FIGURES AND PROJECTIONS

FIGURES AND PROJECTIONS : Selected Work from the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art

OCTOBER 28 - DECEMBER 12, 2021

The Marlin and Regina Miller Gallery Kutztown University

cover image: Rashid Johnson (b. 1977) George (Seeing the Dark Series), ca. 1998-99 Silver emulsion, 30" x 22.50"

FIGURES AND PROJECTIONS Selected Work from the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art

Mequitta Ahuja Emma Amos Lavett Ballard Romare Bearden Dawoud Bey John Biggers Donald C. Camp Tawny Chatmon Sonya Clark Willie Cole Alfred Conteh Adger Cowans Kenturah Davis Sam Gilliam

Latoya Hobbs Curlee Holton Ed Hughes Ronald Jackson Rashid Johnson Sargeant Claude Johnson Titus Kaphar Paul Keene Columbus Knox Jacob Lawrence Nate Lewis Delita Martin Chris Ofili Kermit Oliver

Angela Pilgrim Steve Prince Faith Ringgold Alison Saar Lezley Saar Lorna Simpson Dianne Smith Nelson Stevens Kara Walker Carrie Mae Weems Charles White Didier William

OCTOBER 28 - DECEMBER 12, 2021

The Marlin and Regina Miller Gallery, Kutztown University

photo credit: Katie Raudenbush

THE PETRUCCI FAMILY FOUNDATION COLLECTION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ART Founded in 2006, The Petrucci Family Foundation (PFF) actively responds to the needs of the communities it serves. The PFF mission is to support education and create opportunities for Americans at every stage and station of life.

The PFF Collection of African American Art is a targeted initiative to bring focus to the full range of AfricanAmerican visual creativity and its essential place in the history and discourse of American art.

An understanding of African-American art history is vital to a full understanding of American art history. The PFF collection offers continuing proof that African American art is integral to the rich tapestry of American creative tradition. Long overlooked, art of this caliber with its specific cultural voice is both essential and enlightening.

Further, PFF’s mission of fostering a more complete understanding of African American art holds great promise for cross-cultural understanding and reconciliation, in this case, through a specific lens of the American experience.

As part of a growing and more thoughtful dialogue about the African American experience through art, the PFF Collection seeks to visually represent a cross-section of themes that speak not only to the African American community but also to the broader American community. It is our fervent desire that the Collection proves to be much more than an assemblage of art. We rely on those of you who experience it to affirm our Mission.

photo credit: Katie Raudenbush

FIGURES AND PROJECTIONS : INTRODUCTION Daniel Haxall, Ph.D, Professor of Art History, Kutztown University In 1925, the painter Aaron Douglas wrote a letter to the poet Langston Hughes, calling for a redefinition of African-American identity by embracing and promoting Black culture: “Our problem is to conceive, develop, establish an art era. Not white art painted black… Let’s bare our arms and plunge them deep through laughter, through pain, through sorrow, through hope, through disappointment, into the very depths of the souls of our people and drag forth material crude, rough, neglected. Then let’s sing it, dance it, write it, paint it. Let’s do the impossible. Let’s create something transcendentally material, mystically objective. Earthy. Spiritually earthy.

Dynamic.”

–Aaron Douglas Throughout the century that followed, generations of artists followed Douglas’ lead, portraying the African American experience in diverse artistic mediums while adding new voices and perspectives to the history of American art. For the past fifteen years, the Petrucci Family Foundation has pursued a similar mission,

sharing its ever-growing collection of African American art to support education and foster cross-cultural understanding and reconciliation.

Figures and Projections presents more than 40 works in collage, drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, and diverse print mediums from the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection. This exhibition explores how African American artists portray the human form to represent the Black experience in America. In this way, the word “figure” refers to the body, particularly the presence of the African American as both subject matter and subjectivity. Romare Bearden called the photographic enlargement of his paper collages, “projections,” a word that literally described his artistic process but one that also denotes an outlook, conception of reality, or transfer of desires. From formal portraits and images of everyday life to abstracted suggestions of bodies in motion, these works project the beauty, aspirations, and achievements of African Americans while commemorating ongoing efforts for equality and social justice.

FIGURES AND PROJECTIONS : EXHIBITION OVERVIEW Figures and Projections incorporates art produced from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s to present day, featuring diverse imagery and narratives connected to the human body. Portraits and artistic studies by Mequitta Ahuja, John Biggers, Alfred

The family remains central to the formation of identity, and artists including Carrie Mae Weems, Lezley Saar, and Titus Kaphar represent ancestral legacies and acquired behaviors through family portraits. The role of memory in generating these

Conteh, Rashid Johnson, Columbus Knox, and Charles White convey the dignity and self-possession of their subjects, often empowering individuals through their beauty and visual presence. The experiences of African-American women feature prominently throughout the show, with Emma Amos, Romare

narratives spans the personal and communal, and figural representation provides artists with a means of contesting histories of racism and segregation while affirming the humanity of their subjects. The photography of Lorna Simpson and mixed media works of Willie Cole examine the experiences of those

Bearden, Nate Lewis, Delita Martin, Alison Saar, and

displaced by slavery, whereas Kara Walker and Curlee

Nelson Stevens among those who locate strength and spirituality within female figures ranging from mythological goddesses to everyday people. Creating the likeness of a person often includes the fashion and

Holton trace histories of desire and objectification through the female form. Faith Ringgold revises iconic portraits and images from the past to challenge the contradictions of American history, and Lavett Ballard

style of the sitter, and many artists emphasize hair to celebrate Black identity. Dawoud Bey, Tawny Chatmon, Sonya Clark, LaToya Hobbs, Chris Ofili, Angela Pilgrim, and Dianne Smith depict unique hairstyles to assert cultural specificity while addressing complex issues of stereotyping and socialization.

and Ronald Jackson revisit their southern heritage in collage and painting.

Efforts to restore the agency of African Americans inspire many artists to celebrate bodies in action, particularly moments of political activism or cultural achievement. Jacob Lawrence, Steve Prince, and Paul

Keene derive inspiration from those protesting Jim Crow laws or performing jazz music, while Sam Gilliam and Adger Cowans establish the presence of the African American through the physicality of their artistic gestures and use of tools typically associated with the body, including combs and rakes.

The artists represented in Figures and Projections craft diverse responses to American history grounded in Black figuration. From portrait likenesses to scenes of cultural achievement and political activism, the AfricanAmerican body remains a statement of human strength, creativty, and beauty. Recent events have amplified the need for cultural understanding and social change, and the mission of the Petrucci Family Foundation—to stimulate education and knowledge of African-American art history—aligns with Kutztown University’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Figures and Projections provides the community with an opportunity to experience a significant art collection on campus while additional programming will further the dialogue generated by this timely exhibition.

Kara Walker, The Emancipation Approximation (Scene 18), 1999-2000 Screenprint, 50 x 40 in.

