Games, Gamblers, and Cartomancers, The New Cardsharps
The New Cardsharps brings together seventeen contemporary artists who have revisited the storied art historical trope of card play.
Tarot was developed in tandem in Italy during the 15th century and has evolved from a parlor game into its contemporary use as a popular form of divination. Each of the artists has created work that engages with the iconography, rituals, and practices of card play.
The exhibition has been organized by Dodie Kazanjian and Alison M. Gingeras in close collaboration with the staff of the Newport Restoration Foundation.
Exhibited artists:
Tina Barney, Cecily Brown, Francesco Clemente, Elizabeth Colomba, John Currin, Austin Eddy, Hadi Falapishi, Shara Hughes, Rashid Johnson, Sanya Kantarovsky, Karen Kilimnik, Sean Landers, Tala Madani, Rob Pruitt, Walter Robinson, Katja Seib, Katie Stout
July 1 2023 - October 23 2023
45 Clarke St.Newport, RI
Elizabeth Colomba: Mythologies
Elizabeth Colomba uses classical techniques and themes to reimagine Greek myths, historical narratives, and autobiographical details with a contemporary lens.
The exhibition includes oil paintings, works on paper, and Colomba’s first video work, Cendrillon, commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. Employing the visual language of portraiture, the artist addresses both the presence and absence of the Black figure in the history of academic painting. Through her practice, Colomba investigates the complexities of her Black, Caribbean, and European identities.
May 5 2023 - September 3 2023
7 Congress Sq.
Portland, ME 04101
Diaspora Stories — CCH POUNDER COLLECTION
The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center is pleased to announce a new exhibition featuring paintings from the Collection of Emmy® award-nominated actress CCH Pounder.
The exhibition which was curated especially for the DuSable Museum contains 24 works of art by renowned artists including Kehinde Wiley, Patricia Renee Thomas, Elizabeth Colomba, Reginald Jackson, Robert Pruitt, Greg Breda, Ebony G. Patterson, and Mickalene Thomas, among others.
March 18 2023 - July16 2023
The Dusable
Black History museum and education center
740 East 56th Place
Chicago, Illinois 60637
Artists on Artworks—Elizabeth Colomba
Join representational painter Elizabeth Colomba, who is of Caribbean and French heritage, in the galleries for a discussion about her artistic process.
Colomba draws inspiration from Euro-American painters like Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent. By centering Black diasporic subjects in historical settings, Colomba’s work challenges Western conventions of beauty and significance.
Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Winslow Homer: Crosscurrents.
Friday, April 29, 2022 6–7 pm
The Met Fifth Avenue
Gallery 771
Free registration here
Artist Conversation: Elizabeth Colomba and Jessica Bell Brown
Elizabeth Colomba, whose exhibition Repainting the Story is on view at Art@Bainbridge, joins Jessica Bell Brown, curator for contemporary art at the Baltimore Museum of Art...
... for a conversation about process and meaning in her multilayered narratives of historical and fictional Black women. Moderated by Laura Giles, Heather and Paul G. Haaga Jr., Class of 1970, Curator of Prints and Drawings.
Thursday, April 28, 2022 5:30 pm
Free registration via Zoom here
Artist Conversation: Elizabeth Colomba and Autumn Womack
The artist Elizabeth Colomba and Autumn Womack, assistant professor of English and African American Studies at Princeton University...
... discuss the significance of Colomba’s portrayal of the eighteenth-century poet Phillis Wheatley (on view in the exhibition Repainting the Story at Art@Bainbridge) in the context of Wheatley’s life, fame, and legacy. Introduced by Laura Giles, Heather and Paul G. Haaga Jr., Class of 1970, Curator of Prints and Drawings.
Thursday, April 21, 2022 5:30 pm
Free registration via Zoom here
Contemporary Dialogues in The American Wing
Elizabeth Colomba, Armelle
Gallery 771
In a Contemporary Dialogue with the Exhibition Winslow Homer: Crosscurrents, The Met Presents Works by Artists Elizabeth Colomba, Hugh Hayden, Kerry James Marshall and Kara Walker.
Curated by Sylvia Yount and Stephanie Herdrich.
On view through March 2023
1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street New York, NY 10028
Elegies: Still Lifes in Contemporary Art
... is a group exhibition bringing together an international group of artists who have disrupted or extended the traditional presentation of still lifes.
The artists have appropriated the genre in order to create works within a framework of Black diasporic identities, histories, and collective experiences. The works are expressed through various mediums, including painting, photography, sculpture, printmaking, performance, and installation. Many of the artists are primarily known for portraiture, therefore the still lifes are compelling outliers in their practices. Curated by Monique Long.
List of Artists
Sadie Barnette, LaKela Brown, Elizabeth Colomba, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, David Antonio Cruz, Awol Erizku, Leslie Hewitt, Yashua Klos, Deana Lawson, Azikiwe Mohammed, Rashaad Newsome, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Devan Shimoyama, William Villalongo, Brittney Leeanne Williams
MoAD - 685 Mission Street (at Third) San Francisco, CA 94105
MARCH 31, 2022 to AUGUST 21, 2022
Art@Bainbridge | Elizabeth Colomba: Repainting the Story
A strong commitment to the figurative tradition defines Elizabeth Colomba’s provocative narratives.
