Top: Barrett Keithley, Cassandra Wilson, Patricia Andrews-Keenan and Edo; Middle: Edo; Bottom: Ruby Simmons and Gyamfuah Melisiziwe; Right: Jesse Howard. Photos by Tafari Melisiziwe The conversation continues at REVOLUTIONARY, Pigment International's thought-provoking summer exhibition at Vjosa Café & Events. Curated by P. Andrews-Keenan, the exhibition features an extraordinary roster of painters, photographers, and mixed-media artists whose work examines 250 years of Black

Top left - Patricia Andrews-Keenan, September Gray and Diane Dinkins Carr; Revolutionary opened at Vjose Cafe and continues through August 15; Middle row - Sculptor Joseph Kersey, great uncle of Anita Mauro board member of Chicago Sculpture Exhibit. The public art group is celebrating its 25th Anniversary. More scenes from Revolutionary - Phyliss North and Audra Wilson; and bottom row the Simmons - D.E., Ruben and Ruby. New Pigmented merch includes our bucket hat. Orders your

As the nation marks its 250th anniversary, Pigment International steps into the center of the conversation with back-to-back appearances in mid-July that ask the same question from two different stages: who gets to tell America's story? On July 16, Founder and CEO Patricia Andrews-Keenan joins the open mic lineup for "America @ 250: A Journalism Reckoning," hosted by NABJ Chicago and the Field Foundation at Impact House in downtown Chicago. Set against a backdrop of press fre

Commemorative artwork for this year's Martha's Vineyard Comedy Fest is by artist Paul Branton Artist Paul Branton has created a vibrant commemorative portrait celebrating the 15th Anniversary of the Martha's Vineyard Comedy Fest, honoring longtime host Damon Williams, whose wit and unmistakable stage presence have become synonymous with the festival. Commissioned by festival founder Steve Capers, the painting captures Williams in Branton's signature expressive style, using bo

Harmonica & Thelonius by Chris Devins Where music ends, and painting begins, Chicago artist Chris Devins refuses to draw a line. On Friday, July 17, Devins will debut his oil painting “Harmonia and Thelonius” at Bridgeport Art Center’s prestigious 4th Floor Gallery as part of Color Songs: Musicians as Visual Artists, an exhibition curated by Dr. Yaoundé Olu running through September 4, 2026. The work belongs to Devin’s ongoing series “Into the Black,” a body of work committed

Photo top left - Taroue Brooks, crafted the forward for Thomas Lockhart's coffee table book Painting In the Spirit, Verlena Mooney Newell, Actor Leon, Pigment International's Patricia Andrews-Keenan, Tenia Davis, owner of Beyond the Book in Homewood, and artist Thomas Lockhart, whose work is showcased in the coffee table book. Top right - Lockhart's original work "The Past Illuminates the Future" created for the Pigmented Black Fine Art Show. Over a career spanning 25 years,

Artists Edo and Reggie McFly were part of a panel discussion the MentalHood Cultural Initiative Art and advocacy converged at Josephine’s on East 79th Street when the MentalHood Cultural Initiative hosted its Masculine Male Brunch—a morning of honest conversation, community, and the kind of radical vulnerability Black men are too rarely given space to express. Among the voices in the room were Pigment International artists Reggie McFly and Eddie “Edo” Santana White, who spoke

Ted Ellis is now curator at the Amistad Renowned artist and creative historian Ted T. Ellis has been appointed Registrar | Curator of the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University — one of the most significant appointments in recent memory for the institution widely recognized as the world's largest independent archive dedicated to Black history. This month’s appointment marks a powerful convergence of artistic legacy and institutional stewardship. Ellis brings to the role

Danny Simmons - 1953 - 2026 Daniel Dwayne Simmons Jr. — abstract expressionist painter, poet, published author, and philanthropist — passed away on June 14, 2026, at the age of 72. For those who knew his work, not just his famous last name, the loss is seismic.  In New York, he was the oldest Simmons brother — the quiet one who watched Russell build Def Jam and Joey become Rev Run of Run-DMC — while he built something altogether different: a life in paint, a gallery, a movem

Wooden quilts by Jean-Marcel St. Jacques will be part of a fundraising auction by Blacks in Green (BIG) on Juneteenth. On Friday, June 19, 2026, the Woodlawn & South Lakefront Tourism Center in Chicago's Obama Presidential District will host a special Juneteenth Wine, Cheese & Storytelling Fundraiser celebrating history, resilience, and the transformative power of art.  The evening will feature the unveiling of three new works by renowned New Orleans artist Jean-Marcel St. J