FIGURES AND PROJECTIONS: FROM CLASSROOM TO GALLERY When Karen Stanford, Director of Kutztown University’s Galleries and Community Outreach, asked if I would be interested in showing the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art on campus, I responded with an enthusiastic yes. I first encountered this collection when the Allentown Art Museum invited me to write the exhibition catalog and wall texts for their show, An Essential Presence (2019), and knowing the strengths of the collection and high quality of its work, I was thrilled at the prospect of sharing it with the Kutztown community. We discussed ways to utilize the show as a teaching tool, and we thought the exhibition could be a point of emphasis in a class I teach, ARH 324: Contemporary African American Art. During the Spring 2021 semester, my students researched the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection, developing exhibition proposals which we reviewed before selecting some of the strongest ones to incorporate into the Miller Gallery exhibition. We were impressed by the creative and critical approaches of the students, and we ultimately decided to combine as many proposals as we could into a larger, thematic exhibition.

Considering the prominence of the Black Lives Matter movement, it should not be surprising that

several students framed their exhibition proposals on themes of social justice, and some constructed histories of African American accomplishments to counter images of trauma or inequality. Similarly, other students focused on themes of spirituality, community or the family, stressing love or religious devotion to emphasive positive values and uplifting imagery. Proposals focused on the idea of place, with students selecting landscapes or genre scenes as sites of significance and human experience, while others stressed the expressive properties of color or profundity of abstraction. A topic that recurred through many of the proposals was the human figure, ranging from images of specific communities to assertions of beauty through portraiture.

The idea of projected bodies through artistic gestures and abstract imagery also featured in several projects, and a range of considerations culminated in Figures and Projections, a show built around visibility, presence, and inclusion. So many of the proposals would have generated compelling exhibitions, which is a testament to the quality and scope of the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection, but it also speaks to the significant work produced by African American artists, work Kutztown University is honored to share.

FIGURES AND PROJECTIONS: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special thanks to Claudia Volpe, Collection Manager of the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection, for her assistance with the show, and Karen Stanford for her endless patience, critical eye, and vision for the Miller Gallery. The students of ARH 324: Contemporary African American Art from Spring 2021 produced tremendous work, and many continued to work on this project throughout the summer and subsequent semester. We thank them for their critical engagement with the material and generosity in lending their time and insight to the exhibition. Figures and Projections draws from proposals developed by the students in this course, in particular those by Alanna Barton, Kalei Custer, Jessica

Markus Boulanger, Abigail Cosgrove, Kalei Kuster, Corinne Deichmeister, Gwendolin Diener, Jessica Ditondo, Bridget Faherty, Domingo Fielder, Abigail Foreman, Victoria Foster, Jennifer Gale, Madeline Hartmann, Molly Heller, Angelina Kimmins, Jayden Latona, Daniel Lieberman, Alison McLaughlin, Eldin Morales, Brooke Murray, Katherine North, Allison O’Brien, Kylisha Roberts, Anthony Shaver, Emma Smith, Corrinne Stumpf, Camryn Swafford, Ashley Tammany, and Aubrey Zegstroo.

Thank you to the ARAMARK Diversity and Inclusion Initiative for sponsoring our visiting artists, Curlee Holton and Lavett Ballard.

Ditondo, Domingo Fielder, Victoria Foster, Molly Heller, Alison McLaughlin, and Corrinne Stumpf. Kalei Custer, Emma Smith, and Corrinne Stumpf wrote the bulk of our catalog entries and wall texts, while Domingo Fielder, Madeline Hartmann, Molly Heller, and Alison McLaughlin contributed to additional texts. Katherine Raudenbush and Danielle Schwesinger helped with the layout, design, and installation of the exhibition as well as many logistical components of the show.

Thank you to the Spring 2021 section of ARH 324: Contemporary African American Art: Alanna Barton,

Dawoud Bey, Deas McNeill, The Barber, 1976. Silver Print, 29 x 23"

photo credit: Katie Raudenbush

ROOTS : THE POLITICS OF HAIR

Corrinne Stumpf, Kutztown University Class of 2023, with contributions from Domingo Fielder, Kutztown University Class of 2021

Throughout history, hair has been directly connected to African American identity. While a biological attribute, hair remains intrinsically complex, viewed as a source of power and pride, a means of expressing aspirations and standards of beauty, and a symbol of cultural suppression and societal barriers. This selection of work from the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection explores the various ways artists have used African American hair as a vehicle of expression, a source of self-empowerment and creativity as well as a tool for projecting racial, political, and gendered identities. Hairstyles such as the Afro or Dreadlock became outward statements of one’s background or lineage, a component of the “Black is Beautiful” movement that fought for Civil Rights while promoting body positivity beyond a Eurocentric gaze.

Artists often employ objects associated with hair and the body, ranging from combs and picks to shea butter, as artistic tools, while others represent the daily rituals that make hair styling an art form itself. From mothers securing their daughter’s braids to the male socialization that occurs at the barbershop, hair remains part of a social dynamic centered around family, community, and selfhood, and these artworks acknowledge the beauty and symbolic power of hair.

Tawny Chatmon, Deeply Embedded / Thoroughly Rooted, 2016.

Photographic montage

THE ARTIST'S TRACE Kalei Custer, Kutztown University, Class of 2021 Figures and Projections traces African American history and experience through representations of the body. While many of the artworks in the show represent the human figure in a literal sense, others document a human presence through the visibility of the artist’s hand at work. Markmaking is crucial to the exhibition because these marks record the artist’s movement, influences, and decision making. The mark acts as an intercessor between audience and experience, establishing the presence, and absence, of the artist while projecting diverse subjectivities.

What is the artist’s trace? It is pieces of active creation left behind on the page, canvas, or any other support by the artist. This is not just the artwork as a whole, but the small parts as well; the splotches of color, the smearing of charcoal, a rapid hand making quick lines. These conscious and unconscious marks hold the thoughts, experiences, and emotions of the maker in that moment. In the case of the trace, the sporadic becomes static, forever imprinted on the artwork. Witnessing the artist’s hand at work is witnessing the human thought process, reflections of people, places, things, and experiences that constitute an artist’s timeline.

Kenturah Davis says she uses “text as a point of departure,” because she “explores the fundamental role that language has in shaping how we understand

Kenturah Davis, Namesake, 2015, incense ink on lined rice paper, 39 x 36 in.

ourselves and the world around us.” Through the use of ink and a rubber stamp, Davis builds up a portrait of an African American woman using a quote in Namesake. She wrote a biblical passage onto a wood native to South America, burning the resulting text and using the residue for ink she used to stamp the letters forming her self-portrait. While the original text stemmed from the Bible, the Namesake derives from

South African traditions regarding naming children as well as North African and Chinese customs utilizing smoke for creative rituals. In this case language literally manifests the woman into existence. The artist’s trace in this artwork can be seen through the application of the quote with the rubber stamp. In the rice paper squares the pressure used or amount of ink varies, causing the words to read dark and clear while others fade into illegibility. The woman’s hair is formed by a concentrated layering of the quote, as the text does not retain a consistent form like the background; instead, it is

Adger Cowans, Stalk II, Acrylic, 27 x 23 in.

splayed around her head to create small curls. This concentration of pigment and lettering reflects Davis’s focus on the woman’s hair, a direct commentary on the significance of hair in African American culture as noted

by Corrinne Stumpf and Domingo Fielder. Ultimately, we see the artist’s precise hand and use of language as a mark through various acts of stamping, blotting, and erasing.

