Every October, Black Fine Art Month turns a national spotlight on Black artists, galleries, and collectors, honoring a legacy of creative excellence that Pigment International has championed since founding the observance. Throughout the month, look for exhibitions, artist talks, studio visits, and collecting opportunities across Chicago and beyond, each one a chance to support working artists and deepen the public's connection to Black visual culture. Join us for the events

Top row left Ra Joy, Executive Director of BCA, artists Della Wells and Evelyn Patricia Terry, Pigment's Patricia Andrews-Keenan, curator Phoenix Brown, artist and art advocate Freida High W. Tesfagiorgis, and artist Mutópe Johnson; Works from the exhibit Building Bronzeville. Bottom row middle Brad Pruitt, Executive Director Milwaukee African American Holocaust Museum and Tina Johnson, President African American Art Alliance at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Bronzeville Center fo

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

Artist Kari Blak's work appears on the east side of the Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC) On the east garage doors of the Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC), a flower with a face is crying while a bumblebee moves to console it. It is a small gesture inside a large question, and it sits at the heart of Nature of Reality, the mural series by Chicago artist Kari Blak. Blak merged five distinct vignettes into one cohesive narrative, each addressing a different facet of the relationship betwee

Decadence Deux opened during Third Friday in Bridgeport. Top top middle: work by Eric Stephenson. Top row right: September Gray with work by Preston Sampson. Bottom row left: Marryam Moma and work by Kevin Okeith. Decadence Deux is open. September Gray Fine Art, in partnership with Pigment International, launched the second chapter of Decadence of Another Kind at the Bridgeport Art Center during the building’s Third Friday Open Studios. The exhibition brings together an inter

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

Top row middle D. Lamar Preston and Patricia Andrews-Keenan. Right - Gwen Yen Chiu and D. Lamar Preston, past Richard Hunt Award winners, in conversation with Christie's Steven Zick. Bottom row - Gwen Yen Chiu, Steven Zick of Christies and D. Lamar Preston. Middle: a maquette of Preston's work Gifted to Me. Right - Sculptor Eric Stephenson and Naomi Davis, Blacks in Green. Anniversary gala honored Richard Hunt Award winners at Theater on the Lake Chicago Sculpture Exhibit (CS

Middle row right - President of Columbia College Chicago Shantay N. Bolton. Bottom row - Reverend Wheeler Parker, Jr., foreground; background curator Sarah Elizabeth Lewis. An exhibition that imagines a life, not a loss Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago opened "If Emmett Till Lived: Freedom on American Ground" with an emotionally moving convening. The exhibition imagines the life Emmett Till might have lived had he safely returned home to Chicago,

Phyliss North, Rhonda Sewell and Patricia Andrews-Keenan during the Museum Leaders Meet & Greet at the Vjosa Café in Bridgeport during Pigment International’s exhibition Revolutionary. On Friday, August 14, Pigment International welcomed a distinguished group of museum professionals and DEI practitioners to Vjosa Café & Events in Bridgeport for an intimate meet-and-greet focused on Black art, cultural leadership and the work of building more inclusive museum spaces. Organized

The Pigment International art team - Barrett Keithley, Patricia Andrews-Keenan, Brenda Dickerson, Amorion Bell and Phyliss North; Dickerson and Fred Hampton Jr. view the mural; Barrett Keithley and Ray Thompson, whose University of Iowa number is on the basketball court at Wharton Elementary School; Dickerson and her mother Delilah and with April Kates-Ellison with the Nubian Nine an d The Lights On Collective. (photo credit Doug Kenney) A ribbon cutting at Argo Park marked

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

Edo will be in conversation with D. E. Simmons about his series C.O.L.O.U.R.S. exploring racism in animation this Friday at Vjosa Cafe. Board games, good company, and a conversation that matters — that's the lineup for Pigment International's Revolutionary Game Night on Friday, August 14, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Vjosa aCafe 1010 W. 35th Street in Bridgeport. Bring your competitive spirit for an evening of games, then settle in for a special artist talk with longtime Pigment colla

Monetta White, executive director of MoAD (bottom right) visited Chicago last week Monetta White, Executive Director of the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco, brought her vision for Black artistic economic empowerment to Chicago this summer, meeting with Pigment International and a gathering of local artists and arts leaders, including Monique Brinkman-Hill, Executive Director of the South Side Community Art Center.  White's visit centered on building na

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

The mural and pavilion refresh at Wharton Elementary in Summit's Argo Park arrives in time for the 85th Anniversary of Emmitt Till's birth. For the past six months, the Village of Summit has demonstrated what can happen when artists, residents, and community organizations come together with a shared vision. Through the Creative Placemaking Initiative, funded by Cook County Arts, local partners have worked to reimagine public spaces while placing community voices at the center

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

44th created by James Nelson. In the Land of the Free T-Shirts created by Reggie McFly honor the escaped slave Gordon, aka "Whipped Peter". Pigment International is proud to participate in the Obama Presidential Center's (OPC) Grand Opening Ceremony Official Watch Party on Thursday, June 18, at Midway Plaisance Park in Chicago's Hyde Park community. As one of a select group of local businesses, cultural organizations, and restaurants invited to be part of this historic commun

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

Call For Art and Advertisers Two hundred and fifty years. That is the span of American history this nation is marking in 2026 — and Pigment International® is marking it on our own terms. Pigment Magazine Issue VI, our Collector's Edition, arrives this August themed America 250: We ARE The People. At a moment when the contributions of Black Americans risk being minimized or erased from the national record, this issue centers Black artists as essential narrators of where this