Summer Shows: 25 Noteworthy Exhibitions Feature Black Artists | Culture Type

July 10, 2015

by Victoria L. Valentine, Culture Type

THIS SUMMER, MAJOR CITIES are presenting major exhibitions featuring the work of important African American artists. In greater Detroit, Nick Cave (shown above) is staging pop-up performances showcasing his mesmerizing Soundsuits in conjunction with a museum exhibition at the Cranbrook Art Museum, his first in Michigan. In New York, the Studio Museum in Harlem is mounting the first solo museum exhibition of veteran painter Stanley Whitney. Baltimore photographer Devin Allen, a novice whose image of police protests landed on the cover of Time magazine, is getting his first-ever exhibition at the city’s Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture.

There are offerings in Chicago and London, too. The greatest draw is in Los Angeles where the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is presenting the first major museum retrospective of the late assemblage artist Noah Purifoy, and at the Hammer Museum, after exhibiting around the world, Los Angeles-based abstract artist Mark Bradford is finally getting a solo museum show in his hometown.

The summer months are bringing many other firsts, including Betye Saar‘s exhibition “Still Tickin’” in The Netherlands, her first in Europe, as well as shows that explore Haitian, Congolese and South African culture. A selection of noteworthy museum and gallery exhibitions follows (many on view through fall):
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11. “NICK CAVE: Here Hear” @ Cranbrook Art Museum | Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
For his first solo show in Michigan, Nick Cave is presenting an ambitious project at the Cranbrook Art Museum that includes performance, exhibition and documentation. An alumni of the Cranbrook Academy of Art, which is outside of Detroit, Cave has been staging pop-up performances around the city since April. At the museum, 30 of his colorful, dynamic and sculptural Soundsuits are on view, along with seven new mixed-media commissions, video work, a site-specific wall tapestry, and a special “Map in Action” gallery will capture the Chicago-based artist’s public performances in Detroit—displaying the Soundsuits worn and featuring video documentation of the activities.