Adger Cowans invites a human quality into his abstract painting, specifically Stalk II. The artwork exudes a vibrancy through its cool and warm earth tones as well as the velocity of the comb used to move paint around the canvas. In this piece, the artist’s trace is each and every comb mark he makes, as he pulls and pushes the paint to form ridges of color. Each comb stroke documents Cowans’ bodily motions, some arching upwards as others sweep low. The marks are consistent in their pace but varied in their space. Stalk II is emblematic of human activity through the trace of Cowans’ movement as well as the tool used itself, treating the comb like a paintbrush as if the paint were someone's hair.

Sam Gilliam brings a powerful charge to his Pretty Boxes lithograph. Similar to Cowans, there are comb-like patterns throughout, along with the immediacy of splotched and streaking lines, circles, bits of shadow and light, and cross hatches. The dynamism in his marks and layering of pigment creates an interesting space, one where splatters and dabs of ink bisect

illustrating the messiness and harshness that comes out of identity loss, as the work refers to the breeding of slaves into subsets of racial categories.

In diverse ways, traces of the artist remain visible throughout Figures and Projections. From gestural applications of paint to blotted and stamped inks, artists project their experiences and subjectivity through processes of creation. Each mark has a purpose, declaring the presence and visibility of the artist while sharing unique perspectives and visual narratives.

Sam Gilliam, Pretty Boxes, 1993, offset lithography, 39.5 x 52 in.

ribbon-like curves. Gilliam once stated that “making abstract art can be just as political as representational art,” and the vibrant strokes of combs, bright colors, and splatters of ink in Pretty Boxes certainly conveys a sense of artistic freedom and expressive liberty.

In Curlee Raven Holton’s Bred for Pleasure, the profile of a figure is repeated, but changes with each subsequent representation. Reading the work from left to right like a book suggests a loss of Black identity over time. The far left profile is full of black ink but loses pigment and clarity through each printing. The ink applied to the figures bleeds over the edges of the sheet, while others do not even reach the edge. Ochre and black ink is also applied to the artwork but in streaks across the figures or in splatters around the edges. Holton’s hand in applying ink is precise in

Curlee Holton, Bred for Pleasure, 1995. Etching and monoprint, 32.5 x 46.5 in.

EXHIBITION CATALOG

Mequitta Ahuja (b. 1976)

Mequitta Ahuja earned her BA at Hampshire College and MFA from the University of Illinois.

More recently, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. Ahuja explores her dual identity as a woman of African American and South Asian descent through her artwork. She often employs collage elements that link traditional Indian patterns with her self-portrait, fashioning, in her words, “a complex narrative of being and making.” She aims to challenge the typical portrayal of women of color by integrating different styles, patterns, materials, and activities into the image, opening dialogues about taboos in the process. In Back Garden is typical of this endeavor, as Ahuja depicts herself nude, seated on a patterned floral textile while taking a selfportrait through a remote-controlled camera. In this way, the reclining female nude assumes agency and projects her own beauty. ~Molly Heller, Kutztown University, Class of 2024

In Back Garden, 2013, Collage, 58.5 x 41.5 in.

Emma Amos (1938-2020) Emma Amos was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. She studied printmaking, painting, and textiles at Antioch University, the London Central School of Art, and New York University, before teaching at the Mason Gross School of Art at Rutgers University. Amos was the only female member of Spiral, the legendary collective of Black artists that gathered at Romare Bearden’s studio in the early 1960s, while she later contributed to the feminist art journal Heresies and became a member of the Guerrilla Girls, an activist organization devoted to equality in the art world. Her prints feature personal narratives as well as heroines from popular music, reflecting the diversity of women’s lives and experiences. Pool Lady reverses associations with the “bather” subject in art history, presenting a Black woman who commands the “gaze” and her own visual presence rather than rehearsing the objectification of the female form that runs throughout Western art. This declaration of female empowerment is based on a self-portrait, with the patterned swimsuit and rug references to Amos’ experiences in weaving and textile design. ~Daniel Haxall, Ph.D., Professor of Art History, Kutztown University

Pool Lady, 1980. Color etching and aquatint, 23.25 x 21.25 in.

Lavett Ballard (b. 1970)

Lavett Ballard completed a double major in Studio Art and Art History at Rutgers University before earning her MFA from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She was commissioned

by Time Magazine to create the cover for the Woman of the Year special edition, while she has been selected for fellowships and residencies at Yaddo and the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage among other awards. Ballard fuses historical photographs with a variety of painting mediums to create critical reappraisals of the Black experience. Often collaged onto repurposed fences, these works address Ballard’s Southern roots while exploring African diasporic history. In Adoration, she mimics the pyramidal compositions often used in art history to represent the Holy Family, however Ballard combines archival images of African American girls and women to assert Black female identity. A young girl in a white christening gown stands before young women with Afro hairstyles, while legs wearing pink platform shoes flank a young ballerina who turns away from the viewer. Two young girls appear next to a photograph of a slave named Drana taken by Joseph T. Zealy in 1850. Abstract patterns and shapes accompany images of flowers and butterflies, as Ballard reinscribes the beauty of Black women across generations. ~Daniel Haxall, Ph.D., Professor of Art History, Kutztown University

Adoration, 2019. Mixed media collage on birch wood panel, 30 x 24 in.

Dawoud Bey (b. 1953)

Dawoud Bey grew up in Queens, NY, earning a BFA with concentration in photography from Empire State College and an MFA from Yale University. He now lives and works in Chicago, IL, where he is a professor of art at Columbia College. Bey uses his camera to capture portraits and scenes in communities that typically go unnoticed or are overlooked. He uses photography as a tool to open up dialogues on race and visibility. In this portrait, Deas McNeill, The Barber, Bey gives viewers a glimpse inside a barbershop, which is typically a place of socialization within Black communities, particularly for men. ~Corrinne Stumpf, Kutztown University, Class of 2023

Deas McNeill, The Barber, 1976. Silver print, 29 x 23 in.

Romare Bearden (1911-1988)

Romare Bearden was born in Charlotte, NC, but grew up in New York, NY, and Pittsburgh, PA. Exposed to the Harlem Renaissance through his parents’ prominence in African American cultural circles, Bearden studied at Lincoln University, Boston University, and New York University, becoming a social worker and serving in the Army during WWII before becoming a fulltime artist. Often celebrated as one of the great collagists in the history of art, he depicted his childhood experiences in Mecklenburg County, NC, and Harlem, NY, documenting the lives of African American communities. In Circe, Bearden channels literature and art history, restaging Homer’s Odyssey in a series of tapestries. A reversal of Manet’s Olympia through the portrayal of a reclining, dark-skinned nude, Circe mourns the departure of Odysseus who sails away in the background. Bearden’s restaging of the narrative provides commentary on the exploitation and exoticization of African American women throughout history. ~Kalei Custer, Kutztown University, Class of 2021

Circe, 1978, Wool and cotton, 58 x 83 in.

