JOIN US FOR AN ART TALK WITH MARGARET VENDRYES WITH HOLLIS KING ABOUT THE AFRICAN DIVA PROJECT
CALABAR GALLERY HARLEM: 2504 Frederick Douglass Blvd, New York, NY 10030. 646-964-5062 Website:Calabar Gallery and Instagram page (please follow us here too).
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Welcome to CALABAR GALLERY. We showcase contemporary African Artists and African Diaspora artists globally. Based in Harlem, work featured is inspired and influenced by Black African culture globally with a focus on dynamic ideas about art and society.
I have a very simple mantra and it's this: I want to make black cinema with the power, beauty, and alienation of black music. That's my big goal. The larger preoccupation is how do we force cinema to respond to the existential, political, and spiritual dimensions of who we are as a people. - Arthur Jaffa
The Summer is almost here. It's time to do some more art sales before the July 4th weekend when I head to Sante Fe to open the Calabar Gallery Outpost. In the gallery, working on the next exhibition has been intense - the work selection collectively will bring together young artists whose work needs to be seen and also other artists who need to show in New York.
Black Artists need buyers like you to buy on a regular basis. All their funding streams, jobs and gigs have disappeared because of Covid-19. After July 4 weekend, we will begin to send out to our Black Women Collectors - special deals on the work of some of our artists. We have signed on 5 to represent but work with about 30 others that we have strategic agreements with. If you are interested in receiving this special email us, then send us a note at info@calabargallery.com. We believe that you will like others who have signed on appreciate what we have to say about where we see some of these artists going.
Online on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube - we are doing Local, Regional and Global ways of being engaged, so join us. As always, I urge you to take a look at our sale page today.
Be healthy, safe and spread the word about our gallery.
Atim
Atim Annette Oton
Curator and Gallery Director
ART TALK: MARGARET ROSE VENDRYES
WITH HOLLIS KING AT JUNE 26, 2PM,
ONSITE & VIRTUAL
PARTICIPANTS:
Margaret Rose Vendryes is an art historian, visual artist, and curator. She received her BA in fine arts from Amherst College, MA in art history from Tulane University, and Ph.D. in art history from Princeton University. Among several honors, Vendryes was an American Association of University Women Fellow and a Scholar-in-Residence at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. In 2008, University Press of Mississippi published Vendryes’ book Barthé, A Life in Sculpture, the first comprehensive monograph on the late African American sculptor Richmond Barthé. The African Diva Project, a multimedia body of work reveals Vendryes’ engagement with African art and aesthetics and its intersection with Black celebrities and visual culture. The Project began in 2005 and has grown to over 75 works of art including paintings on canvas and paper, digital compositions, collage, interactive installation, and outdoor art exhibitions. Vendryes is currently Professor of Art History, Performing and Fine Arts and Director of the Fine Arts Gallery at York College, City University of New York.
Hollis King is the Creative Director of the Billie (Holiday Theater) in Brooklyn and the former vice-president and creative director at the Verve Music Group the largest jazz record label in the world. He studied advertising and design at New York City Community College and later transferred to School of Visual Art where he studied with legendary artist Milton Glaser. King worked at several design studios before entering the music industry, as a graphic designer at GRP records, later becoming creative director. He then joined the Verve Music Group, a division of Universal Music Company, and worked with some of the greatest musicians of all times. King has received numerous achievement awards and citations as well as five Grammy Nominations
CURRENTLY IN THE GALLERY:
MARGARET ROSE VENDRYES:
THE AFRICAN DIVA PROJECT
A SOLO EXHIBITION
curated by Atim Annette Oton
"The African Diva Project is a painting & mixed media series that began in 2005 and has grown to over 75 works of art that include public, interactive, and social practice exhibitions. Informed by my scholarly interest in, and collection of, African arts, I see clearly the ancestral legacy of Africa retained in popular Black music and visual culture over the centuries since Africans were taken from their homeland. I also animate my African Divas with words so that encounters with my paintings, which represent extraordinary Black talent and resilience, will inspire remembrances of, and admiration for, the gifts they have shared with us all."
Margaret Rose Vendryes is an art historian, visual artist, and curator. She received her BA in fine arts from Amherst College, MA in art history from Tulane University, and Ph.D. in art history from Princeton University. Among several honors, Vendryes was an American Association of University Women Fellow and a Scholar-in-Residence at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. In 2008, University Press of Mississippi published Vendryes’ book Barthé, A Life in Sculpture, the first comprehensive monograph on the late African American sculptor Richmond Barthé. The African Diva Project, a multimedia body of work reveals Vendryes’ engagement with African art and aesthetics and its intersection with Black celebrities and visual culture. The Project began in 2005 and has grown to over 75 works of art including paintings on canvas and paper, digital compositions, collage, interactive installation, and outdoor art exhibitions. Vendryes is currently Professor of Art History, Performing and Fine Arts and Director of the Fine Arts Gallery at York College, City University of New York.
BLACK ARTISTS IN THEIR OWN REALM:
IDEAS, MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES
curated by Atim Annette Oton
Black Artists in their Own Realm: Ideas, Materials and Techniques is an exhibition focused on exploring what ways Black Artists globally are working ideas from concept to processing, using materials and techniques to evolve artwork. The exhibition will showcase a group of African, Caribbean and African American Artists whose work dig deep into ideas, materials and technique innovatively and philosophically.
Above are the first pieces we are previewing from this exhibition, please email us at info@calabargallery.com for all the details if you are interested in these two photographs.
AND if you are Interested in receiving a pdf of all the work to preview by July 25, please email us at info@calabargallery.com
CALL FOR BLACK ART!!! AMREF HEALTH AFRICA ARTBALL, FALL 2021, NEW YORK CITY
Seeking Contemporary Black art work for the 2021 Amref Health Africa ArtBall, a premier contemporary African art auction and philanthropic event the will happen in the Fall of 2021 in New York City. Artists Wangechi Mutu, El Anatsui, Toyin Odutola and Zanele Muholi were honored with the Rees Visionary Award over the last 4 years respectively. The Amref Health Africa ArtBall is a premier contemporary African art auction and philanthropic event being held Fall 2021. The event will consist of a silent auction which will launch online on Artsy two weeks prior to the event, a special live auction, an award ceremony, entertainment, and food and open bar. The 2021 Amref Health Africa Artball Planning Session has begun. The curator, Atim Annette Oton is currently soliciting African and African Descendant Artists interested in donating artwork and art pieces in search of 30 African and African Descendant Artists for the Art Auction.
Calabar Gallery's first Arts Residency targeting BLACK ARTISTS IN BROOKLYN AND HARLEM, NEW YORK. CALABAR GALLERY ARTS RESIDENCY at BKLYN COMMONS, a 3 month residency, is now open and accepting applications - details are here.
