Since the 1970s, Cynthia Hawkins (born 1950) has investigated the potentials of abstract painting. Her process-oriented practice embraces the improvisational to create a space for her continually evolving vocabulary. From 1979 to 1981, Hawkins documented these developments in a journal. A record of routine and the everyday, the journal also gathers sketches, notes for new and in-progress works, and responses to contemporary art and criticism, bringing the artist’s reflections into relief. Art Notes, Art also offers a picture of the burgeoning Black-owned gallery scene in New York that Hawkins was an important participant in—including Just Above Midtown, where she had . . . .go to book page >>

American artist Michael Richards (1963–2001) was born in Brooklyn and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. Integral to a generation of Black artists emerging in the 1990s, Richards’ work gestures toward reprieve from social injustices, often in the context of the historic and ongoing oppression of Black people. Richards’ exploration of freedom and escape centered on themes of flight and aviation, which he engaged with through the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen, Greek mythology, Christianity and African and African American folklore. His nascent career was cut short on September 11, 2001 when he was killed while working in his Lower Manhattan Cultural . . . .go to book page >>

In 2017, curator and art historian Anita N. Bateman and architect and professor Emanuel Admassu initiated research on the traditional positioning and mispositioning of the arts across the African continent. Where Is Africa has been an extended set of exchanges with contemporary artists, curators, designers and academics who are actively engaged in representing the continent—both within and outside its geographic boundaries. By examining artist collectives, new currents in art history and the rise of contemporary art festivals in and about Africa from the past 10 years, the project unpacks the imperialist foundations of cultural institutions and their anthropological fascination with . . . .go to book page >>