Our Art and Artists

Aaron Douglas (b. 1899 - d. 1979) was an illustrator and visual arts instructor, who was born in Topeka, Kansas. He played important role in the Harlem Renaissance. He began his artistic career by painting murals and designing pictures that highlighted societal concerns including race and discrimination in the United States through African-centric imagery. 

Lois Mailou Jones (b. 1905 - d. 1998)'s impressionistic paintings and designs represent the experiences of black people as well as her own life in Boston, the American South, the Caribbean, and Africa. During her numerous exhibitions and 47-year teaching career at Howard University, her participation in the New Negro Movement allowed her to enhance its emphasis on the visual arts and pass on the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance to subsequent generations.

Romare Bearden (b. 1911 - d. 1988) portrayed African American culture and experience imaginatively and provocatively portrayed in his artwork. Bearden was born in North Carolina and spent the majority of his career there. He is best known for his photomontage compositions, which he created by combining torn pages from popular magazines into visually striking depictions of African American life.

Bisa Butler (b. 1973) is a modern artist who examines the historical marginalization of her subjects and uses textiles, a historically neglected material, to evoke those subjects' nuanced individuality via size and minute detail. Butler's quilts convey a broad vision of history by engaging with topics like family, community, migration, the potential of youth, and creative and intellectual legacies.

Jacob Lawrence (b. 1917 - d. -2000)  was a 20th-century painter who frequently produced series that depicted historical and modern black life scenes with gouache on paper or cardboard. He was born in New Jersey and lived in Harlem until the age of 13, but had roots in the South. His parents, along with millions of other African Americans, made the transition from the rural South to urban, industrialized cities in the Midwest and Northeast. Early works by Lawrence, which depict life in Harlem, show the abstract figures and flat primary colors that would later become his signatures.

Faith Ringgold (b. 1930) is an American artist and author from Harlem, New York, who gained notoriety for her avant-garde quilted narratives that expressed her political beliefs. Her most famous works include The Tar Beach Series and The Slave Rape Series, which touch on themes of oppression, racism, and identity. Her art has been recognized globally; she has received awards and exhibits in prestigious galleries.

Jordan Casteel (b. 1989) is a Harlem and New York-based artist who was born in Denver, Colorado.  She frequently paints close-up images of her friends, family, neighbors, and sometimes complete strangers. New York City is where Casteel resides and works. Photographs of her subjects that she took herself serve as the inspiration for her artwork. including deeper significance and representational aims in the individuals and their surroundings. Her intention is to have the audience reflect on what it means to be black in the United States today.