Northwestern University
Black Feminist Futures Symposium

The Black Feminist Theory Reading Group "seeks to provide a platform for students to dialogue and network with emerging and established scholars in the field of black feminist theory, as well as encourage interdisciplinary conversations around the future of black feminist thought and theory."

Black Feminist Futures, a two-day symposium that traces Black feminist theory and praxis in and beyond the academy, will fill an institutional void of Black feminist intellectual engagement and social networks at Northwestern. Centering intergenerational Black feminist dialogue as a critical intellectual and social force, sixteen leading scholars will participate.

The Symposium will be held at the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, 40 Arts Circle Drive, on May 20 and 21, 2016. 
DETAILS  

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania

The 20th Annual Graduate Student Symposium on the History of Art will be held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on April 10 - 11, 2016. 

Keynote Address:
April 10, 2016, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.
Structural Adjustment:Mapping, Geography, and the Visual Cultures of Blackness will be delivered by Steven Nelson, Professor of African and African American Art History, University of California, Los Angeles. The visual practices of artists Mark Bradford, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Houston Conwill, Moshekwa Langa, and Julie Mehretu who use mapping and geography in their works— are explored. Nelson will discuss how these artists reshape our understanding of African ancestry, notions of diaspora, and urban spaces. 

Symposium:
April 11, 2016, 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
This symposium presents current research by graduate students from Bryn Mawr
College; Pennsylvania State University; Princeton University; Rutgers: The
State University of New Jersey; Tyler School of Art, Temple University; University of Delaware; University of Maryland; and University of Pennsylvania.
DETAILS

 Wilmington, Delaware
Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts 
2016 Gretchen Hupfel Symposium

The 2016 Gretchen Hupfel Symposium:  Repositioning Blackness in Contemporary Art at The  Delaware Contemporary Art (Wilmington, DE) will be held on Saturday, April 16, 2016. There are two sessions.


The Art Workshop will be on Saturday, April 16, 2016 from 1:00 to 2:00 PM. Teaching Artist, Tia Santana leads the Workshop and Discussion: Materiality and Narratives of Our Ethnic Hair. Ms. Santana brings her own studio practice and work with hair as a medium to the context of a workshop. Participants will explore the materiality of hair as a creative medium and discuss cultural narratives associated with ethnic hair. 

The Symposium theme will be discussed 6:00 to 8:30 pm from the perspectives of practicing artists, educators, and critics. The Delaware Contemporary’s 2016 Gretchen Hupfel Symposium will explore the complexities of art creation from within both personal and sociopolitical contexts, while considering the ongoing civil rights movement of today.

Presenters:

Zoë Charlton is an accomplished visual artist and an Associate Professor at American University in Washington, DC. 

Jessica Lynne, Arts Critic and Co-founder of ARTS.BLACK, is a Brooklyn-based writer and arts administrator. She states, “ARTS.BLACK is a platform for art criticism from black perspectives predicated on the belief that art criticism should be an accessible dialogue - a tool through which we question, celebrate, and talk back to the global world of contemporary art.”


Julie McGee has published widely on contemporary African American art and South African art, with a particular focus on artist and museum praxis. McGee joined the University of Delaware as an Associate Professor and Curator of African American art in 2008.

Jefferson Pinder is an accomplished interdisciplinary artist and an Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. His work challenges viewers to think critically about our highly polarized society by exploring representations, visual tropes, and cultural symbolism.

Friday, October 23, 2015

Upcoming Art Talks: Fall/Winter 2015

Atlanta, Georgia

Sheila Pree Bright: 1960Now


Artist Talk 
November 19, 2015, 7:00 p.m.; reception at 6:30 p.m.
 

Cincinnati, Ohio

“The Enslaved Revolt:” The Origin, Impact, and Legacy of the Haitian Revolution – An Illustrated Snapshot of its History
Saturday, November 7, 2 p.m. Register here

 
Jacob Lawrence, Toussaint L’Ouverture series, no. 40: The Declaration of Independence was signed January 1, 1804—Desalines, Clevaux, and Henri Christoph. The people won out. 1938, tempera on paper. Amistad Research Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1982

Join Dr. Eric Jackson, associate professor and director of the Black Studies Program at Northern Kentucky University, for an in-depth look at the Haitian Revolution. This talk is co-presented by The Alliance Française of Cincinnati and the Taft Museum of Art.
 