Top row: Artist Bryant Lamont with Pigment's Patricia Andrews-Keenan, work by Roger Carter, artists Paul Branton, Gerald Griffin and Bryant Lamont, work by Lamont; second row work by Bernard Williams, work by Paul Branton, Faye Edwards of Faiè Afrikan Art with photographer Tonika Johnson, artist Roger Carter; third row Bertha Thomas, Chair of the Board the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley Institute with exhibition curator Raymond A. Thomas, work by Max Sansing, Claudette Rop

Top row - Work by Kayla D. Smith, Jennifer Warren and Erin Gleason; bottom - Work by Jacqueline W. Nuzzo by Harlem Henderson Bodies Luminous, now showing at Chicago’s Women Made Gallery, highlights the multi-dimensional work of 30 women and non-binary artists. It serves as a much-needed critique of androcentrism, both within and beyond museum-superstructure settings, and assesses its role in defining the aesthetic and social value of visual art. This recontextualization of wo

Nathaniel Mary Quinn's A Love Letter to My Mother at the National Public Housing Museum RUN — don't walk — to experience Chicago native Nathaniel Mary Quinn's first solo museum exhibition at the National Public Housing Museum (NPHM). A Love Letter to My Mother is precisely what its title promises: a deeply personal elegy to the woman whose faith made an artist. Quinn grew up in the Robert Taylor Homes, once the largest public housing complex in the country. What opened as an

Above - Robert Earl Paige; Below - Design Visionary honorees, class of 2026 Chicago artist and designer Robert Earl Paige has been named a 2026 Design Visionary honoree by the prestigious Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum as part of the National Design Awards, one of the highest recognitions in American design. The honor celebrates Paige’s decades-long influence on textile design, fine art, and the broader visual culture of Black creative expression. Born in Chicago in

From top left: Robert Lewis Paige, Monica Haslip, Janell Nelson and Blake Lenoir are the honorees at this year's Black Art Love Affair. As Chicago’s creative community continues to shape global culture, ILA Creative Studio is once again bringing artists, patrons, and advocates together for an evening centered on celebration, sustainability, and collective investment. On June 17, the organization will host the fourth annual Black Art Love Affair (BALA) at Little Black Pearl un

Work by Max Sansing, Norman Teague, and Sura Dupart The final week of I Used to Live in Chicago at Blanc Gallery in Bronzeville brings a powerful close to one of the season’s most resonant exhibitions, culminating with two special public programs before the exhibition ends May 24. An innovative dialogue In Conversation with the Work will take place on Tuesday, May 19 from 6 - 9 pm., followed by the Film Screening and Community Forum: What We Built, featuring a screening of th

Nick Cave In the company of greatness. Nick Cave at the opening of In Minor Keys — the 61st Venice Biennale, conceived by the late Koyo Kouoh. Cave's Two Points in Time at Once features five works displayed in Arsenale and two of his monumental bronzes installed outdoors. Here he stands with his works Amalgam Meditation and Origin Big Chief Demond Melancon Big Chief Demond Melancon — the first Black Masking Indian to participate in the Venice Biennale — at the opening of In

Installation by A'driane Nieves Review by Ming Joi Speechlessness is seldom experienced by a woman of words like me, but what is there to say when the artworks do all the talking / take the words out of my mouth / speak for the silent moments / phrase it in a way my tongue would never try? In Unbound Narratives: Embodied Language, a group show at Atlanta Contemporary, Bethany Collins, February James, adriene nieves, and Gabi Madrid challenge the unsaid; instead, the inner tho

Top left - Mama Lae by Lavar Munroe Studio; top right - Big Chief Demond Melancon in ceremonial suit — Photo credit: Sophia Germer / The Times-Picayune; Bottom left - Sammy Baloji, Bottom middle - the late Koyo Kouoh, 2026 Venice Biennale curator Cape Town, March, 2024; bottom right - Neo Ramshu. The 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia opens this week under a title borrowed from music: In Minor Keys. Conceived by the late Koyo Kouoh — the first African

Tiffany Haddish by Tyler Clark, Leslie Jones by James Nelson, and Kevin Hart by Minnie Watkins exhibited by Pigment International at the Martha’s Vineyard Comedy Festival in 2022. There are few cultural forces more powerful — or more misunderstood — than Black comedy. It is a tradition of truth-telling, resistance, and joy that runs from Redd Foxx and Richard Pryor to Eddie Murphy, Wanda Sykes, and Tiffany Haddish. Now, a landmark publishing project is giving visual artists t