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Posts published in “Fine Arts”

Kenyan Firm Turns Discarded Flip-flops into Art

By goodblacknews on February 10, 2014
Flip-flop art
Flip-flop art manufactured by Ocean Sole.

What do you do with a pair of old flip-flops? Not an idle question as the planet produces billions of pairs of non-biodegradable pairs every year.  But now a Kenyan biologist turned businesswoman has at least a partial solution. Julie Church‘s artisan manufacturing company, Ocean Sole, turned about 50 tons of dirty, discarded and damaged flip-flops into animal ornaments and jewellery in 2013. She anticipates doubling that amount this year, and will pay 25p per kilo to whoever brings them in.

In Kenya, where plastic flip-flops cost a dollar, beaches are littered not just with broken and battered domestic varieties but with flip-flops from all over the world. Branded flip-flops turn up on Kenya’s east-facing shoreline from the Middle East, South Asia and Australasia.  Ocean Sole is Church’s private sector attempt to educate consumers and producers alike. Sales have tripled in the last year and it is reaching a global market supplying some of the world’s most famous zoos and aquariums. “Their shops are usually full of stuff that is so bad for the environment,” Church says.
See Picture Gallery of More Flip Flop Art
The UN estimates that every square mile of ocean hosts nearly 50,000 pieces of plastic. “When someone says they’re throwing something away, where is away?” Church says. When plastic is concerned, “away” often equates to ending up in one of the worlds rivers or oceans. Kenyan paleontologist Louise Leakey once warned that the legacy of our era on earth would be a layer of subcutaneous plastic.

Dallas Museum Lands a Rich Trove of Islamic Art

By goodblacknews on February 6, 2014
Screen Shot 2014-02-06 at 1.13.28 PM
Art from the Keir Collection: “Three Doctors in Discussion,” a 13th-century miniature from a translation of Dioscorides’s “De Materia Medica.” The Keir Collection of Islamic Art via Dallas Museum of Art

While Texas may have the fifth largest Muslim population in the United States by some estimates, its public art collections have only recently begun to reflect the 14-century sweep of Islamic history. But on Friday, with the stroke of a pen — sealing a complex agreement hashed out over months — the Dallas Museum of Art will become the long-term custodian of one of the most important collections of Islamic art in private hands.
The Keir Collection, amassed over decades in Britain by Edmund de Unger, a Hungarian real-estate magnate who died in 2011, will go to Dallas for at least 15 years beginning in May, under an unusual long-term renewable loan that will give the museum the right to lend pieces to other institutions and to make objects widely available to scholars. The agreement will instantly give Dallas, which now has only a few dozen Islamic pieces, perhaps the third most important Islamic collection in the country, after the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Smithsonian’s Freer and Sackler Galleries in Washington.

A 10th-century rock crystal ewer from Egypt. The Keir Collection of Islamic Art via Dallas Museum of Art

With the 2011 expansion of the Islamic galleries at the Met and long-term loans and acquisitions of significant works by institutions like the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Cleveland Museum of Art, the profile of Islamic art in the United States is rising, as threats to major collections and historic sites in parts of the Middle East come with ever greater frequency. On Jan. 24, the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, one of the most important in the world, was badly damaged by a truck bomb, which destroyed more than 70 artifacts.
The Keir Collection — named for a house near London where the collector once lived — had been assumed for several years to be headed to the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin, where Mr. de Unger had lent some works before his death. But Sabiha Al Khemir, a highly regarded scholar of Islamic art who was recruited to advise the Dallas museum in 2012, helped persuade the de Unger estate, controlled by the collector’s two sons, that the collection would be better served in Texas, where the museum would be able to make room to keep a few hundred works on view at a time. “They were looking for really a larger commitment for the whole collection and we could give them that,” said Maxwell L. Anderson, director of the Dallas Museum of Art.