At the outbreak of the French revolution in 1789, the colony of St. Domingue (Haiti) was France’s richest colony, the envy of every other European nation. The wealth of the colony was derived from a plantation system fueled by the African slave trade. Born out of conflict and resentment, slaves organized a slave rebellion in 1791 that resulted in twelve years of resistance to obtain human rights. The Haitian Revolution became the only successful slave revolt in history, and resulted in the establishment of Haiti, the first independent black state in the New World. This presentation seeks to examine this revolution as well as its legacy.

Free Members and Students, $10 Public
Reservations required: (513) 684-4515 or click above.



Artist Talk: Cedric Michael Cox
Saturday, November 14, 1:30 p.m.
Click here to register.


Visual artist Cedric Cox will respond to the work in the exhibition Heroism in Paint: A Master Series by Jacob Lawrence and share his work and inspirations. Cox is a graduate of University of Cincinnati’s DAAP program. His paintings and drawings, which fall between surrealism and representational abstraction, express themes ranging from mythical literature to musical allegories and beyond.
FREE Members and Students. $10 Public (includes museum admission)
Advance paid registration required: (513) 684-4515 or click the link above.


College Park, Maryland
Arts Program Gallery



Panel Discussion: Delilah Pierce and Art
Sunday, November 8, 2015, 3–5 p.m.

College Park Marriott Hotel and Conference Center
Panel Discussion: Second Floor, Room 2210


Reception: UMUC Arts Program Gallery, Lower Level                         

The panel discussion, "Delilah Pierce and Art," will feature art historian Floyd Coleman, PhD; art collector and author Jerry Langley; Pierce's great-niece, Wanda Spence; and Galerie Myrtis owner Myrtis Bedolla.
RSVP 


Detroit, Michigan

30 AMERICANS CONFERENCE: New Attitudes: Varied Perspectives on Black Identity and Changing Artistic Expressions                    Friday, November 6, 2015, 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Admission fee required. Order tickets

Keynote Speaker: Touré, Journalist, culture critic and television host

Panel Moderators: Kirsten Pai Buick, Associate Professor of Art History, University of New Mexico; Jacqueline Francis, Associate Professor of Visual Studies, California College of the Arts; Michael D. Harris, Associate Professor of Art History and African American Studies, Emory University; Samantha Astrid Noel, Assistant Professor of Art History, Wayne State University
The DIA’s General Motors Center for African American Art presents a conference featuring journalist, culture critic and television host Touré as keynote speaker. Four panels of artists and scholars discuss issues relevant to contemporary African American artists’ perspectives on black identity and its changing artistic expression during the past 40 years.
                                           
Fort Worth, Texas

Lecture: Charles Gaines
Tuesday, October 27, 2015, 7 p.m.


Artist Charles Gaines shares ideas that have informed his long and influential career. The  lecture begins at 7 p.m. in the Museum’s auditorium. Seating begins at 6:30 p.m. and is limited to 250.


Lincoln, Nebraska
University of Nebraska Lincoln

Lecture: Dr. Jane Rhodes  
Monday, October 26, 2015, 5:30 p.m.

Dr. Jane Rhodes, department head and professor of African American studies at the University of Illinois– Chicago, presents Visualizing Black Power: The Cultural Politics of a Social Movement in which she discusses the role of visual culture as a mobilizing and strategic tool of black power organizations and activists in the middle of the 20th century. Diverse and wide-ranging groups including the Nation of Islam, Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, Black Panther Party, and US government created symbols, iconography, and visual messages to further their social and political goals. These examples will be considered in the context of the 1960s culture of protest and the broader black freedom movement. A reception will follow.

Co-sponsored by the UNL Department of History and Institute for Ethnic Studies.

 

Gallery Talk on Emory Douglas                                                       Wednesday, October 28, 2015, 12:00 to 12:45 p.m.  

Stacy Asher and Aaron Sutherlen, co-curators of Emory Douglas: Power to the People, the Struggle Continues.


New York, New York
The Morgan Library and Museum

Tuesday, October 27, 2015, 6:30 p.m.
Artist Talk: A Conversation with Martin Puryear

In conjunction with the exhibition Martin Puryear: Multiple Dimensions, the artist discusses the role of drawing in his practice and the relationship of his works on paper to his sculptures with Isabelle Dervaux, Acquavella Curator of Modern & Contemporary Drawings, and Nadia Perucic, Assistant Curator of Modern & Contemporary Drawings. 