In her first solo museum exhibition, the colonial-era interiors of Bainbridge House provide an eloquent foil for the artist’s paintings, which foreground historical and fictional Black women, often richly dressed and placed in the opulent spaces from which they have been erased or in which they were assigned subservient roles. Curated by Laura Giles, Heather and Paul G. Haaga Jr., Class of 1970, Curator of Prints and Drawings, with Monique Long, independent curator and writer.
Saturday, March 12, 2022 - Sunday, May 8, 2022
Fictions of Emancipation: Carpeaux Recast
This exhibition centers around the artwork Why Born Enslaved! by the French sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. Created in 1868,
As you peruse the exhibition, you can read Elizabeth Colomba's text about " Wha tis the legacy of the Black Figure in Western art?" and listen Elizabeth Colomba's audio conversation with curator Elyse Nelson on Carpeaux bust Why Born Enslaved!
Curated by Elyse Nelson and guest curator Wendy S. Walters
March 10, 2022 – March 5, 2023
1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street New York, NY 10028
3 Continents : Colomba Meurisse Modan
Philippe Labaune gallery is happy to devote itself to three international artists who bear witness to their culture through their storytelling with drawings.
Elizabeth Colomba, Catherine Meurisse and Rutu Modan combine the elegance of the line, the strength of the words, and the singularity of their personality to inscribe their works in the great library of the memory of humanity that the graphic novel occupies today.
March 3 - April 16, 2022
Opening: March 3rd, 2022, 6:30 PM to 9 PM
“Artform Stretching the Archive: Black Diasporic Transcripts of the Indomitable”
Join us for a conversation on artform that “bends the association of ideas,”...
... placing Black women at the forefront of leisure and comfort, as well as a discussion on the recent publication of Queenie, a graphic novel about Stéphanie St. Clair, master of underground economy and political activist from Martinique and a crucial figure of 1930’s Harlem.
Tue, March 1st, 2022, Mar 1, 2022 06:30 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
This event takes place online via Zoom. Free, RSVP required
5 Questions, 5 Artists: Representing Legacy | Elizabeth Colomba
Presented in conjunction with Black American Portraits, an exhibition that reframes portraiture...
... to center Black American subjects, sitters, and spaces, this series will include conversations between artists and LACMA curators and educators. Each artist will be presented with the same five key questions about their practice and the challenges of representing significant figures and their legacies.
Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 12 pm - 1 pm PT
This event takes place online via Zoom. Free, RSVP required
Black American Portraits
To complement the presentation of The Obama Portraits by Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald...
... on tour from the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery (NPG), LACMA presents Black American Portraits. Remembering Two Centuries of Black American Art, guest curated by David Driskell at LACMA 45 years ago, this exhibition reframes portraiture to center Black American subjects, sitters, and spaces.
Spanning over two centuries from c. 1800 to the present day, this selection of approximately 150 works draws primarily from LACMA’s permanent collection and highlights emancipation and early studio photography, scenes from the Harlem Renaissance, portraits from the Civil Rights and Black Power eras, and multiculturalism of the 1990s. Black American Portraits chronicles the ways in which Black Americans have used portraiture to envision themselves in their own eyes. Countering a visual culture that often demonizes Blackness and fetishizes the spectacle of Black pain, these images center love, abundance, family, community, and exuberance.
Black American Portraits is presented in conjunction with The Obama Portraits Tour. The exhibitions are presented in adjacent galleries and both are included in General Admission.
Sample of artists shown: Jordan Casteel, Elizabeth Colomba, Renee Cox, Titus Kaphar, Amy Sherald, Mickalene Thomas, Hank Willis Thomas, Kehinde Wiley and more.
Nov 7, 2021–Apr 17, 2022, Resnick Pavilion, Los Angeles
People: A Global Dialogue on Museums and Their Publics
SESSION1
REDIFINING NARRATIVES
In this three-day series of conversations, hear from an international array of scholars, artists, writers, performers, and activists as they share their ideas about how museums engage with people locally and globally. A set of open questions, rather than preset descriptions, frame each of the program sessions.
Speakers: Elizabeth Colomba, Corinna Gardner, Allison Glenn, Mariana Valencia Moderated by Hrag Vartanian
These live conversations take place on Zoom.
Free, though advance registration is required. Please note that registration does not guarantee admission once Zoom reaches capacity. The conversations will also be recorded and available to view after they take place.
CONTINUING
EDUCATION
GROUP CRITIQUE WITH
ELIZABETH COLOMBA
Join noted contemporary artist Elizabeth Colomba for supportive, non-judgmental feedback on your artwork while helping you to dispel feelings of self-criticism or discouragement. Learn to perceive doubt as a tantalizing entry for creative investigation rather than a destructive force.
Each participant will receive a 30 minute critique via Zoom beginning at 9 a.m. Participants will receive instructions on uploading 5 - 6 artworks (including in-progress work) to Slideroom in advance.
Register by: April 9 (space is limited to 8 participants)
REPRESENTATIONS
IN PAINT
Join the artist and PAFA's Curator of Contemporary Art Jodi Throckmorton for a conversation...
... on representation and the artist's work in the exhibition Taking Space: Contemporary Women Artists and the Politics of Scale, currently on view in the PAFA museum.
Event information: April 13, 2021 - 5:30 PM–6:30 PM
Advance registration is required.
This is event is being held online. After registering, connection information will be emailed to you.
