In honor of Civil Rights Leader and Human Rights Activist, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, we are highlighting Black and Brown artists who continue to honor his legacy of social justice.
Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. His vision of equality and equal rights for all people made him a major leader in the Civil Rights Movement. Alongside his wife, Coretta Scott King, and his countless supporters and fellow activists, he implemented peaceful protest methods, advocated relentlessly for social change, and preached love and understanding across race and culture through non-violence.
Some of King’s notable accomplishments include inspiring the desegregation of public buses via the Montgomery Bus Boycott (from Dec. 1955 – Dec. 1956), leading the March on Washington (which motivated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and later, the 1965 Voting Rights Act), and intensifying the Civil Rights Movement with his “I have a dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial. He was also deemed Time Magazine’s “Man of The Year” in 1963 (a first for Black Americans) and was the youngest recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
King’s quest for social justice and reform is still prevalent today.
Issues such as lack of representation, diversity and inclusion, and unlawful violence towards Black and POC communities are still pervading problems in American society. However, activists, artists, and ordinary citizens continue to utilize King’s methods to inspire change. The creative world in particular is one of many spaces where Black, Indigenous, and People of Color are using the power of imagery to create and continue dialogue surrounding race, culture, and the Black experience.
Today on MLK’s birthday we are highlighting Black and Brown Artists whose work (directly and implicitly) strives to continue King’s legacy of racial equality, representation, and love. Using various mediums, each artist calls attention to the fractured societal constructs still impacting the world today. They also celebrate and spread joy, shining light on under-represented communities and cultures that deserve to be in the spotlight.
We hope this list leaves you feeling inspired, empowered, and hopeful for a better world. A world Martin Luther King Jr. himself would be proud of.
#1. Hank Willis Thomas
Love is such a powerful force. It’s there for everyone to embrace—that kind of unconditional love for all of humankind.”
– Coretta Scott King
- Artwork: “The Embrace”
- Date of reveal: Friday, January 13, 2023
- Location: Boston Common (Boston, MA)
- Medium/Description: 22-foot bronze statue of two sets of arms embracing, the arms of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King
On the site of where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech on April 23, 1965… we officially unveiled “The Embrace,” my new sculpture depicting King’s hug with his wife, Coretta Scott King, after he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. This work is a reminder that each of us has in us the capacity to be either of those two people or actually something inspired by and more influential.”
– Hank Willis Thomas
#2. Deborah Roberts
- Title of exhibition: True Believers: Benny Andrews & Deborah Roberts
- Location: The McNay (San Antonio, Texas)
- On view: October 6, 2022 – February 5, 2023
- Medium/Description: Mixed-media & collage; based on archival portraits of prolific artist, social justice activist, and dedicated educator, Benny Andrews (b. 1930, d. 2006) and other works calling attention to the ways in which society values certain notions of childhood, beauty, and identity.
This is one of my bucket list of exhibitions I imagined when I was an artist working my way through the art world. Benny Andrews is a personal hero of mine, I’m extremely proud to have my work exhibited beside his.”
– Deborah Roberts
#3. Jennifer Packer
- Exhibition: Jennifer Packer: The Eye Is Not Satisfied With Seeing
- Location: Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY)
- On view: October 30, 2021 – April 17, 2022
- Medium/Description: Paintings & drawings
I used to say that I don’t trust representation. I’ve never seen a painting that looked real to me. But I’ve seen ones that felt real.”
– Jennifer Packer
#4. Kehinde Wiley
- Artwork(s): “Portrait of Najee Hall II,” 2022 | “Portrait of Jorge Gitoo Wright,” 2022
- Location: Sean Kelly Gallery (New York, NY)
- Medium/Description: Large-scale oil paintings in the style of the Old Masters and Renaissance era that places subjects (often Black and Brown young men) in positions of power and regality.
There’s something glorious about the portraits that you see of aristocrats and royal families. Something beautiful in those expansive imperialist landscapes.” But there’s a dead end. Such paintings, from the baroque, rococo, renaissance and Dutch golden age eras, are ultimately displays of European power, wealth, and beauty. “What I wanted to do was to take the good parts, the parts that I love, and fertilize them with things that I know to be beautiful – people who happen to look like me.”
– Excerpt from Kehinde Wiley’s interview with Kadish Morris for The Guardian (Nov. 2021).
#5. Amoako Boafo
- Location(s): Based in Vienna, Austria & Accra, Ghana
- Represented by: The Roberts Project (Los Angeles, CA)
- Medium/Description: Drawings & paintings (mostly portraits) that capture the complex dualities of the Black experience across the African and African-American diaspora with bold colors and textures.
- Fun fact: He finger-paints the skin of his subjects as a means of connection.
Collaboration with Dior
Amoako Boafo is the first African Artist to collaborate with the French Fashion House, Dior, and inspired their Summer 2021 Men’s Campaign.
