If her name sounds familiar, it’s probably because she painted First Lady Michelle Obama’s portrait that now hangs in the National Gallery….no big deal.
Amy Sherald at Hauser & Wirth Gallery
“She is best known for her portrait paintings. Her choices of subjects look to enlarge the genre of American art historical realism by telling African-American stories within their own tradition. She is well known for using grisaille to portray skin tones in her work as a way of challenging the concept of color-as-race. Her style is simplified realism, involving staged photographs of her subjects.” (source)
Sherald is represented by Hauser & Wirth gallery globally.
Website: http://www.amysherald.com/
Instagram: @asherald
“She is best known for her portrait paintings. Her choices of subjects look to enlarge the genre of American art historical realism by telling African-American stories within their own tradition. She is well known for using grisaille to portray skin tones in her work as a way of challenging the concept of color-as-race. Her style is simplified realism, involving staged photographs of her subjects.” (source)
Sherald is represented by Hauser & Wirth gallery globally.
Website: http://www.amysherald.com/
Instagram: @asherald
Amy Sherald at Hauser & Wirth
Arcmanoro Niles
Acrmanoro Niles at Rachel Uffner Gallery“A traditionally trained painter, Niles is heavily influenced by art history, specifically history painting and portraiture. The poses of his characters and attention to light call to mind classical compositions yet Niles disrupts these standards by using a highly saturated color palette over orange and blue grounds. Niles has removed neutral colors, blacks, whites, and browns from his palette in order to demonstrate the complex skin tones of his subjects while adding a noble glow.” - Rachel Uffner (source)
Website: http://www.arcmanoro.com/
Instagram: @arcmanoro
Arcmanoro Niles at Rachel Uffner GalleryBarthélémy Toguo
Barthélémy Toguo at Galerie Lelong“Working across painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, performance, and installation, Barthélémy Toguo addresses enduring and immediately relevant issues of borders, exile, and displacement. At the core of his practice is the notion of belonging, which stems from his dual French/Cameroonian nationality. Through poetic, hopeful, and often figural gestures connecting nature with the human body, Toguo foregrounds concerns with both ecological and societal implications. Recently, his works have been informed by movements and humanitarian tragedy including #BlackLivesMatter and the refugee crisis.” (source)
Website: http://www.barthelemytoguo.com/
Instagram: @barthelemy_toguo
Carrie Mae Weems
Carrie Mae Weems at the Tate MuseumConsidered one of the most influential contemporary American artists, Carrie Mae Weems has investigated family relationships, cultural identity, sexism, class, political systems, and the consequences of power.” (source)
“The Kitchen Table Series (1990), is one of Weems’ most seminal works, and widely considered one of the most important bodies of contemporary photography. The series, for which Weems herself posed as the main subject, is set at a woman’s kitchen table—a domestic stage—revealing intimate moments of her life as the story unfolds.” (source)
Weems is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery.
Website: http://carriemaeweems.net/
Instagram: @carriemaeweems
Chris Ofili
Chris Ofili is a British artist and winner of the Turner Prize in 1998.
Chris Ofili
Chris Ofili is a British artist and winner of the Turner Prize in 1998.
Chris Ofili's paintings at David Zwirner Gallery
“His works—vibrant, symbolic, and frequently mysterious—draw upon the lush landscapes and local traditions of the island of Trinidad, where he has lived since 2005. Employing a diverse range of aesthetic and cultural sources, including, among others, Zimbabwean cave paintings, blaxploitation films, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and modernist painting, Ofili’s work investigates the intersection of desire, identity, and representation.” (source)
Ofili is represented by David Zwirner Gallery.
Chris Ofili at David Zwirner Gallery
Cinga Samson
Cinga Samson at Perrotin Gallery
Cinga Samson is a South African painter, whose “oil works on canvas manifest echoes of what he describes as the superstitions and spirituality integral to his upbringing in the town of Ethembeni and its surrounding countryside. Desire, aspiration, and celebration of identity drive much of his work, for which he draws inspiration from fashion, heritage, and the works of Paul Gauguin and Andrew Wyeth, among others.” (source)
"The Cape Town–based artist [Cinga Samson] sets out to create a positive depiction of his generation of youth in South Africa, and the continent at large. It was in reaction to feeling frustrated and preoccupied with the political climate." - Whitewall
Instagram: @cinga_samson
“His works—vibrant, symbolic, and frequently mysterious—draw upon the lush landscapes and local traditions of the island of Trinidad, where he has lived since 2005. Employing a diverse range of aesthetic and cultural sources, including, among others, Zimbabwean cave paintings, blaxploitation films, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and modernist painting, Ofili’s work investigates the intersection of desire, identity, and representation.” (source)
Ofili is represented by David Zwirner Gallery.
Chris Ofili at David Zwirner Gallery
Cinga Samson
Cinga Samson at Perrotin GalleryCinga Samson is a South African painter, whose “oil works on canvas manifest echoes of what he describes as the superstitions and spirituality integral to his upbringing in the town of Ethembeni and its surrounding countryside. Desire, aspiration, and celebration of identity drive much of his work, for which he draws inspiration from fashion, heritage, and the works of Paul Gauguin and Andrew Wyeth, among others.” (source)
"The Cape Town–based artist [Cinga Samson] sets out to create a positive depiction of his generation of youth in South Africa, and the continent at large. It was in reaction to feeling frustrated and preoccupied with the political climate." - Whitewall
Instagram: @cinga_samson
Cinga Samson at Perrotin Gallery
Conrad Egyir
Conrad Egyir at Jessica Silverman Gallery
“Addressing contemporary American culture, biblical parables and Ashanti iconography from his native Ghana, Egyir’s work explores questions of ethics, honesty, identity and the social-psychology of community. Monumental, uncanny and often satirically grandiose, the paintings combine the graphic sensuality of Pop Art with the far-reaching narratives of history painting.” (source)
Website: https://conradegyir.com/
Instagram: @conrad_egyir
Conrad Egyir
Conrad Egyir at Jessica Silverman Gallery“Addressing contemporary American culture, biblical parables and Ashanti iconography from his native Ghana, Egyir’s work explores questions of ethics, honesty, identity and the social-psychology of community. Monumental, uncanny and often satirically grandiose, the paintings combine the graphic sensuality of Pop Art with the far-reaching narratives of history painting.” (source)
Website: https://conradegyir.com/
Instagram: @conrad_egyir