General Public $7
PAFA Members: Free
TAKING SPACE: CONTEMPORARY WOMEN ARTISTS AND THE POLITICS OF SCALE
Taking Space: Contemporary Women Artists and the Politics of Scale examines the approaches of women artists for whom space is a critical feature of their work, whether they take the space on a wall, the real estate of a room through sculpture and installation, engage seriality as a spatial visual practice, cast a wide legacy in art history or claim the space of their body. This exhibition invites viewers to consider how size and repetition can be interpreted as political gestures in the practices of many women artists.
Featured artists include Mequitta Ahuja, Polly Apfelbaum, Jennifer Bartlett, Maria Berrío, Chakaia Booker, Emily Brown, Joan Brown, Tammy Rae Carland, Squeak Carnwath, Vija Celmins, Elizabeth Colomba, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Eiko Fan, Louise Fishman, Audrey Flack, Mary Frank, Viola Frey, Hope Gangloff, Judy Gelles, Nancy Graves, Guerrilla Girls, Ellen Harvey, Clarity Haynes, Orit Hofshi, Barbara Kruger, Winifred Lutz, Vanessa Marsh, Ana Mendieta, Leah Modigliani, Elizabeth Murray, Wangechi Mutu, Alice Neel, Dona Nelson, Louise Nevelson, Ebony G. Patterson, Liliana Porter, Debra Priestly, Ana Vizcarra Rankin, Faith Ringgold, Mia Rosenthal, Brie Ruais, Betye Saar, Miriam Schapiro, Mira Schor, Alyson Shotz, Sylvia Sleigh, Becky Suss, Mickalene Thomas, Stacy Lynn Waddell, Marie Watt, Dyani White Hawk and Deborah Willis.
Featuring works from the permanent collection, including many recent acquisitions, Taking Space is one of three exhibitions at PAFA in 2020–2021 celebrating women artists in honor of the 100th anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which granted women the right to vote.
November 19, 2020–April 11, 2021
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts - PAFA | 118-128 N Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19102
Curated by Jodi Throckmorton and Brittany Webb
PANEL DISCUSSION | REFLECTIONS ON RACE AND THE POWER OF ART ZOOM WEBINAR
Reflections on Race and the Power of Art Zoom Webinar.
Wednesday September 23 2020
Panel discussion featuring Thomas Thurston, Education Director, The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance & Abolition, Yale University; Ashley James, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Elizabeth Colomba, artist; and Frank Mitchell, former Executive Director, Amistad Center for Art & Culture.
This panel will provide an opportunity to understand and appreciate both human history and current affairs as Walker’s work reveals disparities in historical representations of African Americans and creates opportunity for a dialogue about it today. Not only is it historically important, but timely and relevant to facilitate thoughtful discussions and encourage an ongoing dialogue.
Frank Mitchell, moderator is experienced in helping people hold difficult conversations about race, culture and equity by using art as a tool to facilitate these conversations. Using Walker’s portfolio as catalyst, Mitchell will guide a discussion among this diverse group of panelists centered on the themes within Walker’s work and their ongoing prevalence in America today by using their experiences and expertise.
Panelists with help uncover diverse perspectives and interpretations of Walker's work as it relates to American history, slavery and race. Thomas Thurston’s expertise is slavery, resistance and abolition; Ashley James’ research on the relationships between politics, art, and blackness; and Elizabeth Colomba's unique perspective as a working artist who, like Walker, uses her work to explore the nature of race representation. Their unique perspectives will allow them to together contextualize Walker’s work within the field of contemporary American art and culture; Walker’s modification of the historical prints and their relevance in the America today; and have a dialogue about race, identity, and experience. We hope to broaden our audience’s perspectives on the history of race and what is means to be a black person in the United States.
The program will conclude with a Q&A session providing opportunities for audience members to expand their knowledge and understanding.
CATALYST:
ART AND SOCIAL JUSTICE IS A CURATED OF WORKS BY
New York Artists and Activists since 1960,
celebrating the power of art to spark change and spur progress.
Seven themes have guided our curatorial selection: “Affirming Self”, “Concepts of Justice”, “E PLURIBUS UNUM/OUT OF MANY, ONE”, “The Habitable Earth”, “Health, Wellness, and Universal Access”, “A Livable City, and “Pursuit of Equality”. They are not meant to be constrictive. We welcome viewers to decide for themselves which best fit each category. Each visitor will have their own relationship with each artwork, and with the installation as a whole. No matter what that is, our hope is that Catalyst will inspire viewers to take up the ongoing fight for social change. Visitors to Gracie Mansion can view the official website to learn more about the works on display and the context they bring from the outside. The docents and other educators who guide these visits can also explain and answer questions about all of the art and objects.
Closing September 8, 2021
Gracie Mansion Conservancy
E 88th St &, East End Ave, New York, NY 10028
Curated by Jessica Bell Brown
PANEL: ANCESTRAL LEGACIES EXPLORING THE AFRO-CARIBBEAN EXPERIENCE.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art cordially invites you to our Annual Black History Month Celebration.
The panel will be followed by a reception in the Arts of Africa, Oceana, and the Americas galleries and our curators will be offering private tours of the exhibitions Arte del Mar and Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara.
Panel Moderator, Suhaly Bautista-Carolina, panelists, Fabiola Jean Louis, Nyguen Smith, Yelaine Rodriguez, Dr. Lawrence Waldron, and Elizabeth Colomba.
Thursday, February 20, 2020, 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue New York, New York 10028
QUEEN: FROM THE COLLECTION OF CCH POUNDER.
CELEBRATING BLACK WOMANHOOD.