John Biggers (1924-2001)

John Biggers was born in Gastonia, NC, and studied at Hampton University and Penn State University. His powerful murals depicting African American life in a social realist style gained international acclaim, as Biggers became one of the first African-American artists to visit Africa through a UNESCO fellowship. His work was heavily influenced by African and Southern African-American culture, and appears in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, and Smithsonian American Art Museum among others. In Untitled (Seated Nude), two nude drawings depict the same woman. The far right figure is partially exposed with her shirt draped around her arms. Shadows and highlights define her figure through tick marks and crosshatching, while the second figure almost fades into the background with lighter ink and little-to-no defining shadows. Biggers captures the beauty of the figures with an economy of means, demonstrating his mastery of draftsmanship. ~Kalei Custer, Kutztown University, Class of 2021

Untitled (Seated Nude), 1957, Ink, 23 x 27.25 in.

Donald E. Camp (b. 1940)

Donald E. Camp was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania and currently resides in Philadelphia.

Camp’s most notable works are a part of the Dust Shaped Heart series. The series presents dignified portraits of African American men, but has evolved over the years to depict women as well. He uses a unique printing technique based on 19th century photographic processes, employing casein and raw earth as the pigment of the print. In Man Who Feels Shape (David Stephens), the legally blind sculptor, David Stephens, is depicted. His portrait is almost otherworldly through the layered application of pigment and subtle fade into negative space. ~Kalei Custer, Kutztown University, Class of 2021

Man Who Feels Shape (David Stephens), 2006, Monoprint, 36 x 34 in.

Tawny Chatmon (b. 1979)

Tawny Chatmon is a self-artist photographer who uses multilayer techniques to enhance her images. She addresses the lack of African-American representation in art and its consequences while simultaneously celebrating black bodies, family, and childhood. Her stylistic references to art history signify the importance of her subjects, particularly her use of Byzantine-inspired gold leaf, Baroque frames, and historic patterns. The portrait, Deeply Embedded, addresses the stigma surrounding black hair and styles by superimposing archival images of African women onto the hair of a young girl, while she wears an antique batik pattern suggestive of crosscultural influences. ~Emma Smith, Kutztown University, Class of 2022

Deeply Embedded / Thoroughly Rooted, 2016, Photographic montage, 20 x 16 in.

Sonya Clark (b. 1967)

Sonya Clark is a first-generation Afro-Caribbean American assemblage artist who transforms ordinary objects, such as thread, coins, and hair, into dynamic works of art to discuss culture, race, and class. While Clark grew up immersed in Afro-Caribbean traditions, she traveled and studied many cultures’ craftspeople, materials, and tools including Brazil, China, and India. Her work, Afro Abe honors Barack Obama’s presidential campaign while exploring the connection between money, power, and freedom. Lincoln, originally thought of as an early civil rights advocate, wears an Afro as a symbol of Black power, rebellion, and pride. ~Emma Smith, Kutztown University, Class of 2022

Afro Abe, 2010, Mixed media, 10 x 10 in.

Willie Cole (b. 1955)

A nearly lifelong resident of New Jersey, Willie Cole attended the Boston University School of Fine Arts and School of Visual Arts in New York City. Winner of the David. C. Driskell Prize for contributions to the field of African American culture, Cole often appropriates found objects and imagery to reconsider the history of the African diaspora. For example, in The Ogun Sisters, Cole fuses a Haitian symbol for Ogun, the Yoruba god associated with iron and war, with the atomic composition of the metal iron. This element becomes associated with domestic labor as evident in the impressions of steam irons framing an archival photograph of the Manual Training and Industrial School for Colored Youths in Bordentown, NJ. Cole covers the heads of the ironing women with masks of the Dan people of West Africa, situating their experiences within narratives of colonialism and subjugation. Histories of labor, gender, and spirituality collide in this print, which was developed at the Experimental Printmaking Institute at Lafayette College. ~Daniel Haxall, Ph.D., Professor of Art History, Kutztown University

The Ogun Sisters, 2012, Screenprint, 42.75 x 34.25 in.

Willie Cole (b. 1955)

A nearly lifelong resident of New Jersey, Willie Cole attended the Boston University School of Fine Arts and School of Visual Arts in New York City. Winner of the David. C. Driskell Prize for contributions to the field of African American culture, Cole often appropriates found objects and imagery to reconsider the history of the African diaspora. For example, in Mother and Child, Cole fashioned a bronze sculpture from discarded high heel shoes that resembles African statues of mothers carrying children on their backs. This type of image is common throughout African art history due to the significance of childbirth and esteemed position mothers hold in many cultures. Many of these African representations are stylized in appearance, and Cole’s assemblage recalls Surrealism and its exploration of the uncanny while noting the African origins of modernist abstraction. The use of bronze casting connects Mother and Child to legacies of metalsmithing in Africa, with some cultures attaching maternal metaphors to the arts of metallurgy. ~Daniel Haxall, Ph.D., Professor of Art History, Kutztown University

Mother and Child, 2020, Bronze, 40 x 25 x 15 in.

Willie Cole (b. 1955)

A nearly lifelong resident of New Jersey, Willie Cole attended the Boston University School of Fine Arts and School of Visual Arts in New York City. Winner of the David. C. Driskell Prize for contributions to the field of African American culture, Cole often appropriates found objects and imagery to reconsider the history of the African diaspora. For example, in Between Body and Soul, Cole utilizes his iconic motif, the steam iron, to connect domestic labor with the dispersion of culture and subjugation of peoples that occurred through slavery. A bright blue body of water represents the trans-Atlantic slave trade, while the left portion of the composition is comprised of diagrammatic parts of a common household iron. The resemblance of the iron to the “face” of a ship becomes evident through the appearance of water, while a range of cultural artifacts, including African art and the tools of slavery, feature on the right side of the print. Ancestral figures, divination bowls, and masks flank shackles and whips, evoking the displacement of cultural and spiritual life resulting from the exploitation of physical life.

~Daniel Haxall, Ph.D., Professor of Art History, Kutztown University

Between Body and Soul, 2018, Lithograph on paper, 44.12 x 56.62 in.

Alfred Conteh (b. 1975)

Alfred Conteh was born in Fort Valley, GA, and studied at Hampton University and Georgia Southern University. His work centers on African diasporic communities in the American South, representing what he calls “social, economic, educational and psychological wars” through portraiture. In Terrence, an African American man gazes stoically past the viewer, radiating an inner vision and wisdom. His appearance looks weathered, indicating a long and hardworking life, while the surface patina of the print further conveys a sense of history. Wearing a cap with the logo of the Atlanta Hawks professional basketball team, Terrence becomes associated with Atlanta, a city dubbed “the Black Mecca of the South” for its legacy of African American success in education, politics, and popular culture. However, economic inequality and the city’s position in Southern history, from slavery and reconstruction to segregation and contemporary movements for racial equality, complicate any such narrative, experiences Conteh commemorates through the features of his sitters. ~Kalei Custer, Kutztown University, Class of 2021

Terrence, 2020, Copper plate, 18 x 12 in.