Tickets: $15; $10 for Members; free for students with valid ID

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

John W. Mosley: Cultural Warrior
 
Lecturer
: Diane Turner, PhD, curator of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection

Saturday, October 24, 3:00 p.m. $15 ($10 members)
 
Diane Turner will discuss photographer John W. Mosley’s role in deconstructing stereotypical images of black Americans in popular culture and the media through his documentation of the culture, history, and everyday life of Americans of African descent in the Philadelphia region.


Black Printmakers and the WPA
Lecturer: Leslie King-Hammond, PhD, Graduate Dean Emeritus and Founding Director, Center for Race and Culture, Maryland Institute College of Art
Monday, October 26, 11:00 a.m. $15 ($10 members)
 
The Works Projects Administration (WPA) provided opportunities for black artists to explore their creativity, gain access to new technology, and develop their artistic voices. Leslie King-Hammond will discuss the visual legacy of the WPA and printmaking pursuits by black artists in Philadelphia and other urban centers around the country.This lecture is presented as part of The Print Center 100


The Adored Maverick: Barbara Bullock
Lecturer: A. M. Weaver, independent curator and art journalist
Monday, November 9, 1:00 p.m. $15 ($10 members)
 
A. M. Weaver describes Barbara Bullock, an artist in the exhibition We
Speak: Black Artists in Philadelphia, 1920s–1970s, as a maverick in post–World War II America. Bullock’s early work reflected her experiences as a black woman. Weaver will analyze the influence of Bullock’s travels throughout the African diaspora and the United States and the resulting shift in her work.


Panel Discussion: Breaking Barriers, Black Artists in Philadelphia
Saturday, January 23, 2016, 3:00 p.m. $15 ($10 members)
Participants: 
Paul Adkins, opera singer, teacher, and producer; Louis Massiah, founder and director of Scribe Video Center; Ursula Rucker, poet and performer; Kariamu Welsh, PhD, choreographer and professor at Boyer College of Music and Dance, Temple University; moderated by Warren Oree, director, Lifeline Music Coalition

 
Panelists will share stories about the challenges and journeys taken in pursuit of their art and will explore the role of Philadelphia’s cultural institutions in their careers.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

A Selective Recap of the National Black Arts Festival 2010

The National Black Arts Festival (NBAF) 2010 in Atlanta was particularly special for me this year considering that a small group of long-standing friends decided to meet and use the Festival as the backdrop for that reunion. A few days were devoted to activities centered around the NBAF, and selected highlights follow. Our journey began at the SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) in the Woodruff Arts Center to view Chakaia Booker's solo exhibition, Sustain
                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                               
Chakaia Booker, Sustain, ACA Gallery of SCAD, installation view.
Photography by Dane Sponberg, SCAD visual media department.

Because I was particularly pleased with the 2009 exhibition at SCAD that featured Whitfield Lovell, my expectations for the 2010 were high. I was not disappointed at all; Sustain was all that one could have expected, and it was an added treat to have had an opportunity to actually meet Chakaia Booker in her colorful red and extremely large headdress which was a sculptural piece itself. The exhibition included a series of photogravures that captured the artist searching for found materials (tires) in the industrial landscape. It was my understanding from senior curator, Melissa Messina that this new series of photogravures were recently created by Booker at SCAD Atlanta, and they are featured in Sustain with the artist's signature abstract sculptures made from tires.  

The ladder sculpture, in the photograph above, was one of my favorites  in the exhibit. It was dramatic yet simple in its presentation, but complex as it's visual image seemed to change when viewed from different angles. In Booker's hands, it is obvious that the tires are as malleable as clay with their intricate, patterned designs, consisting of folds, and cascading layers of rubber arranged in uniform patterns. In my estimation, Booker's work falls into that category of "green art," and I have always been a fan of her work, respecting both the medium and her artistry. It is genius to take such a functional piece as tires and transform them into a sculptural piece of beauty. The following two images are other examples of Booker's work as it appeared in the exhibition, Sustain.

Chakaia Booker, Sustain, ACA Gallery of SCAD, installation view.
Photography by Dane Sponberg, SCAD visual media department.




Chakaia Booker, Sustain, ACA Gallery of SCAD, installation view.
Photography by Dane Sponberg, SCAD visual media department.