The pieces on display in Queen are drawn from the personal collection of award winning actress CCH Pounder and span a range of styles and mediums.
Featuring sculptures, paintings, and mixed media works by such luminaries as Betye and Alison Saar, Kehinde Wiley, and countless others. Pounder's robust collection celebrates black "feminine beauty, identity, and power," says a past review from New Orleans' Times-Picayune.
On display will be The Storm and Ceres.
JANUARY 28, 2020 - AUGUST 02, 2020
THE CHARLES H. WRIGHT MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY
315 East Warren St, Detroit, MI 48201
PAINTING IS ITS OWN COUNTRY AT THE HARVEY B.GANTT CENTER FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN ARTS +CULTURE.
Painting Is Its Own Country, is a survey exhibition, highlighting the work of more than two dozen exceptional artists.
Through figuration and abstraction, they are challenging traditional ideas of cultural representation and creativity. Curatorially, Painting Is Its Own Country is a simultaneous look into past and the future. The exhibition offers a snapshot of powerful work being made by a generation of emerging artists, as well as several well-known practitioners in the field. The exhibition’s title reflects the idea that painting, despite its long existence, still offers limitless space for freedom, diversity, and self-expression.
Artist list: Derrick Adams, Rushern Baker IV, Kimberly Becoat, Jurell Cayetano, Dominic Chambers,
Elizabeth Colomba, DeShawn Dumas, Alteronce Gumby, Stephen Hayes, Marcus Jahmal, Cheyenne Julian, Gerald Lovell, Jackie Milad, Mario Moore, Lavar Munroe, Fahamu Pecou, Kenny Rivero, Sloane Siobhan, Alexandria Smith, Vaughn Spann, Stacy Lynn Waddell, Will Villalongo, Cullen B. Washington, Jr., Didier William, Charles E. Williams and Bryan Wilson.
Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture at Levine Center for the Arts
551 South Tryon Street, Charlotte, NC 28202
November 2, 2019 - April 12, 2020
.
GET UP, STAND UP NOW
Generations of Black Creative Pioneers
A major new exhibition celebrating
the past 50 years of Black creativity in Britain and beyond.
Beginning with the radical Black filmmaker Horace Ové and his dynamic circle of Windrush generation creative peers and extending to today’s brilliant young Black talent globally, a group of 110 interdisciplinary artists are showcasing their work together for the first time, exploring Black experience and influence, from the post-war era to the present day.
Artist list: A Guy Called Gerald, Abe Odedina, Adjaye Associates, Ajamu, Alexis Peskine, Althea McNish, Anthea Hamilton, Anthony Joseph, Armet Francis, Aubrey Williams, Barbara Walker, Barby Asante, Barkley L. Hendricks, Benji Reid, Betye Saar, Black Audio Film Collective - John Akomfrah, Bradford Young, Caleb Femi, Campbell Addy, Carrie Mae Weems, Charlie Phillips, Che Lovelace, Chris Leacock (Jillionaire/Major Lazer), Chris Ofili, Cooly G, Cosmo Whyte, David A. Bailey, David Hammons, Deborah Roberts, Dennis Bovell, Denzil Forrester, Derrick Adams, Don Letts, Ebony G. Patterson, Elizabeth Colomba, Emheyo Bahabba ‘Embah’, Errol Lloyd, Faisal Abdu'Allah, Franklyn Rodgers, Gaika, Gary Simmons, Glenn Ligon, Gordon Parks, Grace Nichols, Grace Wales Bonner, Hank Willis Thomas, Hassan Hajjaj, Helen Cammock, Hew Locke, Horace Ové, Hurvin Anderson, Ishmahil Blagrove, Jay Bernard, Jazzie B, Jenn Nkiru, Julie Mehretu, Kehinde Wiley, Keith Piper, Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, Larry Achiampong, Lavar Munroe, Lezley Saar, Libita Clayton, Lina Iris Viktor, Linton Kwesi Johnson, LR Vandy, Lubaina Himid, Marlene Smith, Marlon James, Martine Rose, Maud Sulter, Merle Van den Bosch, Mickalene Thomas, Mowalola Ogunlesi, Nari Ward, Neil Kenlock, Nick Cave, Niyi Olagunju, Normski, Oliver Hardt, Patrick Betaudier, Paul A. Smith, Paul Maheke, Pauline Black, Peter Doig, Phoebe Boswell, Rashid Johnson, Rhea Storr, Richard Mark Rawlins, Ronald Moody, Ronan McKenzie, Sanford Biggers, Satch Hoyt, Selina Nwulu, Shabaka Hutchings, Sonia Boyce, Stephen Burks, Steve McQueen, Thick/er Black Lines, Thomas J. Price, Umar Rashid (Frohawk Two Feathers), Vanley Burke, Victor Ekpuk, Yinka Shonibare CBE, Young Fathers, Zadie Smith, Zak Ové, Zanele Muholi, Zoe Bedeaux
From June 12 to September 15 2019
Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA
AMERICAN PSYCHE
American Psyche presents works by EFA Studio Member Artists
In selecting works for the show, it became clear that portraying the figure is fraught with questions of race, class, politics, history, and mythologies.
These eight artists, half of whom were born outside the US, consider what it means to be American, with all its hybrid identities and layered nationalities. In their artworks, the powerful presence of the figure invites a psychological intimacy with the viewer and suggests a renewal of obsolete canonical notions of representation. Artists who were previously considered to be outsiders rewrite themselves, and their subjects, back into histories from which they were erased. Their work functions as a vehicle for healing, enabling them to occupy an expanded place of global belonging, in which we are all included. Engaging with these paintings brings up questions of our own place in this America, and if a national identity is even possible anymore.
