Black women artists have historically faced marginalization and underrepresentation within the art world. Despite these obstacles, they have persevered and crafted an artistry that encompasses a diverse range of themes, mediums and styles. At times, their creative endeavors confront the intersectionality of race, gender and identity, reflecting personal experiences, heritage and the realities of being a Black woman.
To celebrate the Harvey B. Gantt Center’s 50th anniversary, A Superlative Palette brings together the work of more than a dozen generation-defining contemporary Black women artists from around the world. Their powerful and thought-provoking work has not only redefined artistic expression but has . . . .go to book page >>

Brooklyn–based multidisciplinary artist E. Jane (born 1990), author of the viral NOPE Manifesto (2016), explores the labor and inner lives of Black women while questioning the future of Blackness and queerness. This catalog grows out of Jane’s 2023 solo show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and features recent work that considers the figure of the Black diva within contemporary and historical culture. Through video stills, performance shots and reproduced zine pages, this catalog serves as an entry point into Jane’s multilayered and expansive practice. An essay by Legacy Russell, originally published in Glitch Feminism, contextualizes Jane’s work within . . . .go to book page >>

This gorgeously produced monograph presents the work of the New Mexico–based mixed-media artist Rose B. Simpson (born 1983). Informed by three maternal generations of ceramicists, Simpson creates androgynous clay figures that tackle the emotional and existential impacts of living in a postmodern and postcolonial world. The volume explores Simpson’s artistic evolution and examines the influence of Indigenous ceramic traditions passed down by her mother, Roxanne Swentzell, her grandmother, Rina Swentzell, and her great-grandmother, Gia Rose Naranjo. Weaving together object plates, family photographs and installation images, the hardcover publication features a coated fabric casing and Swiss binding. Creative writing by Simpson . . . .go to book page >>

Since their first encounter on the telephone in Los Angeles in 1977, artists Maren Hassinger (born 1947) and Senga Nengudi (born 1943) have formed an expansive body of collaborations, and a lifelong friendship that spans nearly five decades. While maintaining rigorous solo practices rooted in sculpture and installation, the artists first connected through a shared language of movement. Together they produced suites of dances and performances, and later videos, artist books and conceptual correspondences that vitalized their artistic practices.
The artists’ early work in Los Angeles emerged within a milieu that included David Hammons, Franklin Parker, Houston Conwill, and Ulysses Jenkins, . . . .go to book page >>

Latvian–born, New York–based artist Ella Kruglyanskaya (born 1978) paints kinetic vignettes, often featuring exaggerated, nearly caricatured depictions of the female body. Kruglyanskaya’s practice intends to engage with the historical tropes of Western painting in regard to the female figure and to update these conventions.
Too Much presents Kruglyanskaya’s latest series, created over the last four years. In some ways, the volume responds directly to the loneliness induced by Covid. The artist pens over a dozen letters to the reader, dispersing them among her paintings. Intimate, meditative and darkly humorous, the letters grapple with themes such as the depiction of gender and . . . .go to book page >>