Progeny Two: Deb Willis & Hank Willis Thomas + Fo Wilson & Dayo

October 8, 2010 - January 23, 2011

Deborah Willis and Hank Willis Thomas — mother and son — collaborate with Fo Wilson and her son Dayo Harewood for Progeny Two which opens to Gantt Center members & donors on Friday, October 8 at 6:00 pm and to the public on Saturday, October 9. This exhibition is the first collaborative effort undertaken by the four. Willis and Thomas are photographers. Wilson uses the language of furniture to amplify the human experience and Harewood is a filmmaker. Progeny Two is positioned at the intersection of their practices. The result is a thoughtful medley that highlights the impact of family, history, and memory on the processes of artistic production.

Please note, this exhibit contains adult content.

Related Events - Artist's Voice

Join Willis, Thomas and Wilson on Saturday, October 9 at 1:00 pm for the Artist's Voice gallery talk. The artists will lead visitors through the show and discuss their collective and individual visions, inspirations and artistic processes. Q&A will follow.

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100 Years of African-American Art: The Arthur Primas Collection

Saturday, November 6, 2010 - Sunday, January 30, 2011
100 Years of African-American Art presents works from the Arthur Primas collection. This significant collection of African-American art includes paintings, sculptures, works on paper, graphics and documents. The exhibition presents 69 works from the collection, representing 34 artists. These artists brought forth magnificent art which reflects the African-American experience and aesthetic.

In conjunction with 100 Years of African-American Art, The Dayton Art Institute will collaborate with the University of Dayton on Marking the Past/Shaping the Present: The Art of Willis Bing Davis, which will showcase works by the noted Dayton artist. Davis attended The School of The Dayton Art Institute and has been a fixture of the Dayton arts community for several decades. The University of Dayton will display Davis' photographs, masks and ceramics, while The Dayton Art Institute will host an exhibition of his oil pastels.

Note: Admission price includes both exhibitions.

Price
$10.00

Discounts
Member: Free admission for museum members
Senior: $8
Student: $8
Group: $8
Special 1: Youth (ages 7 - 18): $6
Special 2: Chidren under 6 Free

Order & Box Office Information
Box Office: 937-223-5277
http://www.daytonartinstitute.org/exhibitions/2010primas.html

Venue
Dayton Art Institute
456 Belmonte Park North
Dayton, OH 45405
http://www.daytonartinstitute.org/

Reviews / More Information

African American Art at the UM Lowe Art Museum Spans Three Centuries

October 24, 2010 — Coral Gables — The University of Miami Lowe Art Museum’s fall/winter exhibition will feature selections from one of the premier collections of African American art. The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art: Works on Paper will provide a rare opportunity for the public to view master graphics spanning three centuries. The works are to be on view from November 13, 2010 – January 16, 2011. A preview lecture and reception will be held on November 12th from 7-10 PM. The lecture will be presented by collector Harriet Kelley along with her daughter, art historian Jennifer Kelley.

The 69 works in the exhibition include drawings, etchings, lithographs, watercolors, pastels, acrylics, gouaches, and screen prints by such noted artists as Henry O. Tanner, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Elizabeth Catlett, and Alison Saar.

This Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection exhibition is one of the largest and most comprehensive traveling exhibitions ever organized featuring African American artists from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. The majority of the works in this exhibition were produced during the 1930s and 40s. This was the era of the Great Depression and the WPA/FAP (Works Progress Administration of the Federal Arts Project) that provided employment for many artists. The 1960s and early 70s gave birth to the politically-motivated and African-inspired civil rights period, which is another focus of this exhibition. The late 20th and early 21st centuries highlight works on paper from some of the brightest stars of the contemporary generation; Margo Humphrey, Dean Mitchell, Robert Colescott, Lionel Lofton, and Ike E. Morgan.

Dr. Harmon Kelley and his wife Harriet were inspired to begin collecting after viewing an exhibition of African American art at the San Antonio Museum of Art. Their art collection has become something of a museum’s dream and now travels to major venues all over the globe.

The Lowe will also feature a selection of works by African American Artists from it’s permanent collection, to complement the Kelley Collection exhibition.

This exhibition is organized by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. The exhibition at the Lowe Art Museum is made possible by a grant from Funding Arts Network. Additional sponsorship provided by Northwestern Mutual.

The Lowe Art Museum is located at the University of Miami at 1301 Stanford Drive, Coral Gables. Gallery and Museum Store hours: Tuesday-Saturday: 10-4; Sunday: 12-4; Monday: Closed. Regular Admission (not including special events) is $10; $5 for Seniors and Non-UM Students; Free for Lowe Art Museum Members, University of Miami students, faculty and staff, and children under 12. For more information, call (305) 284-3535 or visit http://www.lowemuseum.org.

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The University of Miami’s mission is to educate and nurture students, to create knowledge, and to provide service to our community and beyond. Committed to excellence and proud of our diversity of our University family, we strive to develop future leaders of our nation and the world. http://www.miami.edu.

Rhapsody in Blue: The Work of Nannette Harris

Sargent Johnson Gallery (Sargent Johnson Gallery)
Thu, Aug 26 -- Sun, Jan 2
Gallery Hours: Tues - Sat 12 Noon - 5 p.m.