February 5 to April 15, 2019 - Opening: February 5, 2019, 6-8 pm
323 WEST 39TH STREET, 3RD FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10018
SHE PERSISTS:
A Century of Women Artists in New York, 1919-2019
A curated installation of Gracie Mansion’s official rooms on the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in New York and in the United States.
She Persists: A Century of Women Artists in New York, 1919-2019 puts on display the works of 44 women for whom New York has been a central creative force both past and present in the course of this according century. It features more than 60 works done by local women between the year Congress passed the 19th Amendment granting them the right to vote and its centennial. It celebrated the city’s wide-ranging history of women’s contributions to the arts and told stories about the daily lives of all New Yorkers, revealing the ways in which those included — past and present — creatively interrogate the possibilities for progress, equality, equity, and freedom across race, class, and gender lines.
Through painting, sculpture, photography, and video, the varied content of She Persists allowed inclusive dialogues about the contributions of some of the city’s most dynamic artists — some of whom were previously overlooked. Gracie Mansion again served as a dynamic site, specific to the living history and contemporary context of New York today in the course of this milestone anniversary.
Curated By Jessica Bell Brown.
Art installation on view until January 2020 at Gracie mansion.
POSING MODERNITY:
The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today
This exhibition explores the changing modes of representation of the black figure as central to the development of modern art.
This exhibition explores the changing modes of representation of the black figure as central to the development of modern art. The models' interactions with and influences on painters, sculptors and photographers are highlighted through archival photographs, correspondence and films. The artists featured in the exhibition depicted black subjects in a manner counter to typical representations of the period. The works included highlight the little-known, multiracial aspect of each artist’s milieu.
In New York, the presentation focuses specifically on the black female figure, beginning Edouard Manet’s 1860s portrayals of Laure, the model who posed as the maid in Olympia. In Paris, a broader and expanded treatment of the black figure begins with portraits by Marie-Guillemine Benoist and Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault at the start of the 19th century.
At Columbia University, Wallach Art Gallery- Through February 10, 2019.
VOGUE
Painter Elizabeth Colomba Is Giving Art’s Hidden Figures Their Close-Up
Profile by Dodie Kazanjian
October 2018 issue.
"Elizabeth Colomba"s elaborately detailed paintings are beautifully subversive: revisiting black figures in art history and placing them center stage."
Elizabeth’s painting Laure (Portrait of a Negresse) will appear in a groundbreaking show, “Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today,” that opens this month at Columbia University’s Wallach Art Gallery and travels next spring to Paris’s Musée d’Orsay. Curator Denise Murrell has been researching the subject for the past six years, turning up material about Laure, including her first name (but not her last) and where she lived. Manet, whose description of her in his notebooks is “très belle négresse,” used her in two other paintings, one a solo portrait. “My question always was ‘What can be said about Laure; what can we surmise about her life?’ ” Murrell says when I reach her by phone. “And that’s what I find so compelling about Elizabeth’s work—it’s exactly what she tries to do. In a very vivid way, she’s trying to imagine the lived reality of the models who posed for Manet and Marie-Guillemine Benoist. I found that a new turn, different from the work of other contemporary artists engaging with historical works of art.”
At Columbia University, Wallach Art Gallery- Through February 10, 2019.
Photographed by Anton Corbijn
FOUR SEASONS
Curated by ART&NEWPORT founder Dodie Kazanjian in collaboration with
Ashley Householder, the Preservation Society's Curator of Exhibitions
of Newport County
Four portraits by artist Elizabeth Colomba are exhibited in the second floor sitting room of The Elms (1901) through October 14, 2018, in a collaboration between The Preservation Society of Newport County and ART&NEWPORT, an organization dedicated to developing and hosting citywide visual arts presentations.
Elizabeth Colomba: Four Seasons consists of four large framed portraits, painted between 2012 and 2018, in which the seasons are depicted as an allegory of womanhood. The figures are nearly life-sized so that the viewer is confronted with the power and beauty of each woman.
"We are delighted to be featuring Elizabeth Colomba's work at The Elms," said Preservation Society CEO & Executive Director Trudy Coxe. "Museums and historic sites must make themselves relevant to a contemporary audience if they are to thrive and contribute to their communities. This juxtaposition of Elizabeth's recent artwork in a century-old setting is sure to catch the eye and create conversation among our visitors."
The sitters are staged in lavish settings - not unlike the room in which the works are hung - and they are serene in their environments, much like the ones permanently on view there. As visitors make their way through the house, they will encounter these paintings in the sitting room and learn more about them through a special stop on their audio tour. The installation is included in regular admission to The Elms.
“Elizabeth Colomba is a radical artist,” says Dodie Kazanjian, “using Old Master techniques to pull you into her very contemporary stories. Her paintings are meditations on what might have been possible if colonial conquest had never happened, and they speak many visual languages at the same time.”
On view June 26, 2018 - September 3, 2018
EXTENDED THROUGH OCTOBER 14, 2018
REVEALING INTERIORS
An exhibition on view at the Princeton university art museum.
Artists have long conceived of domestic interior spaces as settings for a wide range of figurative subjects
It often incorporates human introspection or interiority. This selection of prints and drawings, spanning the early sixteenth century to the present, demonstrates how inhabited interiors—whether observed or imaginary, real or theatrical—reveal themes of spirituality, artistic creativity, or domesticity through details such as furniture and objects on the wall.
