Black Refractions |
Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem

Jan 16, 2019—August 15, 2021

The Studio Museum in Harlem is partnering with The American Federation of Arts (AFA) to present Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem, a major traveling exhibition comprised of over one hundred works by nearly eighty artists from the 1920s to the present. The exhibition will be showing at the following institutions across the US:

The Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA (January 16 – April 14, 2019);

Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC (May 24 – August 18, 2019);

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, MI (September 13 – December 8, 2019);

Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA (January 17 – April 12, 2020);

Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT (January 23–April 11, 2021);

Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA (May 22–August 15, 2021)

The exhibition is accompanied by a new publication of the same title co-published by the American Federation of Arts and Rizzoli Electa. The richly illustrated volume includes essays by Connie H. Choi and Kellie Jones; entries by a range of writers, curators and scholars (among them Lauren Haynes, Ashley James, Oluremi C. Onabanjo, Larry Ossei-Mensah and Hallie Ringle) who contextualize the works and provide detailed commentary; and a conversation among Choi, Thelma Golden, and Jones that draws out themes and challenges in collecting and exhibiting modern and contemporary art by artists of African descent.

Artists in the exhibition include:
Derrick Adams, Terry Adkins, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Charles Alston, Benny Andrews, Romare Bearden, Dawoud Bey, McArthur Binion, Betty Blayton-Taylor, Chakaia Booker, Frank Bowling, Mark Bradford, Jordan Casteel, Elizabeth Catlett, LeRoy Clarke, Willie Cole, Eldzier Cortor, Noah Davis, Beauford Delaney, Thornton Dial, Leonardo Drew, Melvin Edwards, Meschac Gaba, Sam Gilliam, David Hammons, Lyle Ashton Harris, Maren Hassinger, Barkley L. Hendricks, Richard Hunt, Clementine Hunter, Juliana Huxtable, Steffani Jemison, Loïs Mailou Jones, Isaac Julien, Titus Kaphar, Seydou Keïta, Jacob Lawrence, Hughie Lee-Smith, Norman Lewis, Glenn Ligon, Kalup Linzy, Tom Lloyd, Whitfield Lovell, Alvin Loving, Kerry James Marshall, Julie Mehretu, Adia Millett, Wangechi Mutu, Kori Newkirk, Otobong Nkanga, Odili Donald Odita, Chris Ofili, Lorraine O’Grady, Jennifer Packer, Howardena Pindell, Robert Pruitt, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, Jacolby Satterwhite, Malick Sidibé, Gary Simmons, Lorna Simpson, Shinique Smith, Henry Taylor, Alma Thomas, Hank Willis Thomas, Mickalene Thomas, Bob Thompson, Bill Traylor, James Van Der Zee, Nari Ward, Carrie Mae Weems, Stanley Whitney, Jack Whitten, Kehinde Wiley, William T. Williams, Fred Wilson, Hale Woodruff, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.

Institutions

Black Refractions |
Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem

Utah Museum of Fine Arts
Jan 23Apr 11, 2021

Black Refractions |
Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem

Smith College Museum of Art
Jan 17Apr 12, 2020

Black Refractions |
Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
Sep 13Dec 08, 2019

Black Refractions |
Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem

Gibbes Museum of Art
May 24Aug 18, 2019

Black Refractions |
Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem

The Museum of the African Diaspora
Jan 16Apr 14, 2019

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Black Refractions |
Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem

May 22Aug 15, 2021

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Black Refractions |
Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem

Jan 23Apr 11, 2021

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Black Refractions |
Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem

Jan 17Apr 12, 2020

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Black Refractions |
Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem

Sep 13Dec 08, 2019

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Black Refractions |
Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem

May 24Aug 18, 2019

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Black Refractions |
Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem

Jan 16Apr 14, 2019

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Articles

Black Refractions

Read in Studio Magazine

The Studio Museum was founded in 1968 amidst an atmosphere of national and global activism.

Ancient to the Future

Read in Studio Magazine

The Studio Museum in Harlem came into being as a space to support artists of the African diaspora, who, throughout history, had been largely shut out of exhibition and commercial opportunities.

A Collection is Born

Read in Studio Magazine

The Studio Museum in Harlem opened in 1968 amid larger discussions of the struggles of disenfranchised peoples around the world and the place of Black artists in the art world.

Events

Virtual Town Hall: Elevating Black Lives

Presented by the Utah Museum of Fine Arts
January 13 2021

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Virtual Town Hall: Elevating Black Lives

Presented by the Utah Museum of Fine Arts

January 13 2021

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Artwork

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Untitled (Casual Power)

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Black Righteous Space

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Vue de Dos

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Sisters IV (L: Devonia’s sister Lorraine, R: Nefertiti’s sister Mutnedjmet), from the "Miscegenated Family Album"

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Untitled, #59

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Necklines

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Lightnin

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how i got over

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House Boy

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Silence is Golden

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Coin XXVII

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Melody Set Me Free

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Maniac Chase

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Black Wall Street

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Now

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Kevin the Kiteman

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Composition (Study for Trash)

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Incognito

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Lipstick Building

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Conspicuous Fraud Series #1 (Eminence)

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