"Rhapsody in Blue" features some of Nannette Harris’s beloved and popular works like: James Brown, Carlos Santana, and Tina Turner. She will also unveil her new creations like: Jimi Hendrix, Marolyn Monroe, and the African American Art & Culture Complex’s own, Sargent Johnson – of whom our gallery is named after.

Nannette Harris is an African American artist born and raised in Oakland, California. She followed her passion for art and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the California College of Arts and Crafts. She has been painting for thirty-five years.

Nannette’s use of color in her paintings allows the colors to show the meaning of her work. The vision for her style came in a dream, using the primary colors, blue, red, and yellow. "Blue" represents the color of our blood before it is oxygenated, "Red" represents the color of our blood after oxygenation and "Yellow" represents the aura and energy of life. She believes "Black" radiates when used with color and enjoy using the negative space, creating a touch of cubism, texture and geometric shapes in her paintings.

It is of interest to note that Nannette has been very environmentally conscious of the materials she uses, being called the "Green artist" that paints "Blue People". She paints and creates her artwork using recycled oil and acrylic metallic paints. She has been recycling her paints and old paint brushes that allows her to sculpt and give texture to the hair of the characters she paints. She never discards any left-over paint she uses. Therefore, her concern for the environment prompts her to be creative in re-using the materials.
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Nigerian Ife Art on Display in Houston

A collection of more than 100 items of African art is now on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the first stop in a U.S. tour of rare art works from Nigeria's Ife region.


The exhibition is called Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria and features many objects that museum visitors may find surprising. Curator Frances Marzio said, "Ife early on protected its patrimony and these objects have, for the most part, never even been outside of Nigeria."

One of the biggest surprises, Marzio says, is the realistic portrayals of royalty and other subjects in terra cotta, stone and metal. "Most of what we think of as African art today are the types of abstract art and wooden art that really influenced 20th century artists like Picasso. So, to see these objects that are made in a very classical way, more like Greece and Rome, I think is a revelation and I think it changes your idea of what African art was," said Marzio.

One example is this statue of a beaded woman called Idena. "This stone sculpture dates from the ninth century and it represents Idena, the gatekeeper, who presided over and protected the sacred grove at Ore. "The Idena statue is seen in a gatekeeper position and wearing a large beaded necklace and beaded bracelets. The wealth of Ife was due to a bead making tradition. They exported their glass beads to the north of Africa and made this area very prosperous," she said.

Marzio says her favorite works in the exhibition are the metal sculptures of human heads. "From the ninth to the 14th century, this area created a number of copper-alloy heads that are unlike anything else we have seen in African art. They have wonderful naturalism. They look as if they could speak or communicate with you. Yet they have the realism of Roman portraits," she said.

Most of these works date from a period a century before the art of metal sculpture returned to Europe during the Renaissance. Marzio says they show a level of skill similar to that attained by the ancient Greeks and Romans. "We know that there was a long metal-working tradition in Africa from very ancient times, but it is unknown what the origin of these particular heads was," she said.


The exhibit of art from Ife will remain here in Houston through January 9 of next year.
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17th Annual Holiday Glitz Benefit Gala

Charles A. Dana Discovery Center (Located inside Central Park on 110th Street between Fifth and Lenox Avenues)

Originating from the first harvest celebrations on the African continent, Kwanzaa is celebrated in December and honors the principles of family, community and culture.

Join the Museum for African Art and the Central Park Conservancy for a festive Harlem Meer Social Hour facilitated by choreographer Abdel Salaam and guests from Harlem's Forces of Nature Dance Theatre. Celebrate this African-American and Pan-African holiday by enjoying complimentary refreshments, live music and dance, and songs in English and Swahili in the Kwanzaa tradition.

FREE. No advance registration required. For more information, call the Central Park Conservancy at 212-860-1370.

Museum for African Art education programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc.

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AFRICAN JUBILEE FILM FESTIVAL: ‘War/Dance’

Fifty years ago, 17 African countries won their independence from European colonial rule. Ever since that time, 1960 has been known as the Year of African Independence. With political independence came new struggles, like the struggles for economic justice, gender justice, cultural renewal and peace. African filmmakers and the African film industry have played a key role in representing these struggles, as well as comedy, romance and Afro-futurism.

The African Jubilee Film Festival, curated by Lynette Jackson and Floyd Webb, and co-sponsored by Portoluz, The DuSable Museum of African American History, the African American Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies departments at UIC and The Public Square, will mark this important milestone with films by African filmmakers, from founding fathers like Ousmane Sembene and Djibril Mambety of Senegal, to rising young women filmmakers like Jihan El Tahri and Wanuri Kahiu of Egypt and Kenya respectively. The African Jubilee Film Festival will hold film screenings and discussions on select Sundays, between June 27 to December 5, 2010.

December 5 – War/Dance

Director: Sean and Andrea Nix
Country: Uganda

This documentary is set against the backdrop of a 20-year long civil war in Northern Uganda in which 30,000 children have been abducted by the rebel army, and many of their parents killed. The documentary follows a group of school children in an internally displaced persons camp who are preparing to compete in Uganda’s National Music and Dance Festival in Kampala. The viewer
is taken on a deeply moving journey full of pain and loss innocence, resilience and hope. A true triumph of the human spirit.

Discussant: Ogenga Otunnu, Depaul University.


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