Rounding out the selection is a group of crowded interiors dominated by single figures: the prints by Works Progress Administration artists Minetta Good and Dox Thrash evoke issues of gender and racial identity, respectively—which also are addressed by Elizabeth Colomba’s recent watercolor.
On view in the Early European galleries May 5 - October 28 2018
CENDRILLON
SCREENING AT GAVIN BROWN'S ENTERPRISE
Produced by Gallery Met director Dodie Kazanjian,
the film was shown in movie theaters around the world during the intermission of its live performance
A special screening of Cendrillon, a short film by Elizabeth Colomba for The Metropolitan Opera's Gallery MetShorts series, will be followed by a conversation moderated by Jonathan Michael Square, PhD, between Dodie Kazanjian and Elizabeth Colomba.
WED | JUNE 6 | 6:30 - 8:30 PM
A light reception will take place after the talk. This event is free to the public.
439 W. 127TH STREET NEW YORK, NY 10027
HARLEM PERSPECTIVES
The gallery is located on Harlem’s historic Striver’s Row.
Faction Art Projects will open
Harlem Perspectives, an exhibition comprised of Harlem-based artists
Artists including Elizabeth Colomba, Pepe Coronado, Renee Cox, Leeza Meksin, Jaime Permuth, Lina Puerta, Elaine Reichek, David Shrobe, Stan Squirewell, and Virginia Inèz Vergara, .
Whilst broad in the selection of mediums and topics, the theme of the show is predominantly geographical and aims to celebrate the creative talent in the neighborhood.
A group exhibition, 2602 Frederick Douglass Blvd, NY 10030
Opening: Sunday, April 22, 2018 through 18 May 2018
THE MET: LIVE IN HD
The Met expands its visual arts initiatives with a series of short films
The Metropolitan Opera invites visual artists to make short format films that relate to the operas of the current season.
The shorts are screened during the Met's HD simulcasts in theaters around the world.
CENDRILLON (Cinderella), directed by Elizabeth Colomba, draws upon the relationship between time and womanhood. The film will be an interpretation of the fairy tale with the artist's aesthetic.
CENDRILLON, featuring Grace Bol, a Gallery MetShort, premiering during the intermission of the live and encore simulcasts of the Met’s Live in HD series, now seen across the United States and in 70 other countries.
Live transmission is Saturday, April 28, 2018 12:55pm EST
Cast: Grace Bol as Cendrillon
Elizabeth Colomba as Fairy Godmother
Director: Elizabeth Colomba
Producer: Dodie Kazanjian
Executive Producer: Richard Varghese
Line producer: Monique Long
Director of Photography: Sacred Pact
Editor: Sacred Pact
Costume Designer: Lashun Costor
Wardrobe Supervisor: Delcey Fleming
Make up artist: Takahiro Okada
Key hairstylist: Tomoko Kuwamura
1st Production assistant: Taylor Petracek
2nd Production assistant: Jesse Dean
Tiara by Moans Couture
A special thank you to Matthew Swope Jewelry
Music: Jules Massenet
Filmed on location at Park Avenue Armory.
FALSE LIGHTSThe Library (2005) has been adapted for the cover of the paperback edition of FALSE LIGHTS
A novel of historical fiction by K. J. Whittaker. Imagine that Bonaparte, instead of Wellington, had won the Battle of Waterloo...
Napoleon has won the Battle of Waterloo and England is under French occupation. A half-drowned girl washes up on a Cornish beach, escaping French soldiers after the murder of her black sea captain father. An aristocratic soldier-spy, haunted by his part in the defeat at Waterloo, plans to spring the Duke of Wellington from captivity. Together, they become enmeshed in a web of treachery and espionage stretching from London to the Scilly Isles.
NO COMMISSION
GROUP EXHIBITION, ISLAND MIGHT, AT MIAMI BASEL
No Commission is a roving experiential platform organized by the Dean Collection and Bacardí to forge a direct link between art and art patronage.
The Dean Collection and Bacardí present No Commission: Miami 2017, a three-day, art and music experience taking place December 7 to 9 at Soho Studios in Wynwood.
No Commission is designed specifically to support artists in different territories around the world. No Commission Miami 2017 casts a thematic light on "Island Might," which suggests the power and possibility, tradition and future of a place and its people. The "ways of an island" — its functioning components and life essentials are guiding principles. We examine family, land & sea, ritual, revolution, and color as elemental forces that can illuminate the roadmap for a more generous, stable fate. The injection of immersive music performances from collaborator Bacardí shakes up the traditional art fair, creating a unique culture experience for visitors. No Commission Miami is the sixth in a series of artist support collaborations. Past editions were held in New York, London, Shanghai and Berlin.
The No Commission platform is realized through a partnership between Bacardí, Swizz Beatz, and the Dean Collection in their continued support of cultural visionaries around the world.
RE-IMAGING A SAFE SPACE : An exhibition exploring critical questions regarding the idea of a safe space.
It explores a deeper and richer understanding of our needs as a public—and how those needs differ depending on demographics and who we are individually.
Exhibition Opening: March 30, 2017. The exhibition is open from March 31 through October 16, 2017
Re-imagining A Safe Space, an exhibition at NYU organized by Deborah Willis, PhD.
