UMAN, “Amapiano Dance,” 2022-23 (acrylic, oil and oil stick on canvas in artist’s frame, 159.1 x 159.1 cm / 62 5/8 x 62 5/8 inches). | © Uman. Courtesy the artist and Nicola Vassell Gallery, Photo by Lance Brewer   NICOLA VASSELL GALLERY and Hauser & Wirth announced a new partnership and co-representation of Uman. (b. 1980). A nexus of intuition and discipline, Uman’s self-taught practice is an exercise in world making. She creates abstract paintings, drawings, and sculpture, dream-like works that reflect memory, self portraiture, and fictional topographies. Both galleries are showing ..read more

Cynthia Hawkins, 2022. | Photo by Todd Smith Fleming   PAULA COOPER GALLERY announced its representation of painter Cynthia Hawkins. Since 1972, Hawkins has been working in abstraction. Describing the artist’s work, the gallery said her paintings draw on “diverse literary, philosophical, and scientific influences” and “utilize a highly developed vocabulary of symbols and signs to investigate color, movement, and light.” The new representation is in collaboration with STARS in Los Angeles. In March 2025, a solo exhibition of Hawkins will be presented at Paula Cooper in New York. In the 197 ..read more

MICKALENE THOMAS (b. 1971), “Din avec la main dans le miroir et jupe rouge,” 2023 (rhinestones, acrylic and glitter on canvas mounted on wood panel, 90 x 110 inches /228.6 x 279.4 cm). | © Mickalene Thomas   A MAJOR TRAVELING EXHIBITION of Mickalene Thomas is launching next spring. “Mickalene Thomas: All About Love” opens at The Broad in Los Angeles on May 25, 2024. Thomas’s dazzling, rhinestone-embellished paintings celebrate Black women and examine the complexities of Blackness and female identity. More than 80 works produced over the past 20 years will be on view, showcasing Thomas’s m ..read more

  Latest News in Black Art features updates and developments in the world of art and related culture   Charisse Pearlina Weston, a 2022-23 Artist-in-Residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem, is now represented by Patron Gallery. | Courtesy Patron Gallery   Representation Charisse Pearlina Weston has joined Patron Gallery in Chicago. Weston is a conceptual artist and writer whose work “examines Black interior life, resistance, and technologies of surveillance. Encompassing both physical and ideological apparatuses, these technologies work to reify anti-blackness,” the announcemen ..read more

New Studio Museum in Harlem letterhead displays the institution’s new logo. | Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem   THE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM has a new look and feel. The museum introduced new branding, including a bold new graphic identity, custom typeface called “Studio Museum Black,” and redesigned website. Building on its mission as a nexus for artists of African descent and site for the exchange of ideas about art and society, the museum described the branding as “a new identity for a storied institution where Black art (celebrates, connects, educates, impacts, inspires, illuminates ..read more

THE GRAPHIC QUILT DESIGNS of Gee’s Bend artists inspired a new line of upholstered furniture available exclusively from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Studio Museum in Harlem recently added new items to its Barkley L. Hendricks Collection. Interior designer Sheila Bridges continues to expand the line of products featuring her clever Harlem Toile de Jouy print. From stationery and home goods to clothing and accessories, African American artists have inspired a bounty of new products, great finds for anyone happy to have more art in their life. The selections reflect an array of new and rec ..read more

Rich Paul in August, speaking in Invest Fest in Atlanta. | Screenshot from Invest Fest video by Earn Your Leisure   EARLIER THIS YEAR, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) announced 11 new members were elected to its board of trustees since 2020. The group included Rich Paul, 41, CEO and founder of Klutch Sports Group and head of UTA Sports. He joined the museum’s board in 2022. An art collector who just published a new memoir about the first three decades of his life, Paul is no ordinary sports agent. He is currently on tour promoting “Lucky Me: A Memoir of Changing the Odds” and ..read more

A NEW PAINTING by Henry Taylor covers the Winter 2023 edition of Art in America. The image is a self-portrait of the artist that he started on his 65th birthday in June. When Taylor talks about his work, he is usually candid, reflective, introspective, and vulnerable. Taylor sounds particularly vulnerable when speaking about the birthday painting, which he titled “no atou” (2023). The Los Angeles-based artist gave the magazine a first-person account of his experience making the portrait. “I was in a funk and I just painted it. I was like, Damn, it’s my birthday, and I’m really 65—shit! I can g ..read more

  Latest News in Black Art features updates and developments in the world of art and related culture   Colette Pierce Burnette. | Photo by Kylie Birchfield   Appointments Newfields Board of Trustees announced the “departure” of its CEO, Colette Pierce Burnette, (above) in a brief statement on Nov. 10, abruptly ending her 15-month tenure. The local community has been questioning the action in the days since and about 45 people, supported by several local organizations, protested the news in front of Newfields on Sunday evening. Newfields has not clarified whether Burnette resigne ..read more

RENOWNED SCULPTOR Richard Hunt, is now represented worldwide by London-based White Cube. Hunt produces abstract, geometric, and organic constructions that often suggest the figure and speak to African American history and culture. Working with steel, aluminum, copper, and bronze, he describes the forms as “volumetric.” In December, White Cube will present Hunt’s sculpture, “Years of Pilgrimage” (1999), at Art Basel Miami Beach. His first solo exhibition with the gallery will be on view at White Cube New York in spring 2024. “Richard has been a giant hiding in plain sight for decades and it is ..read more