Adger Cowans (b. 1936)

Adger Cowans is known for both photography and abstract paintings. Educated at the Ohio University, Cowans was awarded the Lorenzo il Magnifico alla Carriera award for a distinguished career in the arts by the Florence Biennale of Contemporary Art, while his work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, Studio Museum of Harlem, and Metropolitan Museum of Art among others. The photographer and filmmaker Gordon Parks said, “Not only is Adger Cowans one of America’s finest photographers, he is, as well, one of its finest painters. Through film and paint his keen, sensitive eye hauntingly reveals things, places and moments that make up the bonfires of our lives…” Cowans considers art a spiritual practice, seeking a connection between mind, body, and soul while embracing openness. In Stalk II, earth toned paint is literally combed across the canvas, with the artist’s strokes creating texture and depth as well as projecting a series of different bodily movements. These lines create a new understanding of the comb and its possibilities, ranging from domestic object to artistic tool, while the abstract markings and expressionistic colors provoke diverse associations. ~Kalei Custer, Kutztown University, Class of 2021

Stalk II, ca. 1970, Acrylic, 27 x 23 in.

Kenturah Davis (b. 1980)

Kenturah Davis works in Los Angeles, CA, and Accra, Ghana. Davis earned her BA in Art History and Visual Arts from Occidental College and her MFA from Yale University, and she was the first artist fellow in Titus Kaphar’s NXTHVN program. Language, portraiture, and design are three recurring principles in her work. In Namesake, text is the foundation of the piece, as Davis wrote a biblical passage onto a wood native to South America, burning the resulting text and using the residue for ink she used to stamp the letters forming her self-portrait. While the original text stemmed from the Bible, the Namesake derives from South African traditions regarding naming children as well as North African and Chinese customs utilizing smoke for creative rituals. Davis’ features become partially distorted as she shifts positions within the self-portrait, however her hairstyle and use of African cultural traditions establish her diasporic identity. ~Kalei Custer, Kutztown University, Class of 2021

Namesake, 2015, Incense ink on lined rice paper, 39 x 36 in.

Sam Gilliam (b. 1930)

Sam Gilliam was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and currently resides in Washington D.C. Gilliam rose to prominence during the 1960’s as part of the Washington Color School, expanding the possibilities of Abstract Expressionism by removing the stretcher bars from his paintings to drape them sculpturally. Although Pretty Boxes is not a drape painting it holds a similar character in its abstracted, gestural language. Gilliam once stated that “making abstract art can be just as political as representational art,” and the dynamic strokes of combs, bright colors, and splatters of ink in Pretty Boxes certainly conveys a sense of artistic freedom and expressive liberty. ~Kalei Custer, Kutztown University, Class of 2021

Pretty Boxes, 1993, Offset lithograph, 39.75 x 52 in.

LaToya Hobbs (b. 1983)

LaToya Hobbs was born in North Little Rock, Arkansas. She received her BA in Studio Art with a concentration in Painting at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She also received her MFA in Printmaking from Purdue University. She currently lives and works as an artist in Baltimore, Maryland and is an educator at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Hobbs’ works consist of a combination of painting and relief printing. Her portraiture of African American women opens up a conversation about the black female body in order to challenge pre-existing stereotypes.

Angelica illustrates the beauty of the female African American body as well as the natural hair that accompanies it. The print is heavily textured through her use of the woodblock print medium, offering an unfiltered representation of the body of an African American woman. ~Corrinne Stumpf, Kutztown University, Class of 2023

Angelica, 2012, Woodcut, 56 x 39 in.

LaToya Hobbs (b. 1983)

LaToya Hobbs was born in North Little Rock, Arkansas. She received her BA in Studio Art with a concentration in Painting at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She also received her MFA in Printmaking from Purdue University. She currently lives and works as an artist in Baltimore, Maryland and is an educator at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Hobbs’ works consist of a combination of painting and relief printing. Her portraiture of African American women opens up a conversation about the black female body in order to challenge pre-existing stereotypes.

Chelsea illustrates an ethereal African American woman. Her braids having a life and energy of their own as they form a halo around her body, showing a connection between African American identity and the divine beauty of the black female body. ~Corrinne Stumpf, Kutztown University, Class of 2023

Chelsea, 2012, Woodcut, 56 x 39 in.

Curlee Holton (b. 1951)

Curlee Holton is a highly regarded painter, master printmaker, and founder of the Experimental Printmaking Institute at Lafayette College, where he provides artists—including those featured in Figures and Projections: Alison Saar, Faith Ringgold, and Sam Gilliam—the materials, creative space, and professional guidance to produce new work. Holton’s work centers around psychology, philosophy, and African American history as he explores the construction of identity. Bred for Pleasure explores the effects of the intentional breeding of slaves into subsets of racial categories, including mulattos and octaroons. In so doing, Holton reminds viewers how slavery was not only an economic tool, but a means of fulfilling White sexual desire. In laying bare these realities, Holton’s print restores the humanity and agency of those stripped of their identity through racial Othering. ~Emma Smith, Kutztown University, Class of 2022

Bred for Pleasure, 1995, Etching and monoprint, 32.5 x 46.5 in.

Ed Hughes (1940-2018)

Ed Hughes is native to Philadelphia, studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts before completing his BFA from Cheyney University. Hughes is best known for his abstract works that incorporate vibrant colors, gestural lines, and symbols reflecting on African Americans and Hatian culture. In #2 Man in the Mirror, there is a rapidness in the marks on the black board as they mimic TV static. Torn papers are pasted on top of the marks, with some featuring pencil drawings of childlike figures and others remaining opaque panels of color.

Numbers and letters are assigned to the collaged elements, recalling assembly directions, while some of the torn paper edges resemble the human form. ~Kalei Custer, Kutztown University, Class of 2021

#2 Man In The Mirror, 1982, Acrylic and collage, 21.25 x 23.25 in.

Ronald Jackson (b. 1970)

Ronald Jackson was born in Helena, Arkansas, studying architecture at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, CA, and serving in the army for over two decades before pursuing art full-time.

Largely self-taught Jackson specifies that, although he paints faces, he is not a portrait painter.

Jackson produced a series called Songs of Stories Untold, featuring large oil paintings on canvas of black men and women with patterns covering their faces aside from some features which appear through cutouts in the masks. This negotiation of visibility runs through African American history, and She Sang a Song No One Would Hear reinforces the ways Black perspectives are neglected or denied. Drawing from family histories in the rural South, Jackson hopes the work can become “a catalyst to trigger self-discovery of value, beauty, and significance” among marginalized people. ~Molly Heller, Kutztown University, Class of 2024

She Sang a Song No One Would Hear: Songs of Stories Untold series, 2019, Oil, 67 x 57 in.