The Spring exhibition will include works by 22 photographers, video artists, and visual artists who explore the theme of the exhibition through their works: Mangue Banzima, Martin Bell & Mary Ellen Mark, Nina Berman, Zoë Buckman, Cause Collective (Ryan Alexiev, Jim Ricks, Will Sylvester, Hank Willis Thomas), Elizabeth Colomba, Bruce Davidson, Erika deVries, Donna Ferrato, Samara Gaev, Caran Hartsfield, Lili Holzer-Glier, Jessica Ingram, Michael Koehler, Barbara Kruger, Lorie Novak, Gordon Parks, Alice Proujansky, Safe Space Collective (Myles Golden, Nate Palmer, Mallika Vora), Scheherazade Tillet, Sophia Tsanos, and David Wojnaorwicz
Exhibition Schedule: March 31 – October 16, Nathan Cummings Foundation, 475 10th Ave, 14th Floor. By appointment only: exhibits@nathancummings.org or (212) 787-7300
October 26 – December 15, Gulf + Western Gallery | 8th Floor Gallery, Department of Photography and Imaging, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, 721 Broadway, Lobby and 8th Floor
EFA OPEN STUDIOS 2017
is an annual event of the EFA Studio Program
that invites the public to come explore and interact with EFA member artists in the intimate setting of their studios.
All are professional artists with an established studio practice and recognized career. Rarely can curators, collectors, dealers, artists, and art lovers see so many internationally recognized artists working under one roof in Midtown Manhattan.
EFA OPEN STUDIOS 2017 in midtown manhattan 323 west 39th street, NY, NY
Oct. 19 thursday 6 - 10 pm (opening), Oct. 20 friday 6 - 9 pm, Oct. 21 saturday 1 - 6 pm
UPTOWN
Inaugurating its first summer of exhibitions at its new home in the
Lenfest Center for the Arts on 125th St, The Wallach Art Gallery will present a survey of contemporary artists who live and work north of 99th St.
Curated by Deborah Cullen, Director and Chief Curator of the Wallach Art Gallery. Uptown is conceived as the first exhibition in what the gallery foresees as an ongoing project including mature artists, mid-career practitioners and newer names from Harlem, El Barrio, Washington Heights, and all areas in between.
Daphne (2016), Courtesy The Studio Museum in Harlem and The Denial of Saint Peter (2017), Courtesy the artist will be on view at the Wallach Art Gallery from June 2 through August 20, 2017
At the Wallach, Elizabeth is among twenty-five accomplished artists exploring a wide range of media.
RE-IMAGING A SAFE SPACE : An exhibition exploring critical questions regarding the idea of a safe space.
It explores a deeper and richer understanding of our needs as a public—and how those needs differ depending on demographics and who we are individually.
The exhibition is travelling to NYU Tisch School of the Arts starting October 26th through December 15 2017.
Re-imagining A Safe Space, an exhibition at NYU organized by Deborah Willis, PhD. The exhibition explores a deeper and richer understanding of our needs as a public—and how those needs differ depending on demographics and who we are individually.
The Spring exhibition will include works by 22 photographers, video artists, and visual artists who explore the theme of the exhibition through their works: Mangue Banzima, Martin Bell & Mary Ellen Mark, Nina Berman, Zoë Buckman, Cause Collective (Ryan Alexiev, Jim Ricks, Will Sylvester, Hank Willis Thomas), Elizabeth Colomba, Bruce Davidson, Erika deVries, Donna Ferrato, Samara Gaev, Caran Hartsfield, Lili Holzer-Glier, Jessica Ingram, Michael Koehler, Barbara Kruger, Lorie Novak, Gordon Parks, Alice Proujansky, Safe Space Collective (Myles Golden, Nate Palmer, Mallika Vora), Scheherazade Tillet, Sophia Tsanos, and David Wojnaorwicz.
Exhibition Schedule:
October 26 – December 15, Gulf + Western Gallery | 8th Floor Gallery, Department of Photography and Imaging, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, 721 Broadway, Lobby and 8th Floor
WEEKSVILLE HERITAGE CENTER Fashioning the Black Body Conference
A conference exploring intersections of slavery and fashion with presentations from scholars, artists and designers.
Panel: Rethinking the Past, Refashioning the Future, a conversation with artists Elizabeth Colomba, Nona Faustine, Fabiola Jean-Louis and Ayana V. Jackson. Moderator: Jonathan Michael Square, PhD
Weeksville Heritage Center, 158 Buffalo Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11213
Register here
PARK AVENUE ARMORY INTERROGATIONS OF FORM:
Culture in a Changing America
In Collaboration with The Aspen Institute Arts Program. This symposium is presented in collaboration with The Studio Museum in Harlem
Held in their historic period rooms, these insightful conversations throughout the year feature artists, scholars, cultural leaders, and social trailblazers who gather to offer new points of view and unique perspectives on Armory productions, explore a range of themes and relevant topics, and encourage audiences to think beyond conventional interpretations and perspectives of art.
Sunday, February 19, 2017: 1pm-8pm
Salon and exhibition curated by Kalia Brooks, PhD and Deborah Willis, PhD
Featuring artists Elizabeth Colomba, Carrie Mae Weems and Paola Mendoza
Tickets here
The symposium concludes with a special keynote conversation moderated by The Studio Museum in Harlem’s Director and Chief Curator Thelma Golden, with choreographer, director, and dancer Bill T. Jones, the Kennedy Center’s Marc Bamuthi Joseph, visual artist Julie Mehretu, and musician Toshi Reagon centered on the state of American culture in the age of Trump, followed by a musical performance by Toshi Reagon and special guests.
