Black Art Glitters all Around the Town During This Year’s Art Miami

By P. Andrews-Keenan

Yes it was crowded, and yes the traffic was bad, but it’s Art Miami post Covid and everyone wanted to be there. Thanks to our friends at?Art of Black?who supported Pigment International’s coverage of Art Miami in all its glory .??From Wynwood to Overtown to Miami Beach to Little Haiti to Opa-Locka, this is the Black art news you can use.?

Trending - The multimedia works featured this year showcased a variety of materials including?colored pencil, threading, glitter (lots of glitter), fabric, yarn, sequins, silk flowers, jewelry and collage from the pages of the Bible.??Here are just a few highlights.??

Untitled? - Artist?Devan Shimoyama?at?DeBuck?Gallery showcasing his series “The Tarot”. He was?in conversation with Artistic Director and Curator of Untitled Art,?Omar López?Chahoud.??Shimoyama discussed his current series, “The Tarot,” paintings on view at De Buck Gallery. In the Tarot series, the artist takes inspiration from the centuries-old divination practice of card reading. For Shimoyama, the Tarot represents the behavior of looking to mystical practices to sustain ourselves through difficult times. His ‘Hangman’?

MoCA Miami - Didier William: Nou Kite Tout Sa Dèyè?(through April 16, 2023) is the largest solo exhibition of Didier William’s career. Translated as “We’ve Left That All Behind,” the show presents an in-depth look at the North Miami-raised artist’s career and memory among the very neighborhood where he once grew up.?Curated by?Erica Moiah James, Ph.D, the exhibition features over forty works spanning multiple mediums, including some of his newest paintings. Complementing the painted work and speaking to the close relationship of painting and printmaking in William’s practice, are new drawings and artist books. The show also includes William’s first monumental sculpture: a 12-ft.-tall wooden body emblematic of a religious column present in Haitian worship rituals.

The Art of Transformation - The Opa-Locka Community Development Corporation (OLCDC), now Ten North Group (10 minutes north of Miami), in partnership with the City of Opa-Locka, presented “The Art of Transformation” a five-day, two-block Event in the heart of Opa-Locka, set to coincide with Art Basel Miami Beach 2022.?We were amazed by the development corps permanent collection that included works by Mickalene Thomas and Dawoud Bey.

Galleries we Love

Galerie Myrtis’?booth?at?CONTEXT Art Miami?was lively with activity and red dots as far as the eye could see, with artists?Tawny Chatmon,?Morel Doucet,?Monica Ikegwu,?Megan Lewis?and?Felandus Thames?greeting visitors.???More than 50% of the works sold according to owner Myrtis Bedolla.??Doucet’s ceramic pieces depicting the impact of environmental racism were meticulously created and breathtaking.??Vicki?and?Bruce Heyman?in Chicago purchased Chatmon’s piece?And All Generations Shall Call Us Blessed. And more good news for the Baltimore based gallery. They received?the?ECC Award?in the category of Painting and Mixed Media for the exhibition?The Afro Futurist Manifesto: Blackness Reimagined?and reads: “awarded for its?interdisciplinary and multilayered presentation that meditates on constructing a future focused on African Art and Afrofuturism's ideology, and expands in depth on the notion of Blackness at the intersection of mixed media.”

?The European Cultural Centre presents the ECC Awards to commemorate the closing of the exhibition and to honor the participants that haven taken part in it.?The show was experienced in-person by approximately 578,200 visitors [...] and reached over 150,000 website views."?

September Gray Fine Art Gallery?at Red Dot showcased the breadth of non-representational Black art with works by Atlanta based artists?Jamele Wright Sr.,?Michael Scoffield,?Eleanor Neal,?Ato Ribeiro, and?Kevin Cole.??Gray made sure visitors knew these were Black artists by adding photos of the artists beside their work.??“Buyers need to know that Black art comes in many forms and our talents extend beyond representational art.”

Thomas Lockhart?returned to Spectrum where his multimedia piece?“The Notorious Dreamer II”?featuring Biggie Smalls in an ‘unzippable’ fur coat was snagged by a Miami Collector.??In 2021, Lockhart was award Best of Show’ at Spectrum.??

New Galleries We Met

The Brooklyn based?The Bishop Gallery?featured the work of?Sophia Dawson’s?whose series?To Be Free,?depicts?powerful portraits of political prisoners, activists, and iconic figures.??The piece on display was of?Dr. Mutulu Shakur?rendered in acrylic with collage elements of scripture and letters sent between the artist??and her subject.??She uses gold leaf, mustard seeds, diamond dust and chain links generously spread on the canvas.?Striking!!??

Daisha Board Gallery?is the?first Black women owned contemporary art gallery in Dallas in over 30??years. Their strength and pride is rooted in the variety of the artists they represent which include LGTBQIA and artists with disabilities.??During their first exhibition at?Prizm?they featured work by Dallas born and raised?Jeremy Biggers?whose larger than life figurative works are centered around being unapologetically Black.??The mixed media work of?Jennifer Monet Cowley?sports fabric and threading that symbolizes the beauty of Black people.??Daisha Board was named Best Art Gallery in Dallas.??

Afro-futurism Thrives - Forest Clark representing his father Athlone Clarke??was at?Art Melanated?showing his current series which dives into ideas of Afro-Futurism, ancient futures and communication across time and dimension.??Clarke’s work explores ideas of freedom and healing topics that the artists is considering since the public has is now noticing his prolific body of work.??We were particularly struck by his piece?“Eve Was Framed.”??

The Tiniest Piece of Art - Purchased at CONTEXT from Cuban artist?F. Lennox Campello?titled Obama with an Afro.??Classic example of making lemonade from lemons.??He broke an award he received and rather than ask for a replacement he began creating art of shards of unfired bisque.??

We Are Who We Are – curated by Frank Frazier?- Shout out to our favorite OG artist and mentor?Frank Frazier?who has been hosting his show at Griot Gallery for many years.??True to form, artists like?Buchi Upjohn?and?Poncho Brown, (whose apparel is fire y’all)?have been joining him for years, and we met new artists and gallery owners as well.??Absolutely Frank’s legacy is the mentoring he has done over a 60 year career. Cheers to him!?

Frazier’s granddaughter, and new mom,?Siedah?is transitioning into the role of show administrator next year.???As always, supporting her is penultimate collector, Black art historian and owner of?Griot Gallery?Dr. Michael Butler.

Showcasing for the first time with Frazier was?In The Eye of the Beholder Art Gallery & Studio, located in San Antonio’s Government Hill neighborhood.??Owner, Maria Williams has more than 30 artists in her stable including?Steve Prince?and social justice sculptress?Alice Diggs.??

Ganggang Culture storms Miami?

Just as?Ganggang Culture?was planning their debut event at Red Rooster in Overtown during Art Miami, came word of the New York Times article by?Sarah Bahr?titled ‘2 Years After Racism Outcry, Indianapolis Embraces Black Artists.” The piece highlights the yeoman’s effort founders?Alan Bacon?and?Mali Jeffers?put into shifting the conversation and the complexion of art in Indianapolis.??What a triumph for the couple and their amazing team that has partnered with Pigment International for the past two years, most recently as a media partner in Miami. Quoted in the piece is Chicago based artist?“Edo”?whose work Pigment exhibited in?September.??Read the full article?here.??