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I am thrilled and honored to be an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award recipient along with a stellar group of architects, artists, composers, scholars and writers. A virtual ceremony takes place on Wednesday, May 19th, 2021 at 7pm. EDT.
Watch virtual ceremonial here
Clouds of Joy, 2021
Otherwise/Revival is one of the exhibitions featured in Hyperallergic’s must see art guides for April 2021. Thanks to Matt Stromberg and Eliza Wouk Almino for including Clouds of Joy.
Otherwise/Revival, curated by Jasmine McNeal and Cara Megan Lewis, visualizes the impact of the Black Church on contemporary artists. The exhibition opens both in person and virtually April 9th with a day long open house, including a live performance piece by Angela Bryant from 4-6pm and an online musical performance featuring Ashton T Crawley from 4-5pm on zoom. Artists include Terry Adkins, McArthur Binion, Folayemi (Fo) Wilson of blkHaUS Studios, Norman Teague of Norman Teague Design Studios (NTDS), Angela Bryant, Willie Cole, Ashon T. Crawley, Kenturah Davis, Mark Steven Greenfield, Lauren Halsey, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Letitia Huckaby, Sedrick Huckaby, Clementine Hunter, VinZula Kara, Caroline Kent, Deana Lawson, Nery Gabriel Lemus, Christina McPhee, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Dario Robleto, Lezley Saar, Zina Saro-Wiwa, Phyllis Stephens, Sara Sonié Joi Thompson-Ruffin, Genesis Tramaine, Kehinde Wiley, Brittney Leeanne Williams, and Nate Young.
Learn more about exhibition here
Click here to register for the opening
I’m thrilled to be a recipient of a 2021 American Academy of Arts and Letters Purchase Prize. Annie Patterson (2021), part of my project, Mugshot Portraits: Women of the Montgomery Bus Boycott , has been selected to be placed in the permanent collection of an American museum. Big congratulations to my fellow awardees; I’m honored to be in such stellar company. Thank you to Exhibitions and Collections Curator, Souhad Rafey, and Award Committee Members Catherine Murphy, Nicole Eisenman, Ann Hamilton, Philip Pearlstein, Judy Pfaff, Joel Shapiro, Amy Sillman, Kiki Smith, and Terry Winters. The awardees include Laylah Ali, Suzanne Bocanegra, A.K. Burns, Peter Charlap, Jennifer Coates, Lisa Corinne Davis, R.M. Fischer, Chie Fueki, Coco Fusco, Jerrell Gibbs, Lauren Halsey, Maren Hassinger, EJ Hauser, Leslie Hewitt, Reggie Burrows Hodges, Katherine Hubbard, Adam Hurwitz, Suzanne Joelson, Forest Kirk, Savannah Knoop, Aspen Mays, Thaddeus Mosley, Jennifer Packer ,Erin Riley, Aki Sasamoto, Dread Scott, Elena Sisto, Juane Quick-To-See Smith, Ming Smith, Jessica Stockholder, Simon Tosky, Elizabeth Tubergen, William Villalongo, Susan Jane Walp, Marie Watt, Peter Williams, Dyani White Hawk, and Carmen Winant. I’m honored to be in such stellar company.
Cerebral Women Art Talks is a wonderful platform for women creatives of color to discuss their inspiration, their process, and their experiences navigating the art world. It was great to sit down and talk with Phyllis Hollis about my work and my journey as an artist, and to be a part of the program that honors Women’s History Month.
Much appreciation to Allison Conner and Hyperallergic for this insightful review of The Black Index exhibition. The review is a fusion of historical background and contemporary critique of Black portraiture that captures the themes of the exhibition.
Much gratitude to George McCalman for our interview in his ‘First Person’ column for the SF Chronicle. With beautiful illustrations and thoughtful writing, the interview was healing and transformative, and ends a difficult chapter in this saga. Thank you, George and the SF Chronicle.
Kicking off Black History Month in the Bay Area, we look back at Dr. Angelou’s life and legacy in this wonderful segment which highlights her strong ties to the community, her unwavering determination, and her many accomplishments. I was delighted to be a part of this tribute to Dr. Angelou’s extraordinary life and to discuss my monument design to honor Dr. Angelou for the San Francisco Main Library. Presented by Jobina Fortson of ABC News.
Great review by Lilly Nguyen on The Black Index exhibition on view at UC Irvine. Nguyen’s thoughtful writing captured Professor Bridget Cook’s sentiments on the history of visual representation of Black people beautifully.
After a long journey, my monument design to honor Dr. Maya Angelou has finally been approved. I am very excited to embark on this project. It brings me great joy to now bring my idea it to fruition. Thank you to Zachary Small and The New York Times for covering this story.
On November 2nd, 2020, the Visual Arts Committee of the San Francisco Arts Commission finally approved the selection of my monument design for a monument to honor Dr. Maya Angelou for the San Francisco Main Library. The announcement and measures toward restorative justice are outlined in the link below.
It is such a pleasure to be invited to be conversation with artist Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle to discuss monuments in a time of political unrest. The event will be held on November 2, from 6:30-9pm PST. Many thanks to Berkeley Arts + Design Center, UC Berkeley’s Department of Art Practice and the Wiesenfeld Visiting Artist Series for making this possible.