ESSAY IN DUKE UNIVERSITY'S
NKA JOURNAL OF
CONTEMPORARY ART
A conference exploring intersections of slavery and fashion with presentations from scholars, artists and designers.
Duke University's, Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art has documented the Paris iteration of the Black Portraitures Conference (2013) by publishing a selection of essays including, "Portraits in Black: Styling, Space, and Self in the work of Barkley Hendricks and Elizabeth Colomba" by Anna Arabindan-Kesson
Available at Duke University Press Online
EXHIBITION CATALOGUE ReSignifications: European Blackamoors, Africana Readings
On the occasion of Black Portraitures II, the catalogue features works from the artists from the attendant exhibition in Florence.
Including the painting The Reading created in 2015 .
"ReSignifications interprets the "Blackamoor" trope in Western culture. This tradition of decorative art emerged at the intersection of cross-cultural encounters shaped by centuries of migration, exchange, conquest, servitude, and exile. ReSignifications links classical and popular representations of African bodies in European art, culture, and history. It moderates and subverts artistic conventions by using the works of contemporary artists from Africa, Europe, North and South America, and the Caribbean to engage in dialogue with the broad historical array of ornamental representations of African bodies." Awam Amkpa and Ellyn Mary Toscano, Editors
Now available on Amazon
MAGAZINE FEATURE: UBIKWIST
Interview with Kalia Brooks in the 'Roots' Issue(no 3).
Art can be thought of as the celebration
of culture through self-expression.
These forms of expression are often inspired by our Roots, our unique backgrounds that help define who we are as artists.
EXHIBITION:
SELLING THE SHADOW P. 1
A contemporary art group exhibition exploring the intersection between art, social praxis, and activism organized by Ayana V. Jackson.
November 22, 2016 through January 7, 2017.
Gallery MOMO Cape Town, 170 Buitengracht Street, Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa
info@gallerymomo.com
Artists: Derrick Adams, Endia Beal, Elizabeth Colomba, Florine Demosthene, Kamathi Donkor, Joel Mpah Dooh, Torkwase Dyson, Dumile Feni, Amir George, Coby Kennedy, Simone Leigh, Maurice Mbikayi, Zohra Opoku, Jefferson Pinder, Robert Pruitt, Rael Salley, Dread Scott, Mary Sibande, Cosmo Whyte, Khaya Witbooi
THE MOON IS
MY ONLY
LUXURY
Elizabeth Colomba first solo show in
New York City.
Signed and numbered limited edition catalogue for The Moon is my only luxury, Colomba's recent solo exhibition, is not available for purchase anymore.
THE PINEAPPLE SHOW
Tiwani Contemporary is pleased to present The Pineapple Show.
The Pineapple Show emerged from a particular obsession with the pineapple on the part of artist-curator Zina Saro- Wiwa
Featuring artists that originate from Nigeria, Kenya, Brazil, the Caribbean and the United States, the exhibition explores the semiotics of the iconic fruit, expanding the narratives surrounding the pineapple, re-casting its mythos through brand new works of art created specially for exhibition.
Artists in the show are: Elizabeth Colomba (Martinique/USA), Ian Deleón (USA/Brazil/Cuba), Ayana Evans (USA), Jowhor Ile (Nigeria), Odili Donald Odita (USA/Nigeria), Perrin Oglafa (Nigeria), Temitayo Ogunbiyi (Nigeria), Zina Saro-Wiwa (Nigeria/USA/UK), Johnson Uwadinma (Nigeria), Arlene Wandera (Kenya/UK).
The pineapple is a celebrated and eulogized fruit. But much of the literature around it is derived from the encounter between Western European colonial powers and the tropics from the 16th century onwards. The Pineapple Show seeks to add to the canon by mining, exposing and inventing new narratives from the perspectives of the tropics or the tropical other. This show is asking that we demand more from our understanding of the environment. That we do not merely accept ideas and meanings from times past, that we process and continually question. We feel it is important to learn from the the world around us by paying attention to how its fruits, flora and fauna pass through us, not only physically but intellectually, spiritually and emotionally. The resulting works explore issues of labour and luxu- ry, power and powerlessness, flamboyance, femininity versus masculinity, pain and masochism, romance, hair and cosmic travel.
The Pineapple Show exemplifies Saro-Wiwa’s commitment to re-defining and re-imagining the relationship between self and environment through her Niger Delta-based gallery Boys’ Quarters Project Space. We are grateful for the platform afforded by Tiwani to continue Boys’ Quarters’ investigations for a London audience.
“Over the last three years I have experienced a growing obsession with pineapples." says Zina Saro-Wiwa. "I moved back to Nigeria and the Niger Delta in 2013 and started eating a lot more pineapples, simply because they are grown right there and are plentiful. Looking back I feel as if eating the fruit so much in Nigeria had started a conversation within me. Almost like the fruit was speaking to me from within. When, in an attempt to understand my growing interest, I started to research what the meanings were behind the fruit, I found ideas and imagery that were fascinating but did not feel like the whole story. Indeed most of the literature surrounding pineapples is drawn from the encounter between Western imperial forces and the tropics from the 17th Century onwards. This show is an attempt to expand and expose newer cultural connections to the pineapple. To hear what it has to say to through the bodies and practiese of a particular group of artists.”