Thelma Golden

The most comprehensive and up-to-date monograph available on the work of celebrated artist Lorna Simpson, a trailblazer who continues to influence and inspire Lorna Simpson is a multimedia artist known for her pioneering approach to conceptual photography. In 1993 Simpson was the first African-American woman ever to show in the Venice Biennale and to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. This landmark book documents Simpson’s career in its entirety, up to her most recent work - Simpson’s portrait of Rihanna for the January 2021 cover of Essence has been deemed as one of the most iconic fashion images ever made by a panel of experts in The New York Magazine. In doing so, it sheds light on the remarkable path that Simpson paved to global critical acclaim and art-world stardom. The first edition of this sell-out volume has been thoroughly revised and updated, including a new essay by Guggenheim Deputy Director Naomi Beckwith.

A milestone publication shedding light on the groundbreaking contributions of an under-recognized artist whose art and activism resonates in contemporary culture Published with Studio Museum in Harlem. Collaborating with an engineer at the Radio Corporation of America, American artist Tom Lloyd developed a highly experimental and technologically advanced art practice in the 1960s that challenged popular understandings of the work and role of Black artists. In 1968 his pioneering artwork was the focus of the inaugural exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Electronic Refractions II. Based on extensive new scholarship and intensive conservation work, this publication accompanies a landmark retrospective exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem exploring 20 years of the artist's career, including his pivotal contributions to the intersection of art and technology, and paying tribute to his activism. This is the first-ever comprehensive catalog on the artist and features an exclusive selection of never-before-seen images that chronicle Lloyd's career, including photographs of the artist collaborating with engineer Alan Sussman, nonextant works and past installations. Designed by Miko McGinty and richly illustrated with full-color reproductions of artworks, studio photographs and an illustrated chronology, Tom Lloyd also includes new essays by former Studio Museum curator Connie H. Choi, conservator Reinhard Bek, historian Krista Thompson, Studio Museum senior curatorial assistant Habiba Hopson, and artists Paul Stephen Benjamin, Nikita Gale and Glenn Ligon. Artist, activist and community organizer Tom Lloyd (1929–96) was an early pioneer of using electric light as an artistic medium. Born and raised in Jamaica, Queens, he was the founder of the Store Front Museum/Paul Robeson Theatre, Queens's first art museum.

Selections from the extraordinary Studio Museum in Harlem Collection, accompanying the highly anticipated opening of the institution’s first-ever purpose-built museum Meaning Matter Memory is a keepsake extension of the Studio Museum’s collection of artwork by artists of African descent. Beautiful illustrations of significant works by more than 250 artists are accompanied by original texts from more than 100 voices in the art world, including writers, scholars, artists, and critics.Celebrating myriad voices and artistic media, styles, and eras, this handbook glimpses into the profound and manifold artistic achievements made by Black artists for over 200 years. The book exhibits and carries forward a principal tenet of the Studio Museum’s mission: to serve as the stewards of the work – old, new, and still to be created – by artists of African descent.Featuring work by: Derrick Adams, Emma Amos, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Romare Bearden, Jordan Casteel, Elizabeth Catlett, Nick Cave, Samuel Fosso, Theaster Gates, Cy Gavin, Barkley L. Hendricks, Arthur Jafa, Rashid Johnson, Simone Leigh, Glenn Ligon, Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, Gordon Parks, Martin Puryear, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, Augusta Savage, Tschabalala Self, Lorna Simpson, Mickalene Thomas, Kara Walker, and Carrie Mae Weems, among many more.

The artists featured in Black Refractions, including Kerry James Marshall, Faith Ringgold, Nari Ward, Norman Lewis, Wangechi Mutu, and Lorna Simpson, are drawn from the renowned collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem. Through exhibitions, public programs, artist-in-residencies, and bold acquisitions, this pioneering institution has served as a nexus for artists of African descent locally, nationally, and internationally since its founding in 1968. Rather than aim to construct a single history of black art, Black Refractions emphasizes a plurality of narratives and approaches, traced through 125 works in all media from the 1930s to the present. An essay by Connie Choi and entries by Eliza A. Butler, Akili Tommasino, Taylor Aldridge, Larry Ossei Mensah, Daniela Fifi , and other luminaries contextualize the works and provide detailed commentary. A dialogue between Thelma Golden, Connie Choi, and Kellie Jones draws out themes and challenges in collecting and exhibiting modern and contemporary art by artists of African descent. More than a document of a particular institution s trailblazing path, or catalytic role in the development of American appreciation for art of the African diaspora, this volume is a compendium of a vital art tradition.