Rashid Johnson (b. 1977)

Rashid Johnson is a conceptual photographer, filmmaker, painter, installation artist, and sculptor whose subject matter and materials are significant to African American history.

Johnson describes his work as influenced by his blackness but significant to larger art history.

The series, Seeing in the Dark, features portraits of homeless people in Chicago created with nineteenth century techniques, such as gelatin silver and Van Dyke printing and layered photograms. In the portrait, George, Johnson captures the man’s likeness and personhood as the man looks directly at the viewer while also using a hand to cover one eye, critiquing the (in)visibility of African American men as subjects. ~Emma Smith, Kutztown University, Class of 2022

George (Seeing in the Dark Series), ca. 1998-99, Silver emulsion, 30 x 22.50

Sargent Johnson (1888-1967)

Sargent Claude Johnson was born in Boston and left orphaned by the age of fifteen following the death of his parents. He lived with his aunt, sculptor May Howard Jackson, in Washington, D.C., before attending school in New England, including a time at the Worcester Art School. He relocated to San Francisco, continuing his studies at the California School of Fine Arts. Despite being based on the West Coast, Johnson is often considered part of the Harlem Renaissance because he regularly featured in exhibitions at the Harmon Foundation, the New York-based organization that supported Black culture from the 1920s-60s. Johnson endeavored to represent “beauty and dignity” of the African American in his art, producing figural sculptures in a semi-abstract style. The Lovers is made from terra cotta, a favorite medium of the artist, and depicts the abstracted union of two bodies into a singular form. The stylized, modern forms reflect his interest in the writings of Alain Locke, the writer and educator who encouraged African Americans to reinvent Black identity. ~Daniel Haxall, Ph.D., Professor of Art History, Kutztown University

The Lovers, 1957, Red terra cotta, 5.25 x 6.38 in.

Titus Kaphar (b. 1976)

Titus Kaphar was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, earned his BFA at San Jose State University and MFA from Yale University. Known for appropriating and then modifying paintings from art history to contest the biased narratives they fashion, Kaphar lays bare the constructs of memory and history. He has been awarded a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant and Art for Justice Fellowship among other prizes for this endeavor, and his social engagement includes the founding of NXTHVN, a platform for providing professional development to artists and curators of color. Maternal Great Grandmother is from his White Underneath series, a group of 19th-century archival photographs of white sitters that Kaphar painted over with the faces of his African American family. This gesture forces recognition of family histories, including the complicated and ambiguous narratives that often remain unaddressed. In this way, Kaphar confronts expectations and challenges viewers to consider the constructed dynamics of identity. ~Daniel Haxall, Ph.D., Professor of Art History, Kutztown University

Maternal Great Grandmother, 2007, Oil on photograph, 11 x 15.75 in.

Paul Keene (1920-2009)

Paul Keene was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Best known for brightly colored painting depicting African American life, Keene studied at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and Academie Julien in Paris, rising to national recognition with a style he called, “abstract realist.” In Jazz Series – Quintet, Keene embraced the immediacy and intimacy of black and white drawing to depict a musical performance. He employs dark contour lines to emphasize each figure and their respective instrument, while layered numbers and overlapping forms evoke the improvisation for which jazz is known. The quick but clear lines, shading, and cascading numbers allow viewers to feel and hear the beats of the jazz music ~Kalei Custer, Kutztown University, Class of 2021

Jazz Series – Quintet, 1983, Charcoal on paper, 41.75 x 33.75 in.

Paul Keene (1920-2009)

Paul Keene was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Best known for brightly colored paintings depicting African American life, Keene studied at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and Academie Julien in Paris, rising to national recognition with a style he called, “abstract realist.” In Jazz Series #6 – Guitareal, Keene embraced the immediacy and intimacy of black and white drawing to depict a guitar player. The line weight begins to taper off as the charcoal marks arrive at his hands and guitar, suggesting the ever-changing hand movements and virtuosity of the performer. The background juxtaposes the curvature of the figure and his instrument with a patterned design with various letters and numbers remaining visible, adding a rhythmic dynamism to the composition ~Kalei Custer, Kutztown University, Class of 2021

Jazz Series #6 – Guitareal, 1983, Charcoal on paper, 40.50 x 30.50 in.

Columbus Knox (1923-1999)

Engagement, 1989, Acrylic, 45 x 25 in.

Columbus Knox was born in Philadelphia PA. He attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Arts, which is now known as the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He enlisted in the United States military during World War II, completed his degree after his service and became a successful illustrator for media outlets as well as a painter and muralist. In Engagement, Knox painted an African American woman poised in thought as her left hand gingerly holds an engagement ring towards her lips. Her Afro hairstyle radiates around her head, part of her body cast in shadow as she looks toward the light that partially illuminates her from the left. Engagement depicts an African American woman making a pivotal decision in her life. ~Corrinne Stumpf, Kutztown University, Class of 2023

Engagement, 1989, Acrylic, 45 x 25 in.

Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000)

Jacob Lawrence was the son of southern migrants born in Atlantic City, NJ, and eventually raised in Harlem, NY. At twenty three years old, Lawrence received a grant from the Rosenwald Foundation to create a 60 panel piece known as The Migration Series. This series launched him to national fame, as he represented the Great Migration of African Americans from the Jim Crow South to industrialized North. Lawrence was commissioned to celebrate the bicentennial of the United States with a print, and he responded with Confrontation at the Bridge, a surreal and nightmarish depiction of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. A group of African Americans cling to the railing as they march toward a ghoulish devil dog on the other side of the bridge. The sky is made up of grays, blues, reds and blacks, creating a dark atmosphere that alludes to the dangerous forces activists overcame while seeking Civil Rights. ~Kalei Custer, Kutztown University, Class of 2021

Confrontation at the Bridge, 1975, Silkscreen, 36.5 x 29.75 in.

Nate Lewis (b. 1985)

Nate Lewis was born in Beaver Falls, PA, and originally worked as a registered nurse in critical care units before becoming a professional artist. Lewis completed a BSN in nursing from Virginia Commonwealth University, but is largely self-taught as an artist. Latent Extremity is part of Lewis’ first New York solo exhibition, “Latent Tapestries,” a body of work that brings together medical imaging, jazz-inspired visual rhythms, histories of racial representation, and reflections on contemporary events. Lewis’ drive comes from empathy and a desire to inspire human connection, as he believes that “interacting with images is an act of care.” Latent Extremity pictures the black body with overlapping imagery of constellations and rhythmic patterns, yet one that is emergent, as the figure is incomplete and not fully developed. ~Emma Smith, Kutztown University, Class of 2022

Latent Extremity, 2018, Hand-sculpted inkjet print, 41 x 28 in.