As of yet, an exhibition catalogue has not been published, but one is forthcoming. When it is released, I will forward details to all readers. For more details on Booker and the exhibition, see: http://www.scad.edu/exhibitions/view/chakaia-booker.cfm

Immediately after leaving the Booker exhibition, and lucky for us that we were already in the Woodruff Arts Center, we were able to secure last minute tickets for Brazil Fest Concert: The Best of Brazil (Atlanta Symphony Hall) with musician/composer, Ivan Lins and a host of Brazilian musical talent, and a modern ballet group. This already excellent concert was enhanced for me by the inclusion of two African American special guests, Cassandra Wilson and Rachelle Ferrell. Wilson and Ferrell were each so exquisite in her own right, and since I am a personal fan of both of artists, it was a delight to see them in a live performance. This was my first time seeing Cassandra Wilson on stage. However, I have seen Rachelle Ferrell in concert before, and yet again, her artistry took me to another state of being and consciousness...her voice is simply an instrument. This was an evening that one would have to experience, to truly appreciate... magnificent. 


On Friday, we visited the Sandler Hudson Gallery, featuring Sheila Pree Bright's exhibit, Girls, Grillz and Guns, in which Bright explores the concepts of beauty and power. Arriving about an hour before the artist talk began, the four of us that toured this exhibition were able to have a private talk with the artist. It was this conversation that put the images into some artistic perspective for us. It was particularly informative and enlightening to hear from Bright why and how the series came about. From that dialog, I learned that Sheila Pree Bright, through her photography was investigating a fashionable statement of a few years back among young African American males for gold-capped front teeth. These grills, as they were called, were considered adornment and expressed that the wearer was cool, but the fad aroused fear in older adults, particularly white people because the grills were associated with gansta rap. As Bright explained, she defused fear with the images by adopting a scientific approach of shooting the portraits in black and white, posed each of her subjects in the same way with their eyes closed and mouths open. The exhibit will be on view through August 14, 2010. For more information see: http://www.sandlerhudson.com/  
(photograph: Sheila Pree Bright, Terrence from the Gold Rush II Series)


Nestled  in a backdrop that featured fine and decorative art galleries and antique shops, the Hagedorn Foundation Gallery provided an excellent setting for its featured exhibition, REPRESENT: Imaging African American Culture in Contemporary Art. This is a group photography exhibition dealing with the "roots of black culture and thus personal identity." The artist talk that featured Donald E. Camp was very well attended and was an especially strong presentation that offered explanations of his processes and techniques of creating his larger-than-life portraits, capturing the beauty and integrity of the average man, and revealing the subject's character. Camp places the camera within inches of the subject's face, moving into the subject's spatial comfort zone to capture the image while talking with the subject. Camp makes only one unique print of each subject. REPRESENT will be on view through September 3, 2010; for more information and images, see:  http://www.hfgallery.org/exhibitions.html and  http://www.hfgallery.org/exhibitions/2010_06-REPRESENT/2010-06-p1-1.html


Another gallery visit took us to Mason Murer Fine Art. This 24,000 foot gallery space has a central main gallery and a series of medium and smaller galleries or pods within the larger space. The overall space is open, free, and inviting with a positive industrial feel. When we arrived, the gallery was being prepared for a large fundraising function for later that evening, but staff allowed us freedom to walk through the various exhibits on display and were available to answer questions as needed. 

The final small pod that we entered featured a selection of works by African American Masters, and as I entered I was immediately struck by  the number of works, approximately 23 in total and the names of the artists represented: Duncanson, Bannister, Tanner, W.H. Johnson, Lois Mailou Jones, and Charles Ethan Porter. We learned from Mark Mason Karelson, the director of the gallery, that the historical works were owned by a New York collector who started collecting in the 1960s; and these pieces were from the owner's warehouse of works. Seeing this number of works together in a small space was breathtaking, and it was obvious that the collector took care in assembling this collection of landscapes and still lifes. The visual representation of African Americans were not visible in the images, strictly landscapes and still lifes. As I viewed them, my hopes were that some institution could buy them in mass, whereby, the images would become available for a larger audience to appreciate, particularly our young art historians, critics, and artists. Since this is such an excellent collection of historical works that I wanted to share with a wider audience,  Mason Murer Fine Art was generous enough to sent me the following images to post.


   Robert Scott Duncanson, Untitled, 1850, Oil on canvas, 16"x25"






      William H. Johnson, Church in Oslo, 1935, Oil on board, 27"x24"




                 Henry O. Tanner, Gates of Tangier, 1908, Gouache on paper, 16"x13.5"

For details and to learn more of this historical collection, contact Mason Murer Fine Art: http://www.masonmurer.com/