In a conversation with Brandon Yu, I discuss the current pre-election political climate. Thank you Brandon and KQED.
I am thrilled to announce that I am a 2020 San Francisco Artadia Awardee along with Marcela Pardo Ariza! Thank you, jurors, Allison Glenn, Associate Curator, Contemporary Art, Crystal Bridges; Anthony Huberman, Director & Chief Curator, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art; Lucy Mensah, Clinical Visiting Assistant Professor, MUSE Program, School of Art & Art History at the University of Illinois at Chicago; and Xiaoyu Weng, Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Associate Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Thank you to Artadia, the Artadia Staff and everyone who made this happen.
This apology has been a long time coming, and it is a first step toward redress. It took a village to make this happen and I have so many people to thank; too numerous to list here. The SFAC staff, mentors and colleagues, folks who attended and spoke out during the 10/16/19, 7/15/20 and 8/3/20 meetings, folks who wrote letters, folks who advocated on my behalf, folks on various platforms who invited me to speak, folks who boycotted the 2020RFQ, journalists who kept the story alive, and my sisters at See Black Women who tirelessly organized and mobilized so that Black women can be heard and our labor respected and valued. Thank you Zachary Small and The New York Times for covering this story.
Read the Article Here.
My new piece, Study for Pandemic Portrait (Mask, Negative Space), will be included in the Headlands Center for the Arts 2020 Benefit Auction. See details about the work below. The auction will be live from July 9 to July 21.
Learn more about the auction here.
Study for Pandemic Portrait (Mask, Negative Space), 2020.
Graphite, conté pencil, and watercolor on paper.
9 x 11 3/4 in.
Creative Conversations: Personal to Political, Part II
Wednesday, July 8 | 3:30 PT
Facebook Live via MMFA | Tune in Here
This Wednesday, join Radcliffe Bailey and yours truly on Facebook Live for a virtual conversation hosted by the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art. The conversation is presented in conjunction with the traveling exhibition, "Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press,” and will be moderated by Cassandra Cavness, Development Assistant at MMFA. Learn more about the event here.
“Toppling of SF statues springs from city’s long history of inaction: ‘It fell on deaf ears’” by Heather Knight
Read the Article Here
Great write up by Heather Knight of the San Franciso Chronicle on the city's contentious history with monuments and public art following the removal of the Christopher Columbus Statue at Coit Tower, the toppling of monuments at Golden Gate Park, and the selection and subsequent rejection of my monument to honor Dr. Maya Angelou. Read more about the Maya Angelou sculpture in the articles linked below.
Read More About SF’s Mishandling of the Maya Angelou Sculpture Commission:
• San Francisco Chronicle - “Maya Angelou wouldn’t approve of this statue fiasco,” By Caille Millner, January 10, 2020.
• Hyperallergic - “In San Francisco, a Design for Maya Angelou Monument Is Approved, Then Suddenly Scraped,” By Emily Wilson, October 23, 2019.
• San Francisco Chronicle - “Artist’s vision for Maya Angelou statue crushed by City Hall’s dysfunction,” by Heather Knight, October 19, 2019.
• KQED - “Plans for Maya Angelou Monument in San Francisco Face Long Delay,” by Chloe Veltman, October 17, 2019.
• The Art Newspaper - “San Francisco Selected an artist to create a monument to Maya Angelou—then rejected her,” by Zachary Small, October 17, 2019.
• San Francisco Examiner - “Proposals for sculpture to honor Maya Angelou meet with rejection,” by Joshua Sabatini, October 16, 2019.
• Hyperallergic - “San Francisco Will Raise Maya Angelou Sculpture,” by Zachary Small, August 5, 2019
• San Francisco Chronicle - “Statue of Maya Angelou comes into sharp relief as SF diversifies public art,” by Heather Knight, July 21, 2019
Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of the Charleston 9 Massacre at Emanuel AME Church in SC. In honor of those who were murdered in a heinous act of racial terror on June 17, 2015, I’ll be discussing “Requiem for Charleston” and reflecting on how the piece relates to current uprisings demanding an end to lethal anti-black racism and justice for black lives. “Requiem for Charleston” is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s permanent collection and will be on view in SAAM’s Lincoln Gallery upon reopening. Tomorrow’s virtual studio visit is hosted by the Museum of African Diaspora. Click the image above to register and learn more.
“Ashara Ekundayo In Conversation With Lava Thomas” is a 3-part interview series organized by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) and Art+Action for the project, 2020 Census: Who Counts in America? Read the full interview in the links provided below:
Pt. 1: Practice, Labor, and Leadership - “Ashara Ekundayo in Conversation with Lava Thomas, Pt. 1: Practice, Labor, and Leadership,”
Pt. 2: Family, Artifacts, and the Census - “Ashara Ekundayo in Conversation with Lava Thomas, Pt. 2: Family, Artifacts, and the Census”
Pt. 3: Spirituality and the ‘Artist as First Responder’ - “Ashara Ekundayo in Conversation with Lava Thomas, Pt. 3: Spirituality and the ‘Artist as First Responder’,
Excerpt from Pt. 1, “Practice, Labor, and Leadership”
Excerpt from Pt. 1, “Practice, Labor, and Leadership”