HIGHLIGHTS
December is a gift of a month for exhibitions in Philadelphia. Those currently on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, African American Museum of Philadelphia, and Fleisher/Ollman Gallery are not to be missed. From macro scale celebrations to quiet personal yearnings in intimate moments, the works in these exhibitions explore the fullness and complexity of artists within and alongside Black contemporary life.
Support Art Spiel! Your tax-deductible contribution to the 2024 Art Spiel Fall Fundraising campaign ensures that we continue to give artists a voice and bring you the art coverage you love. Make your tax-deductible donation today and help Art Spiel continue to thrive.
The Time Is Always Now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art @philamuseum
On view through February 9, 2025
Curated by: Ekow Eshun
Artists including: Michael Armitage, Claudette Johnson, Kerry James Marshall, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Amy Sherald, Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, Roberto Lugo, Danielle Mckinney, Deborah Roberts, and Arthur Timothy
The Time Is Always Now presents more than 60 works of Black and African diasporic artists, creating work throughout the expanse of Black contemporary experience. From luminous Amy Sherald paintings to heartbreaking works from Noah Davis, these pieces welcome the viewer into the rich interior lives of those who live under an othering gaze. We are treated to contemporary works that are gorgeous, celebratory, and unflinching in their expression. They are grouped within themes that share how the awareness of collective history sits alongside day-to-day life and the complex emotions this engenders. They expand upon race as a construct, and the struggles and importance of belonging.
Several pieces in this exhibition gaze out at the viewer directly, relating on a personal level, and speak to the importance of relationships, including the Black LGBTQ experience. It is a statement to exist and to show the depths of the heart with multi-faceted pride, grace, and dignity, and we are treated to the rich vantages of these artists’ and individuals’ daily lives. These works throw themselves against the cage of judgment and exterior definition to take up space and exist as complex and varied as the lives they depict.
Shared Vision at the African American Museum In Philadelphia (AAMP) @aampmuseum
On view through March 2, 2025
Curated by: CCH Pounder and AAMP
Featuring: Bisa Butler, Elizabeth Colomba, Samella Lewis, Lezley Saar, Luke Agada and Alex Peter Idoko
The rich collection of CCH Pounder is on powerful display in Shared Vision, beautifully curated to share the nuanced and intimate experiences of artists throughout the contemporary African Diaspora. There is a wide variety of stunning portraiture executed in paint, drawing, mixed media, embroidery, or contemporary woodcraft. Sensitive work by Sisqo Ndombe Akisieful opens the exhibition, which then guides the viewer through the layered experience of living in a world of marginalization and historical weight.
The exhibition covers a richness of individual and personal experiences and does not shy away from the emotional weight of contemporary life – including divorce, domestic violence, and depression – while also celebrating the joys of self-love, healing, and resilience. There is a depth of compassion and beauty, along with an intensity of expression that evokes the overlapping of identity, racialized or gendered subjugation, and societal belonging. These broader moments are present alongside works focused on the importance of personal, intimate moments and the opportunity for repair through uplift. One cannot escape the encompassing self-possession of these works, a reassertion that ‘I am here. I have always been here.’
Subscribe to the Art Spiel Weekly Newsletter. It Matters to us!
SUBSCRIBE HERE
And Behold a Door Was Opened at Fleisher/Ollman Gallery @fleisherollman
On view through January 4, 2025
Featuring: Chelo Amézcua, Eddie Arning, Miles Carpenter, James Castle, Henry Ray Clark, Lee Godie, William Hawkins, Frank Jones, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Philadelphia Wireman, Elijah Pierce, Martín Ramírez, Inez Nathaniel Walker, Adolf Wölfli, Joseph Yoakum, Purvis Young, and Carlo Zinelli
And Behold a Door Was Opened presents beautiful examples of 20th-century artists working primarily outside the mainstream. Several artists in this exhibition are people of color who experienced marginalization due to race, poverty, and displacement. Some artists began working while institutionalized or incarcerated. There are dreamlike drawings by Carlo Zinelli and Lee Godie, an enigmatic collection of color works on paper by James Castle and Joseph Yoakum, and sensitively carved wood pieces by Elijah Pierce. Sculptures by the Philadelphia Wireman evoke notions of spirituality and protection and are wonderful companions to the mixed media work of Sister Gertrude Morgan.
Many works in this exhibition suggest the quietest of human moments and are, in turn, mystical, devotional, contemplative, and protective, filled with a raw and quiet spirit evoking personal prayer and hope. It is a moving collection of works. The repetition of marks on paper or in mixed media, alongside repetitive wrapping in sculptural work, gives a sense of protection and entreaty, and we are wrapped within them. For those who love examples of intimate and personal work by artists outside the mainstream, this exhibition is a real treat. What is art for, if not to express the yearnings of the soul?
Make your tax-deductible donation today and help Art Spiel continue to thrive. DONATE
All photos courtesy of Nicole Michaud unless otherwise indicated.
About the writer: Nicole Michaud is a painter living in Philadelphia, and is a graduate of The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Michaud’s work has been exhibited in the U.S. and London, including at the Woodmere Art Museum, Every Woman Biennial (NY and London), Art on Paper Fair (NY) and Red Dot Art Fair (Miami). She has been profiled in local and online publications, including Root Quarterly and Mezzo Cammin. @nicolemichaudstudio