Candace Hunter's Intentionality opens September 24th The Dan Ryan Expressway carries Chicagoans across the city every day. For artist Candace Hunter, it also marks a rupture. On September 24, Hunter opens Intentionality 1960, Whose Dreams?, an exhibition that asks viewers to look past the familiar story of urban development and confront the communities erased to make it possible. The project begins with a number: 50,831. It represents the estimated number of African Americans

From top row middle - Artists Howard Simmons, Candace Hunter, Edo, Salome Jaffe and Jesse Howard. The inaugural fair opens at THE MART, October 7–10 Pigment International will exhibit at the first-ever Spectrum Chicago Show, October 7–10 at THE MART (formerly the Merchandise Mart) — a new fair joining Chicago's fall art calendar with an opening night preview and three days of public programming. Pigment's presentation features five artists, listed alphabetically: Edo, Jesse H

Above: Norman Teague in conversation with Pigment International will be one of the featured artists at this year's Butter Art Fair; Bottom row: Bianca Marks will be a curator for Butter. Middle and right, Truss Chair and Ibaaka AKA Mule by Norman Teague Design Studios. (Teague image by Big_X_Tsu. Furniture images courtesy of Norman Teague Design Studio) Guest curator Bianca Marks helps shape an expanded Labor Day weekend fair in Indianapolis, as Teague's full profile debuts i

Seminal artist Betye Saar Betye Saar, the artist who turned cigar boxes, washboards, and family heirlooms into some of the most incisive statements in American art, died July 26 in her Laurel Canyon home, four days shy of her 100th birthday. For seven decades, Saar was assemblage's most fearless practitioner. She did not simply collect discarded objects; she indicted them. Her 1972 work The Liberation of Aunt Jemima seized a servile stereotype and armed it with a rifle and a

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

The Reluctant Ribbon Merchant by Jesse Howard and Patrice Lumumba by Candace Hunter are works in Revolutionary opening July 17th at Vjosa Cafe and Events. Pigment International opens REVOLUNTARY, a bold new group exhibition on July 17 at Vjosa Cafe and Events, 1010 W. 35th Street in Bridgeport. The show runs through August 15th REVOLUNTARY is an extension of Pigment’s February 2026 exhibition Glory! Glory!, which drew national attention for its exploration of the American fl

Blooming Through It by Ingrid Mathurin and bottom work by Alexandria Eregbu. The Art of Blackness at Block 37 is a celebrated exhibition platform that continues its mission of amplifying Black artists while creating space for dialogue around identity, history, and the future. Curated by LaShun Tines, Justin Dwaun Redding, and Anefertiti Bowman, this year's exhibition asks audiences to consider what emerges when truth is honored, memory is preserved, and imagination is embrace

Top left: The Musicians by Loïs Mailou Jones and right God Help America by Maria-Lana Queen. Bottom left Serve and Protect by Kim Rice and Blk Study Apparatus by Nnaemeka (Emeka) Ekwelum. Photos courtesy of Knowhere Art Gallery and the participating artists. This summer, Knowhere Art Gallery on Martha's Vineyard presents two compelling exhibitions that examine Black history, artistic lineage, and the tensions that continue to shape American life. Located in the heart of Oak B

Work by Jamele Wright, Sr., Preston Sampson, and Gabrielle Torres will be featured in What the Eye Beholds. Curator September Gray brings a landmark group exhibition to Chicago, exploring perception, memory, and the human experience What the Eye Beholds is a compelling group exhibition presented by Atlanta based September Gray Fine Art Gallery opens in Chicago in July. Curated by September Gray, the show brings together seven visionary contemporary artists whose work interrog

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

When Dr. Kelli Morgan returned to Detroit in 2023 to look after aging family members, she didn't come back to build an empire. She came back to sit down and breathe. What happened instead was the founding of the Black Artists Archive and its groundbreaking learning center, the Black Curatorial Institute — an online platform that has quietly grown into one of the most radical and rigorously structured professional development programs in the arts sector today. In a May 2026 co

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

An artist's depiction of the sewing of the Star Spangled Banner. Grace Wisher is one of the girls in the upper right. Before the Star-Spangled Banner became America's most recognizable symbol, a ten-year-old free Black girl named Grace Wisher helped stitch it into existence. Apprenticed to Baltimore flag-maker Mary Pickersgill around 1810, Grace spent six weeks sewing the flag that would later inspire Francis Scott Key to write the national anthem. When the story was told, ho

Transcend by Salome Jaffe, 18" X 24" (2026) Artist Salome Jaffe enters a new phase of public engagement with her participation in The People’s Artist Award, an initiative led by Johnny Depp in collaboration with The Art of Elysium and Artforum. Distinct from traditional juried competitions, the award is determined entirely by public vote, positioning audience mobilization as the decisive factor in an artist’s advancement. Jaffe’s work stands apart for its materially driven pr

Top left - Patricia Andrews-Keenan, Pigment International, Claire Rice, Executive Director Arts Alliance Illinois, Nora Daley, Board Chair Illinois Arts Council, Vicki Heyman, Board Member Illinois Arts Council, Joshua Davis-Ruptero ED Illinois Arts Council. Top Middle - Antoinette Simmons, the Urban Ark Media Arts Center, State Representative Kimberly du Buclet, Middle Row Jen Tremblay Chambers, and Alison Cochran, Hyde Park Art Center, Middle Right - Erin Eveland, The Hub,

Pigment Int'l partners with European Cultural Centre (ECC) and plans updates on the exhibition featuring Big Chief Melancon's at the Biennale. Pigment International is proud to announce its return as media partner to the European Cultural Center for Personal Structures, the celebrated parallel program presented during the Venice Biennale. This marks Pigment's second editorial partnership with ECC. Additionally, Pigment plans to share updates on Big Chief Demond Melancon’s par

Agility to Surrender, rebuilt 2026, 34 ¼ X 26 1/8” 14K gold drawing Goldpoint on Indigo by D. Lammie-Hanson Knowhere Gallery's EXPO Chicago presentation yields a landmark acquisition for the Muskegon Museum of Art A luminous work by D. Lammie-Hanson is making its permanent home in a distinguished private collection — and with it, carrying forward a commitment to elevating the voices of women-identifying artists working in figurative realism. Agility to Surrender, a 14K gold d