#6. Amy Sherald
- Artwork(s): “For Love and For Country” & “Deliverance”
- Exhibition: The World We Make
- Location: Hauser & Wirth (Manaco)
- On view: January 25 – April 15, 2023
- Medium/Description: Oil on linen; portraits showing Black Americans at leisure against color-block backgrounds exploring deeper meanings surrounding race, gender, and identity. She paints her subject’s skin tones in grisaille (in grayscale/an absence of color) that directly challenges perceptions of Black identity.
- Fun Fact: First African American ever to receive a presidential portrait commission from First Lady, Michelle Obama, in 2018.
‘The World We Make,’ is a meditation on, as Sherald says, the fact that ‘as we walk beyond what we have been living through, we have a world to remake,’ a message that at once contains hope, while suggesting there is work to be done.”
– Amy Sherald (Excerpt from Hauser & Wirth Manaco Press Release, 2023)
The tractor and motorbike paintings explore different expressions of self-sovereignty in our communities, and how these expressions might carry into the future. Vehicles become a literal metaphor here for forward momentum, for movement and potential movement.”
– Amy Sherald (Excerpt from Hauser & Wirth Manaco Press Release, 2023)
#7. Spriha Gupta
- Artwork: “Freedom”
- Exhibition: Art Against Racism: Manifesting Beloved Community Art
- About: Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Beloved Community” represents a global vision where all people share in the wealth of a healed planet. Learn more about Art Against Racism’s mission here.
- Location: West Windsor Arts Council (West Windsor, NJ)
- Medium/Description: Mixed media on canvas, working with textures, shapes, and vibrant colors in abstract spaces.
She feels man made walls and barriers created through caste, creed and race need to be eliminated and people should be able to coexist just like her colors that flow freely on the canvas. Humans are not islands, they need each other for love, support and most of all living a life enriched by culture, diversity and respect, one that would only come through living in a community. The piece celebrates life and freedom, the very basis on which America is built.”
– Spriha Gupta (Excerpt from Manifesting Beloved Community Art)
#8. Tschabalala Self
- Artwork: “Red Room” (2022)
- Exhibition: Home Body
- Location: Pilar Corrias Gallery (London, UK)
- Medium/Description: Mixed media (painting, printmaking, collage, sewing, assemblage, sculpture, etc.) investigating notions of the Black female form in society. Home Body explores these figures in a domestic space.
The work is politicized because it’s politicized; politicized bodies are featured in the work. I’m a political person because if I wasn’t a political person, that would affect my safety and well-being in the country. But that’s not why I’m making the work. I’m making the work to leave a document of my experience, leave a document of the experience of people who are like me.”
– Tschabalala Self
Multiplicity and possibility are essential to my practice and general philosophy. My subjects are fully aware of their conspicuousness and are unmoved by the viewer. Their role is not to show, explain, or perform but rather “to be.” In being, their presence is acknowledged and their significance felt. My project is committed to this exchange, for my own edification and for the edification of those who resemble me.”
– Tschabalala Self
#9. Miles Regis
- Artwork(s): “Intimacy” (2018) & “America” (2020)
- Medium/Description: Mixed media paintings on canvas; often working with abstracted figures, bright colors, and unique textures, he isn’t afraid to go bold or get political. He is an avid activist against violence against Black communities and an advocate of social/political change.
- Fun fact: A common motif in his work is eyes, which encourage the viewer to look deeper into the message behind each piece.
Aggressively hopeful and humanistic, Regis embraces a storytelling stance in his stylized renditions of fundamental scenes of love, loss, freedom, survival, activism, and living history.”
– Excerpt from Regis’s Bio
“There’s a lot to be angry about,” Miles says. “I’m not gonna apologize for expressing my truth. At the end of the day, that’s what an artist needs to do.”
– Miles Regis (Excerpt from Interview for Grotto)
#10. Wardell Milan
- Artwork: “5 Indices on a Tortured Body” (2022)
- Client/Commission: Public Works Project for Pomona College
- Location: Pomona Museum (Claremont, CA)
- Medium/Description: Visual Artist working with various mediums including photography, drawing, painting, and collage to explore themes of race, sexuality, and the marginalized body within society.
His most recent series, Parisian Landscapes, explores the duality between marginalization and freedom of expression, imagining places where the marginalized body is able to express itself and move about the world freely.”
– Excerpt from Wardell Milan’s Biography
Looking for more on Martin Luther King’s life & legacy?
Click here.
Sources:
- “10 Major Accomplishments of Martin Luther King Jr.” by Anirudh (July 5, 2014).
- “Artist Kehinde Wiley: ‘The new work is about what it feels like to be young, Black and alive in the 21st century,” by Kadish Morris for The Guardian (November 21, 2021).
- Press Release/Exhibition Overview of Amy Sherald’s Exhibition, The World We Make, in Monaco | Hauser & Wirth Gallery
- Manifesting Beloved Community Gallery (2023) by Art Against Racism
I love her art, I gave everything just to see them live, it’s a pity now I’m far from the venue of the exhibitions! I hope my dream comes true