When we think of Black fine artists, we often think of men like, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jacob Lawrence, Gordon Parks, Romare Beardon. Men who are no longer with us, but have left a lasting legacy. But what about the many Black women creating art reflective of today’s Black experience from her perspective? As a woman, I was interested in discovering woman artists whose work I could relate to. Who are some of the Black women in art that we should all know? We have rounded up a few who are out here creating, evolving and showing their work in cities near you. Their inspirations come from a range of experiences including oppression, racism, sexism and violence as well as beauty, love and innocence - like the innocence seen in the faces of our children, before the world gets to them.
Bisa Butler, 50
City/Hometown: Orange, NJ
Art or craft: Fiber Artist
Media: Butler creates colorful fabric quilts that look like paintings. They beautifully portray Black people from all walks of life, including historical figures.
Famous work: I Go To Prepare A Place For You is based upon a portrait of underground railroad conductor and abolitionist Harriet Tubman. See it at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, DC.
Collectors of their work: Tarana Burke’s memoir, Unbound, features cover art by Butler. The waiting list for her pieces, which command six figures, is years long. Her works are also part of the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in Los Angeles, CA; Pérez Art Museum Miami in Miami, Florida; The Newark Museum of Art in Newark, New Jersey; Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee
Quote: “I’m working with my hands, and it’s direct. It has a soothing property,” Butler told the New York Times.
Website: bisabutler.com
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, 46
City/Hometown: London, England with Ghanaian heritage
Art or Craft: Painter
Media: Oil on Canvas figurative portraits of fictitious people using muted colors, texture and layering.
Famous Work: A Passion Like No Other (2012), a striking portrait currently not on exhibit. It is owned by a private collector and was last shown at the Tate Museum in London in 2023.
Collectors or her work: Include museums such as the Baltimore Museum of Art, MD; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; Dallas Museum of Art, TX; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO; Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL; The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, DC; The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; Tate Collection, London, UK, to name a few.
Quote: “I work from scrapbooks, I work from images I collect, I work from life a little bit, I seek out the imagery I need. I take photos. All of that is then composed on the canvas,” Yiadom-Boakye said according to the Tate Britain art gallery.
Website: https://jackshainman.com/artists/lynette_yiadom_boakye
Amy Sherald, 50
City/Hometown: Columbus, Ga.
Art or Craft: Painter
Media: Oil on canvas. Sherald is a contemporary artist known for her intimate and imposing portraits depicting modern Black life.
Famous Work: She was chosen by former first lady Michelle Obama to paint her official portrait which hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. Sherald’s portrait of Breonna Taylor appeared on the 2020 cover of Vanity Fair.
Collectors of her work: The National Portrait Gallery, DC; The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, DC (Portrait of Breonna Taylor); The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KT and The Hauser & Wirth Gallery, London, UK.