Chris Ofili (b. 1968)

Born in Manchester, England, the Turner Prize-winning painter, Chris Ofili, earned his BFA from Chelsea School of Art in London and MFA from the Royal College of Art in London. He currently resides in Trinidad. Ofili’s paintings that utilized elephant dung to explore themes of desire, identity, and representation stirred controversy when exhibited as part of the Sensation exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (1997), however his retrospective at the New Museum (2014) was celebrated as “intoxicating” by the New York Times. Ofili’s Untitled (Orange Dress) celebrates African women and their colorful clothing and hairstyles. His stylized representation of the woman focuses retains a sense of elegance through jewelry, the graceful forms of her upper torso, and richness of her skin color. This watercolor painting is part of Ofili’s larger Afro Muses series, works on paper that engage memory and cultural uniqueness while honoring African women as sources of inspiration. ~Alison McLaughlin, Kutztown University, Class of 2021

Untitled (Orange Dress), 1999, Watercolor, 16 x 12.5 in.

Delita Martin (b. 1972)

Delita Martin was born in Conroe, Texas, completing a BFA in drawing from Texas Southern University and an MFA from Purdue University before working at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, and founding Black Box Press. She uses acrylic paint, lithography, and handstitching to create unique works that combine portrait painting, papermaking, textiles traditions, and printmaking. Martin’s work centers around the experiences of marginalized women, and she uses her art to deconstruct the colonialism, racial and sexual injustices that Black women experience. In Spirit of Solitude, Martin employs irregular circular shapes to evoke heavenly bodies and female symbolism, while the gaze of the female subject conveys power and introspection. ~Madeline Hartmann, Kutztown University, Class of 2022

Spirit of Solitude, 2018, Mixed media, 30.5 x 44.5 in.

Kermit Oliver (b. 1943)

Kermit Oliver was born in Refugio, Texas. He attended Texas Southern University where he received a BA in Fine Arts and Art Education, and he now live in Waco, Texas. His work combines complex themes of heritage, history, theology, and lore through a form of symbolic realism as he places naturalistically drawn animals, plant life, and people in surreal compositions. Oliver’s Study For Theresa depicts a young African American girl in a profile view as she gazes away from the picture plane. Her head and hair contrast against the softness of her minimally represented clothing, with her braids commanding considerable emphasis.

Although somewhat different from his surrealist works, Study For Theresa is an elegant watercolor that encapsulates female African American beauty in a naturalistic way. ~Corrinne Stumpf, Kutztown University, Class of 2023

Study for Theresa, 1972, Watercolor, 17 x 24 in.

Angela Pilgrim (b. 1991)

Angela Pilgrim is a self-taught printmaker and founder of Fruishun Press Studio, which provides a supportive space for artists to develop their craft. Pilgrim focuses her work on black beauty, femininity, and womanhood. Sabrina Gets Ready features her signature pastel palette, patterns, and use of mixed media. The piece celebrates black beauty and hair by depicting a woman stylizing her hair with products displayed on the table. ~Emma Smith, Kutztown University, Class of 2022

Sabrina Gets Ready, 2017, Screenprint on fabric, 12.5 x 12.5 in.

Steve Prince (b. 1968)

Steve Prince (b. 1968) is a New Orleans, LA, native who currently resides in Silver Spring, MD, where he teaches at Montgomery College. Prince is most known for his printmaking and drawings. Aside from exhibiting at numerous art institutions he is represented by Eyekons Gallery in Michigan. Steve Prince incorporates history, symbolism, and faith into his artworks, which can all be seen in Salt of the Earth. Prince depicts the Greensboro Four and their actions during the Civil Rights movement. This group of students at North Carolina A&T College protested segregation by staging a sit-in at a Woolworth store, inspiring similar actions across the country. Using metaphors and symbols deriving from the Bible among other sources, Prince links the Civil Rights movement with the core human values of peace, love, and truth. ~Kalei Custer, Kutztown University, Class of 2021

Salt of the Earth, 2017, Stone lithograph on paper, 31 x 40.75 in.

Faith Ringgold (b. 1930)

Faith Ringgold was born in Harlem, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the City College of New York, and taught in public schools before becoming a full-time artist in the 1970s. A major proponent of Civil Rights, she protested the exclusionary practices of New York’s art institutions and earned praise for her “story quilts,” painted textiles that blur the distinction between fine art and craft. In this series of serigraphs, Ringgold exposed the contradictions of the Declaration of Independence by pairing the realities of African-Americans and women against the ideals of the Founding Fathers.

This print depicts two icons of American history, Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King, Jr. in contrasting positions. Where Jefferson sits in a comfortable parlor drafting important legislations, King contemplates Civil Rights while imprisoned. ~Daniel Haxall, Ph.D., Professor of Art History, Kutztown University

As Free and Independent States, from the series Declaration of Freedom and Independence, 2009 Serigraph, 23 x 27.25 in.

Faith Ringgold (b. 1930)

Faith Ringgold was born in Harlem, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the City College of New York, and taught in public schools before becoming a full-time artist in the 1970s. A major proponent of Civil Rights, she protested the exclusionary practices of New York’s art institutions and earned praise for her “story quilts,” painted textiles that blur the distinction between fine art and craft. In this series of serigraphs, Ringgold exposed the contradictions of the Declaration of Independence by pairing the realities of African-Americans and women against the ideals of the Founding Fathers.

In Absolute Tyranny, a scene of the Boston Massacre—including the death of African-American Crispus Attucks, the first casualty of the Revolutionary War—appears alongside the lynching of three men, suggesting that tyranny remained in place well after American Independence was established.

~Daniel Haxall, Ph.D., Professor of Art History, Kutztown University

Absolute Tyranny, from the series Declaration of Freedom and Independence, 2009 Serigraph, 23 x 27.25 in.

Faith Ringgold (b. 1930)

Faith Ringgold was born in Harlem, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the City College of New York, and taught in public schools before becoming a full-time artist in the 1970s. A major proponent of Civil Rights, she protested the exclusionary practices of New York’s art institutions and earned praise for her “story quilts,” painted textiles that blur the distinction between fine art and craft. In this series of serigraphs, Ringgold exposed the contradictions of the Declaration of Independence by pairing the realities of African-Americans and women against the ideals of the Founding Fathers.

This is the only print in the series not to derive from the Declaration of Independence. Instead, Ringgold used writings by Abigail Adams and Sojourner Truth that demanded respect and equality for women. ~Daniel Haxall, Ph.D., Professor of Art History, Kutztown University

And Women?, from the series Declaration of Freedom and Independence, 2009 Serigraph, 23 x 27.25 in.

Alison Saar (b. 1956)

Alison Saar is a multi-media artist, creating work ranging from painting and sculpture to installations, who was born into the art world with influential assemblage artist, Betye Saar, and art conservator, Richard Saar, as parental guides. Saar references various cultures, art history, and personal experiences within her oeuvre to explore issues regarding the intersectionality of gender, race, and heritage. Black Snake Blues hints at the classic tradition of reclining female nude as the woman lays in a revealing dress, cupping her breast with empty eyes. The black snake beside her may serve multiple purposes; it refer to the biblical idea of desire, temptation, and the femme fatale. ~Emma Smith, Kutztown University, Class of 2022

Black Snake Blues, 1994, Lithograph, 31.5 x 39.25 in.