Amazing Black Artists to Watch in 2014

By goodblacknews on January 5, 2014

No, not every deserving artist gets their first taste of attention through one of the art world’s largest platforms such as the legendary Art Basel show, or the Frieze Art Fair. In particular, African-American artists and other artists of color are still working towards greater visibility in the highest spheres of the rarified art community. Thus, there can never be too many lists bringing attention to the abundance of talented creators on the cusp of discovery who are ready to emerge.
Here are the fresh faces and more established visionaries still gaining ground that you need to know in 2014. The African diasporan artists compiled in the photo gallery above carry forth the traditions set in motion by visual artists from significant eras such as the Harlem Renaissance and Black Arts Movement, yet speak with new images and forms that lead us into the future.
With their various approaches to creativity, visual communication, and craft, these artists each examine critical issues of the past, present and future that reflect our shared experiences across the intersecting lines of race, class, gender, sexuality and politics. Through their works, the experiences of those of the African diaspora — and beyond — are critiqued, celebrated and preserved.
Visibility is essential to supporting the continued success of these artists, and ensuring that black artists — who are increasingly gaining recognition — continue to render our images in refined and thoughtful forms from the art world’s center stage. Regardless of whether these artists ever appear at Art Basel, or already have, please keep your eyes to the wall (and in some cases the floor, ceiling, and sidewalks), because you will want to follow these folks, who are the latest provocateurs, innovators and dreamers.
These selections are not ranked in any order to acknowledge equally the importance of each artist’s style — with the awareness that there are likely more great visual “voices” out there who deserve recognition.  Click here to see more inspiring art.
article by Souleo via thegrio.com

The African American Museum In Philadelphia Presents Its Annual Kwanzaa Celebration, This Weekend, December 28-29

By goodblacknews on December 27, 2013

The African American Museum in Philadelphia celebrates Kwanzaa with a full weekend of events, December 28-29. (Photo by G. Widman for Visit Philadelphia)

This Thursday, December 26 marked the first day of Kwanzaa, a week-long celebration of African culture and heritage, and The African American Museum in Philadelphia celebrates with a full weekend of events on December 28 and 29.  Over the course of the weekend, look forward to an informative discussion about the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa and the lighting of the museum’s Kwanzaa candles.  Celebrate the roots of the holiday with expressive dances, music and storytelling as well. All events are family-friendly and encourage a reconnection with African roots and the support of African American communities.
Kwanzaa Celebration activities are included in museum admission. Guests are encouraged to bring a canned food item for Philabundance.
Annual Kwanzaa Celebration at The African American Museum in Philadelphia
When: December 28-29
Where: African American Museum in Philadelphia, 701 Arch Street
Cost: Included in general admission
More info: www.aampmuseum.org
article via uwishunu.com

LACMA's 'Shaping Power' Exhibit Reveals Central African Masterpieces

By goodblacknews on July 13, 2013
"Caryatid Stool" from the 19th century, part of the LACMA exhibition "Shaping Power: Luba Masterworks from the Royal Museum for Central Africa." (LACMA / Royal Museum for Central Africa)
“Caryatid Stool” from the 19th century, part of the LACMA exhibition “Shaping Power: Luba Masterworks from the Royal Museum for Central Africa.” (LACMA / Royal Museum for Central Africa)

A terrific exhibition of carved wood sculptures inaugurates the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s first gallery exclusively dedicated to the display of the arts of Africa. On the second floor of the Hammer building the newly renovated space is not large: Big exhibitions often have entryways that are bigger. And it’s not uncommon to see shows with educational texts covering more wall space than is occupied by this compact show.
But bigger is not always better. The 27 ceremonial objects that make up “Shaping Power: Luba Masterworks from the Royal Museum for Central Africa” are scaled to the human body. Many are made to fit in the hand, on the head or under one’s neck, while sleeping. Each needs to be seen up-close and in person.
All of the ancestral figures, medicinal bowls, regal staffs, double-sided cups and elaborate masks resonate alongside their neighbors. This allows first-time visitors and more experienced viewers to see the stylistic consistencies that unify these fascinating objects and to notice the idiosyncrasies that distinguish one from another. Sometimes the hand of a specific artist is revealed. More often anonymous adaptations amplify each piece’s accessibility, not to mention its humanity. Such range reveals a robust, visually sophisticated culture.

