15 Must-See Black Art Exhibitions This Winter

By Okla Jones· Updated December 18, 2022

During these trying times, art has served as a sense of solace for many of us. For the creator, the act of painting or sculpting is therapeutic, and is a way to express emotions in a healthier, more productive way. In terms of the viewer, these portraits can evoke a powerful memory, or a life-changing experience – be it positive or negative. Throughout history, people of color have been persecuted, oppressed, and disenfranchised; which shows up in how many Black artists create.

While the winter brings cold weather, it also brings some of the best art that the world has to offer. The Smithsonian will be the site of Deconstructing Power: W.E.B. at the 1900 World Fair, and in California, viewers can see an expansive visual account of the African Diaspora from ove 130 artists. Nicolas Coleman, Rodney McMillan, Theaster Gates, and many others will all be featured in top-tier exhibitions in the coming months.

Take a look at our list of the must-see art exhibitions for Black artists on display this winter.

01Nicolas Coleman: Moretto (Through 1/7/23)Steve Turner presents Moretto, a solo exhibition by Nicolas Coleman that features a series of self-portraits in which Coleman depicts himself as various Venetian characters. For more information, visit this website. 02Rodney McMillian: Regarding Violence (Through 1/7/23)Petzel presents Regarding Violence, an exhibition of recent works by Los Angeles-based artist Rodney McMillian, which will reflect the artist’s ongoing interest in teasing apart the political conditions that continue to enable systems of inequity. For more information, visit this website. 03Angel Otero: Swimming Where Time Was (Through 12/23/22)Angel Otero presents his first major solo exhibition with Hauser & Wirth, ‘Swimming Where Time Was.’ Located on the 5th floor of the gallery, this new body of work signifies a transition in the artist’s career, revealing a new sensibility that has emerged over the last few years. For more information, visit this website. Angel Otero, Mi Acuario, 2022. Oil paint and oil paint skins collaged on canvas, 95 x 142 x 1 1/2 inches.© Angel Otero. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Thomas Barratt. 04We Contain Multitudes (Through 1/15/23)Montague Contemporary presents a new group exhibition in partnership with NYC Culture Club, curated by Laura Day Webb, We Contain Multitudes, featuring works by seven international women artists of color Jessica Atieno, Prudence Chimutuwah, Angèle Etoundi Essamba, Muna Malik, Zina Saro-Wiwa, Florence Wangui, and Beatrice Wanjiku. For more information, visit this website. 05The New Bend (Through 12/30)Curated by Legacy Russell, The New Bend travels from the gallery’s New York location to Los Angeles, bringing together 13 contemporary artists which include Anthony Akinbola, Eddie R. Aparicio, Dawn Williams Boyd, Myrlande Constant, Ferren Gipson, Tomashi Jackson, Basil Kincaid, Eric N. Mack, Sojourner Truth Parsons, Tuesday Smillie, Rachel Eulena Williams, Qualeasha Wood, and Zadie Xa. For more information, visit this website. 06Theaster Gates: Vestment (Through 12/23)Vestment, a new series of tar paintings by Gates, “he diverges from earlier monochromatic torch works and experiments with color as a formal device for exploring spiritual and stylistic hierarchies, religious garments and aggrandizement, and the symbolism and universalism of nationhood.” For more information, visit this website. 07Deconstructing Power: W.E.B. DuBois at the 1900 World’s Fair (Through 5/29/23)On loan from the Library of Congress, this graphics series is displayed for the first time in context with manufacturers, decorative arts, and diesing objects featured at the 1900 Paris World Fair. For more information, visit this website. 08Afro-Atlantic Histories (Through 9/10/23)An expansive visual account of the African Diaspora, Afro-Atlantic Histories explores the histories, cultures, and experiences of Black people of African descent, across five centuries dating from the 17th century to the present. More than 130 works of art by artist from Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the Americas. For more information, visit this website. 09Visions in Black 2023 (2/2/23 – 2/25/23)Visions in Black is a juried art exhibition celebrating the talents and love of the arts by showcasing artists of African descent who reside in the State of Florida.The Suncoast Black Arts Collaborative is pleased to announce a new exhibition concept representing Sarasota and Manatee Counties. We are extending our reach to Tampa and St. Petersburg, identifying talented visual artists. The exhibition concept provides more opportunities for artists of color. 10Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe (Through 1/1/23)Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe celebrates a preeminent and under-recognized figure of twentieth-century American art, contextualizing Rowe’s practice as a radical act of self-expression and liberation for a Black woman artist living and working in the American South. For more information, visit this website. 11New Work: Toyin Ojih Odutola (Through 1/22/23)Best known for drawings that use distinctively layered mark-making to highlight topographies of skin and surface, Toyin Ojih Odutola is a storyteller who often presents her work in sprawling narrative cycles. For her New Work exhibition, Ojih Odutola takes inspiration from the speculative fiction of Octavia E. Butler and the poetry of Dionne Brand. For more information, visit this website. Toyin Ojih Odutola, Another Dawn Breaks, 2021; © Toyin Ojih Odutola. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New YorkToyin Ojih Odutola, Your Face is a Love Letter (Adeseun), 2021-22; © Toyin Ojih Odutola; courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New YorkToyin Ojih Odutola, Local News, 2021; © Toyin Ojih Odutola; courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New YorkToyin Ojih Odutola, Groundless II, 2021-22; © Toyin Ojih Odutola; courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainm 12Bámigbóyè: A Master Sculptor of the Yorùbá Tradition (Through 1/8/23)Bámigbóyè: A Master Sculptor of the Yorùbá Tradition is the first exhibition dedicated to the workshop of the Nigerian artist Moshood Olúṣọmọ Bámigbóyè (ca. 1885–1975). Part of a generation of Yorùbá woodcarvers with flourishing workshops in southwestern Nigeria, Bámigbóyè was highly regarded for the masks that he made in the 1920s and 1930s for ceremonies called Ẹpa. For more information, visit this website. BÁMIGBÓYÈ, Diviner’s Bag (Àpò Ifá) (Detail), late 19th–early 20th century cCloth and glass beads, Gift of Carol B. and Jerome P. Kenney 2022. Courtesy of Yale University Art Gallery 13Garrett Bradley: American Rhapsody (Through 2/19/23)Garrett Bradley: American Rhapsody is the first solo museum presentation of the work of Los Angeles- and New Orleans-based artist and filmmaker Garrett Bradley. Bradley works across narrative, documentary, and experimental modes of filmmaking to address themes such as race, class, familial relationships, social justice, southern culture, and the history of film in the United States. For more information, visit this website. Garrett Bradley, America (still), 2019. Multi-channel video installation; 35mm film transferred to video: black and white, sound, 23:55 minutes. Image and work courtesy the artist and Lisson Gallery. 14The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse (Through 2/5/23)The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse, explores the aesthetic legacies and traditions of Black Culture in the African American South as seen through the lens of contemporary Black musical expression. For more information, visit this website. El Franco Lee, II, DJ Screw in Heaven 2, 2016. Neon bulb and single-channel audio, 3:04 minutes, 60 x 60 inches. Image and work courtesy the artist. 15Thaddeus Mosley: Forest (Through 1/21/23)Using fallen trees found in Pittsburgh, where he lives and works, Mosley employs hand tools to carve abstract wooden forms that intricately notch and wedge into each other. For more information, visit this website. Thaddeus Mosley, “Opposing Parallels.” TOPICS:  black art W.E.B. DuBois

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