Sunday, January 19 12 noonβ9 p. Musicians, songwriters, and producers Swizz Beatz Kasseem Dean and Alicia Keys have stood as giants in the global cultural landscape for decades. The exhibition illuminates the renown and impact of legendary and canon-expanding artists. Contemporary artists like Hank Willis Thomas and Qualeasha Wood use materials like textiles, steel, and beads to celebrate Blackness and critique society, while mesmerizing compositions from Deana Lawson and Mickalene Thomas challenge and add nuance to perceptions of Blackness.
Together, these works bring to the fore many facets of the term giants and reflect the spirit of the Deans, whose creative lives infuse the exhibition. They have also used their digital platforms to uplift the present and future giants of the art world. For Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys, all artists are giants. Over seventy years, Kwame Brathwaite developed a legendary portfolio documenting Black life, including star-studded jazz performances and day-to-day life in Harlem.
He took glamorous, intimate portraits, featuring models he knew, at the African Jazz Art Society and Studios. These vibrantly colored photographs of women wearing funky jewelry and patterned clothes celebrate natural hair, dark skin, and Black designers as a radical protest against anti-Black racism and colorism.
Inspired by the house painting tradition of the Ndebele people in South Africa, Mahlangu taught herself to paint on a range of surfacesβincluding canvas, pottery, and even airplanesβto bring the distinctive styles of Ndebele homes to a global audience.
Painting of this type is predominantly done by Ndebele women like Mahlangu who study and apprentice with their mothers and grandmothers from a young age. The geometric designs are passed down through generations, evolving as the women artists encounter new sources of inspiration in school and their daily lives. Photo by Glenn Steigelman. Odili Donald Odita sees color and abstraction as vehicles of change.