NYC’s Motown to Def Jam Art Exhibit Celebrates the Legacy of Black Music

By goodblacknews on June 28, 2013
Souleo, Aanisah Hinds, Macy Gray. From Motown to Def Jam.
Souleo, Aanisah Hinds, Macy Gray. From Motown to Def Jam. (Photo: John Brathwaite)

Curator and art afficiando Souleo has put together a multi-destination art exhibition called “Motown to Def Jam” in collaboration with ArtCrawl Harlem in New York City.
The meticulously planned, four-gallery, 49-artist exhibition takes visitors from the early days of Chess Records in the mid 20th century, all the way through to the contemporary offerings of rap and R&B label Def Jam in a series of visionary visual works.  Also referenced in the show are the legendary Stax and Philadelphia International labels that helped pave the way in bringing new African-American sounds to the mainstream.
For pieces in the show, participating artists created or contributed works that described their interpretations of specific songs from singers and rappers at these record labels. Each piece, inspired by a beloved song, or songwriter, from black and American pop music history, brings black music history to life in a new way.
“A lot of people don’t know that June is African-American Music Appreciation Month,” said Souleo. “I wanted to share our struggles and triumphs and the unique ways that we express ourselves. For example, instead of the usual pop hits from Motown, I wanted to use more of the later socio-political music that came out of Motown.”
A lively Black Music Month kickoff
Souleo kicked off the five-weeks exhibit with gallery tours and a series of parties. An exhibition this grand required not one, but four different galleries, and these ancillary events connected them all.
The guides for a special preview tour were celebrity columnist and author Flo Anthony, pop culture critic Patrick Riley, historian John T. Reddick and renaissance media man Walter Rutledge. “I chose these people as the tour guides because they are the experts and they have been in the same room with some of these musical artists. They can give those extra tidbits that you would not get anywhere else,” said Souleo.

MUST WATCH VIDEO: Their Instruments May Be Garbage, But the Music of This Children's Orchestra Will Bring Tears to Your Eyes

By goodblacknews on June 13, 2013
Members of the Landfill Harmonic Orchestra. Courtesy Landfill Harmonic

Close your eyes and listen to Juan Manuel Chavez launch into the Prelude of Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1, and you would never guess that, instead of spruce and maple, his instrument is crafted from an old oil can, a beef tenderizing tool, and a discarded pasta making device—all of it scavenged from the landfill that surrounds his home in Paraguay.

Chavez is a cellist in the Landfill Harmonic Orchestra in Cateura, an Asunción slum where bottle caps, door keys, and paint cans have been given new purpose. Under the supervision of local musician Favio Chávez, these utterly impoverished kids make beautiful music on instruments constructed almost entirely out of materials reclaimed from the dump.
Filmmaker and Asunción native Alejandra Nash first heard about the phenomenon back in 2009, and decided to produce a documentary about the kids—she and her co-producers are aiming for a 2014 release. She’ll have plenty of support. The teaser she posted online last November quickly went viral, with 2 million views on Vimeo, and nearly 1 million on Youtube. It’s inspiring. Check it out…
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXynrsrTKbI&w=560&h=315]
Now her project’s Facebook page has more than 125,000 likes. And a Kickstarter campaign Nash launched in April to help fund the film’s completion has raised almost $200,000, well over the $175,000 she’d asked for. Beyond funding post-production work, the additional money will help finance a world tour for the orchestra, and an expansion of what has come to be known as the Landfill Harmonic Movement.

The idea for the orchestra first came about after Chávez brought a youth orchestra from the neighboring town of Carapeguá to perform in Cateura. The Cateura kids wanted to learn, too, but as Chávez points out in the teaser, “A community like Cateura is not a place to have a violin. In fact, a violin is worth more than a house here.”
So he and local garbage picker Nicolás Gómez began experimenting with instruments they constructed from trash: Tin water pipes, buttons, bottle caps, and spoon and fork handles make up the body and keys of the saxophones. Oil or paint cans and recycled wood are used for the string section.

‘Black Bodies In Propaganda: The Art Of The War Poster’, PBS TV Host Tukufu Zuberi's Black War Posters Focus of US Exhibit

By goodblacknews on June 6, 2013
In this Thursday, May 30, 2013 photo, University of Pennsylvania professor and PBS History Detectives host Tukufu Zuberi speaks about an Italian 1942 broadside matted on canvas by Gino Boccasile during an interview with The Associated Press at the Black Bodies in Propaganda: The Art of the War Poster exhibit at the Penn Museum, in Philadelphia. The new museum exhibition presents 33 posters owned by Zuberi that were designed to mobilize Africans and African-Americans in war efforts, even as they faced oppression and injustice in their homelands. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
In this Thursday, May 30, 2013 photo, University of Pennsylvania professor and PBS History Detectives host Tukufu Zuberi speaks about an Italian 1942 broadside matted on canvas by Gino Boccasile during an interview with The Associated Press at the Black Bodies in Propaganda: The Art of the War Poster exhibit at the Penn Museum, in Philadelphia. The new museum exhibition presents 33 posters owned by Zuberi that were designed to mobilize Africans and African-Americans in war efforts, even as they faced oppression and injustice in their homelands. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A new exhibit created by a University of Pennsylvania professor and host of a popular public television show examines how wartime propaganda has been used to motivate oppressed populations to risk their lives for homelands that considered them second-class citizens.