Lorna Simpson (b. 1960)

Lorna Simpson lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She earned her BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and MFA from the University of California, San Diego. Simpson has received numerous awards including the J. Paul Getty Medal and Whitney Museum of American Art Award, plus honors from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture and International Center of Photography. Best-known for large-scale work that fused photography and text to interrogate notions of gender, race, and history, Simpson works across mediums, including collage, video, and painting, leading the New York Times to ask, “is there anything this artist can’t do?” Counting is one of Simpson’s iconic text-image works, a montage of three photographs and several captions that present a haunting account of African American history. A cropped image of a woman’s upper body is flanked by a sequence of times, leaving her identity and relationship to these “shifts” ambiguous. A structure used to house slaves in South Carolina is accompanied by temporal (“310 years ago”) and structural (“1575 bricks”) notations, while an image of braided hair appears above the words, “twists,” “braids,” and “locks,” nomenclature for hairstyles but also control and incarceration. ~Daniel Haxall, Ph.D., Professor of Art History, Kutztown University

Counting, 1981, Photogravure with screenprint, 78.75 x 39 in.

Dianne Smith (b. 1965)

Dianne Smith was born and raised in the Bronx, NY. She received her education from the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Otis Parsons School of Design. She also completed her MFA with a concentration in creative practice at Transart Institute in Berlin, Germany. She currently lives and works in Harlem, NY, as both a teacher and interdisciplinary artist. Smith’s work includes abstractions across a variety of mediums that include painting, sculpture, installations, photography, video, and fiber arts. In her sculpture, Hidden Beauty, Smith combines various materials to shed light upon African American beauty as the knots of brown fiber mimic the texture and nature of hair. This central focus of gathered fiber is connected by two arm like appendages, contributing to the idea of the knots functioning as a core of central being. ~Corrinne Stumpf, Kutztown University, Class of 2023

Hidden Beauty, 2011, Hand knotted fiber, rope, string, foam

Nelson Stevens (b. 1938)

Nelson Stevens was born in Brooklyn, NY, and educated at Ohio University. Nelson is best known for creating portraits using bright “Kool-Aid Colors” meant to empower African Americans. Nelson Stevens was a part of AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists), a group who strived to collectively combine activism and art. Depicted in Spirit Sister is Valerie Maynard, another prominent African American artist. Her form is comprised of a pattern of brightly colored fragments, with her hair done in an Afro style as a way to assert Black identity at the time of the AfriCOBRA movement. Viewers see this portrait from below the figure and this use of this perspective establishes Maynard’s power and agency, as she gazes beyond the viewer, perhaps deep in thought. ~Kalei Custer, Kutztown University, Class of 2021

Spirit Sister, 2013, Serigraph, 31.5 x 30.5 in.

Kara Walker (b. 1969)

Kara Walker is a contemporary artist who focuses on deeply rooted societal conflicts such as racism, sexism, gender norms, and violence through references to historical and mythological imagery. Walker’s foundational medium is drawing; however, she is best known for her large silhouetted cut-outs which blur visual narratives and allow for ambiguous interpretations.

Walker’s silkscreen, The Emancipation Approximation (Scene 18), is part of a 27 print series of the same title, which satirizes Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. Scene 18 conveys the power imbalance between Black and White Americans while commenting on beauty as a Black female figure struggles with her own strength and selfhood to uphold a lavish White female figure. ~Emma Smith, Kutztown University, Class of 2022

The Emancipation Approximation (Scene 18), 1999-2000, Screenprint, 50 x 40 in.

Carrie Mae Weems (b. 1953)

Carrie Mae Weems is one of the most influential photographers working today as evidenced by her numerous honors, including being awarded a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant as well as being the first African American woman to have a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum. Weems uses her lens as storytelling tool; her narratives discuss how culture, familial relationships, political systems, power dynamics, sex, and race shape reality and personal identity. Her seminal Kitchen Table Series (1989-90) consists of twenty panels that explore deeply personal relationships through moments of socialization that occur around the kitchen table, ranging from family meals to romantic encounters. The image, Woman and daughter with makeup, shows a daughter modeling her mother’s behavior as they put lipstick on together, capturing how standards of beauty and the public self are both taught and constructed. ~Emma Smith, Kutztown University, Class of 2022

Untitled (Woman and daughter with makeup), 1990, Silver print, 10 x 9.75 in.

Charles White (1918-1979)

Born in Chicago, IL, Charles White studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, Art Students League of New York, and Taller de Grafica, Mexico. Inspired by the Harlem Renaissance, White rose to prominence as a painter, printmaker, and teacher, inspiring generations of artists through his art and mentorship. White emphasizes art as a tool for social justice and liberation by creating bold, dignified portraits of African-Americans. Melinda depicts a young woman with hair partially pulled back with the shorter strands of her bangs framing her face. Her gaze is fixed away from the viewer, revealing a three-quarter view of Melinda directly her attention elsewhere. ~Emma Smith, Kutztown University, Class of 2022

Melinda, 1969, Etching, 10.88 x 22 in.

Charles White (1918-1979)

Born in Chicago, IL, Charles White studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, Art Students League of New York, and Taller de Grafica, Mexico. Inspired by the Harlem Renaissance, White rose to prominence as a painter, printmaker, and teacher, inspiring generations of artists through his art and mentorship. White emphasizes art as a tool for social justice and liberation by creating bold, dignified portraits of African-Americans. His featured portrait, Juba, depicts the profile of a woman with her eyes forward and hair in a light, flowing headwrap. Juba references a rhythmically complex dance involving stomping, clapping, and slapping that originated in West Africa, served as coded communication for slaves, and eventually influenced jazz music. White completed at least two other works titled Juba, one an ink drawing of a woman with arms folded and hair wrap unfurled, the other a sketch of the model in profile similar to the PFFC lithograph. ~Emma Smith, Kutztown University, Class of 2022

Juba, 1965, Lithograph, 34 x 42 in.

Didier William (b. 1983)

Originally from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Didier William completed his BFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art and MFA from Yale University. William is currently an Assistant Professor at Mason Gross School of Arts at Rutgers University. He consistently uses texture, pattern and movement in various media to address his Haitian culture, traverse the stronghold of colonialism, and explore the resistance and struggle for identity. In La Croix a Samedi / Two Sons, swirling lines surround two androgynous figures with bodies comprised of amoeba-like organism. These interconnected beings are Baron La Croix and Baron Samedi, spirits of Haitian Vodou associated with the dead, and while William represents them in unconventional ways, these loa typically appear in black tailcoats as personifications of the afterlife. ~Kalei Custer, Kutztown University, Class of 2021

La Croix a Samedi / Two Sons, 2018, Wood carving, 60 x 48 in.

The Marlin and Regina Miller Gallery Sharadin Arts Building Kutztown University Kutztown, PA 19530

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