mequitta ahuja

Protege of Kerry James Marshall, artist Mequitta Ahuja is making a name for herself. Already having solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Saatchi Gallery is ensuring that Ahuja is getting the much needed recognition that she deserves. This posts is for those of you that support the natural hair movement! You can check out more of her work at her upcoming exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem on July 15th.

 Afrogalaxy.

Dream Region

detroitwhat.

Despite the grim reports on the decline of Detroit's economy, there are a select few young, upwardly mobile burgeoning professionals who seek to reshape the public's perspective of this troubled city, highlighting contemporary cultural production as a glimmering speck of hope for what was once America's economic Mecca. No matter how pessimistic the outlook may be, art production will never cease. If you're in the Motor City anytime before July 25th, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) is featuring the first solo exhibition of artist/photographer Latoya Ruby Frazier. Frazier chronicles 10 years of photographs exploring her own family, and "the psychological and biological lineage that unites her grandmother, mother and herself, revealing at the same time the unavoidable issues of race, class, conflict and substance abuse that surround them." (MOCAD) Go see Mother May I  at the MOCAD today!

Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
4454 Woodward Ave
Detroit, Michigan 48201

For more information on what's going on in the Detroit restaurant, art, and music scene, follow my dear friend and Detroit native Cambrey Thomas' awesome blog, Detroit Girls About Town.

white walls

Rachel Mason: I Rule with A Broken Heart opens tomorrow @ Andrew Rafacz Gallery in Chicago.

This excerpt was taken from a press release on behalf of the gallery:

"Since 2004, Mason has been sculpting political figures and imagining herself as one of them. The project has extended to live performances, video, albums, and writing. The body of figures began as a project called The Ambassadors, as Mason sculpted herself as an imagined ambassador to wars in her lifetime. For this exhibition, we present a literal timeline of Mason's life as a fictional ambassador to conflicts, in figurines set on a shelf that wraps around the perimeter of the gallery. Mason is interested in using her own personal experiences to address the public experience of these historical, and very real, human beings. Reading a passage in a Shambala Buddhist text led her to think of the leaders as being heartbroken, and her own interpretation is deeply empathetic, attempting to imagine what it might be like to be Saddam Hussein, Jimmy Carter, or Deng Xiaopeng."

Mason will be present to talk about her first solo exhibition in Chicago as well as the release of her new book, I Rule with a Broken Heart and she will be giving a performance on Saturday, February 7th. Click here to view the entire press release.

In addition to Mason's exhibition, A Force for Change: African American Art and the Julius Rosenwald Fund opens today at the Spertus Museum.

The works of artists such as Hale Woodruff, Elizabeth Catlett, and Aaron Douglass will be displayed. Here is an excerpt from the description of the exhibition:

"A Force for Change: African American Art and the Julius Rosenwald Fund is the first exhibition to explore the legacy of the Julius Rosenwald Fund created by the Chicago businessman and philanthropist to foster black leadership through the arts, literature, and scholarship. From 1928 to 1948, the Fund awarded stipends to hundreds of prominent and emerging African Americans artists, writers, and scholars across such disciplines as history, sociology, literature, and the visual and performing arts. A Force for Change will present the artistic and scholarly products of Julius Rosenwald’s support, and will include more than sixty paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by twenty-two Rosenwald fellows, as well as a selection of documentary and archival materials."

On Sunday, February 8th, renowned art historian Richard J. Powell (Duke) will be giving a lecture pertaining to African American art and collecting. The exhibition will be on display until August 2009.

WHITE WALLS

This week I will make my way to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago to see PROTECT PROTECT, text and installation artist Jenny Holzer's new exhibition....and I will be bringing you Visualité's first exhibition review from our White Walls series. Updates forthcoming!