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EXHIBITIONS 2007-2006
Surprises | The Faith Quilt Project | Beaded Prayers Project | Vitally Alive | Painting with Fabric
Past Exhibitions 2010 |2009 | 2008 | 2005-2003
SURPRISES: WORKS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION
February 2007
Surprises presents many works from the museum’s collection that have never been shown. Among them is an eight-by-eight feet untitled painting by Ellen Banks who previously was active in Boston. Her mid-career paintings were typically formed from flat geometric shapes rendered in a narrow palette of basic colors.
They call to mind formalist art of the sixties in their preference for primary colors and shapes. At the time that Ms. Banks painted the aforementioned work, she was also making tapestries using similar compositional principles.
Later, Ms Banks shifted her attention to printed music, which now increasingly gave order to her abstractions that became, in a sense, painted equivalents of music scores. Beethoven, Andante, another work on display by Ms. Banks, is typical of this development. Both works may come as surprises to those who expect that African American art is always figurative.
Charles White’s masterful Nat Turner: yesterday, today and tomorrow is again on display because it is such a major work, but never before shown are five smaller lithographic prints made by White in l946 and published as part of the portfolio Negro: USA.
The Faith Quilt Project:
A Citywide Celebration of Faith, Art and Community
For three years, the Faith Quilts Project has brought together quilt makers and faith groups to create collaborative quilts that explore their faith and reach out to the wider world.Within the many quilts can be found a variety of expressions of the spirit.
The portion of the exhibition presented at the National Center of Afro-American Artists includes several quilts created wholly or in part by African Americans quilters and fiber artists.
The project was conceived by the public celebration artist Clara Wainwright, and ultimately involved hundreds of quilters, volunteers and artists from many cultural as well as religious backgrounds.
The exhibition premiered at the Boston Center for the Arts April 6th and opened at the Museum April 14th, 2006.
BEADED PRAYERS PROJECT
The Beaded Prayers Project is an interactive project created by Professor Sonya Y. S. Clark at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, through which more than four thousand participants from more than thirty-five countries have created 2 x 2 inch beaded squares that are assembled into larger quilt-like installations for display. The project was inspired by the central play of beadwork in the ritual and sacred art of many traditions ranging from Yoruba and Candomble practices to Catholic rosaries. Professor Clark notes that the Old English word for “bead”, bidden, means to ask or to pray.
Beadwork workshops will be held for the project at the National Center of Afro-American Artists over the course of the exhibition, and the new panels will become part of the larger installation. The exhibition has been previously shown at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Art Gallery of Florida A & M University, Gallery of the National Conference of Arts, and other sites.
VITALLY ALIVE: BEADING IN THE AFRICAN DIASPORA
Vitally Alive: Beading in the African Diaspora features beaded artworks, jewelry, wearables, and decorated artifacts made by L’Merchie Frazier and her mother, Theresa C. D. Frazier. L’Merchie Frazier, a critically successful artist in several media, has conducted original research in Brazil studying beadwork traditions associated with Yoruba and related cultures in the African Diaspora. A previous one-person exhibition, Houses of Transformation, presented an extraordinary body of small beaded and enameled shires dedicated to various orishas of the Candomble pantheon in Brazil.
PAINTING WITH FABRIC: QUILTS BY MICHELE DAVID
Painting with Fabric presents more than a score of quilts by Haitian-born Michele David through which she explores her cultural interests as well as her personal love of pattern and color. Like many from the incredibly vibrant island nation of Haiti, Dr. Michele David possesses a rich creativity that is shared through her art even though her work as a doctor at the Boston Medical Center makes tremendous demands on her time.
What We Collect:
Works from the Permanent Collection @ The Museum
To Exhibitions 2008 To Exhibitions 2005-2003
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