“Black Bodies in Propaganda: The Art of the War Poster,” opens Sunday and continues until March 2 at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Lectures, film screenings and other programming will be rolled out over the course of the exhibit’s run.
The exhibit’s 33 posters, dating from the American Civil War to both World Wars and the African independence movements, are part of the personal collection of Tukufu Zuberi, Penn professor of sociology and African studies and a host of the Public Broadcasting Service series “History Detectives.”
Zuberi began his collection in 2005 and owns 48 posters in all. There are five he’s seeking to complete his collection, but he’s not divulging any specifics. “Oh, I don’t want to go there,” he said with a laugh. “If I say anything, then there’s going to be someone out there with more money and I won’t be able to buy anything again.”

Hip-Hop Band The Roots Grow Large in New Philadelphia Mural

By goodblacknews on June 3, 2013
Workmen sweep in front of a new mural honoring The Roots, Friday, May 31, 2013, in Philadelphia. As a teen growing up in Philadelphia, Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter got busted for graffiti and was ordered by a judge to clean up such vandalism by painting murals. Now, Trotter and his Grammy-winning band The Roots are scheduled to attend Friday the unveiling of a city-sanctioned mural in their honor. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Workmen sweep in front of a new mural honoring The Roots in Philadelphia. As a teen growing up in Philadelphia, Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter got busted for graffiti and was ordered by a judge to clean up such vandalism by painting murals. Now, Trotter and his Grammy-winning band The Roots are scheduled to attend Friday the unveiling of a city-sanctioned mural in their honor. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The house band for NBC’s “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” is living large in its hometown of Philadelphia. Members of The Roots are now depicted on a multistory mural on the back wall of a school. The group attended a dedication of the project on Friday, May 31st.
The mural is called “Legendary.” It uses a colorful collage of images to trace the history of the Grammy Award-winning hip-hop group. Roots drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson says it’s difficult to believe how far the band has come since its founding in the city in 1992. The art project was created by the city’s Mural Arts Program. There are more than 3,600 murals in Philadelphia.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press via thegrio.com

The Art of Being Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem

By goodblacknews on June 2, 2013
Thelma Golden. (Photo: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders)
Thelma Golden. (Photo: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders)
If Thelma Golden didn’t exist, you would want to invent her. As director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, Golden brings her unique passion, commitment, style and laser-focus to every project she touches.

Being so good at what one does almost always stems from true love, and Golden has always been smitten with art. “When I was about 10 years old, a family friend gave my brother and I the board game Masterpiece, which involved figuring out who had stolen a great work of art,” the Queens-born Golden told theGrio. “The game included cards that represented the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, and those deeply engaged me in the idea of a museum.”
However, it was her elementary teacher, Lucille Buck, who really brought her into the study of art history. “Mrs. Buck was an art aficionado and felt strongly that we should not only visit museums, but also learn about the art, artists and artworks we were going to see before our visits. She began my lifelong love of learning about art.”
Golden takes the art world by storm
Armed with a B.A. in Art History and African-American Studies from Smith College, Golden actually started her career at the Studio Museum in 1987, prior to joining the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1988. She spent ten years at the Whitney. Her first big exhibition as curator was the 1993 Whitney Biennial (always a provocative seasonal show), but she really made her mark in 1994 when she organized the controversial exhibition Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art.
The show ruffled the feathers of black and white viewers — and critics — alike, but opened up new dialogues. Golden says that in many ways, it was her dream show. “By having been fortunate enough to do that so early on in my career, it has really freed me to be truly curatorially curious. I had the great advantage to make an exhibition so wholly influential to my thinking and the ideas that I was engaged with that it has let me, in the intervening twenty years, follow my mind and my heart around the art and artists that I love.”