Eve Sandler is an American painter, filmmaker and multi-media artist in the style of Abstract Expressionism. [1] Sandler, born in Harlem, is the daughter of Harlem-based painter Alvin Sandler and sister of filmmaker Kathe Sandler.
The artist began her professional career at the age of seventeen, first working with jewelry and metals before turning to relief painting in the 1990s. [2]
Sandler's multimedia installation "Mami Wata Crossing" was part of the 2008 exhibition, "Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas" at the Fowler Museum. [3] The work examined connections between the pan-African water goddess Mami Wata, genealogy and the middle passage.
Sandler was a part of the Black Women Artists group, along with Carole Byard, Nanette Carter and Howardena Pindell. [4] Sandler was a 1990-1991 resident at the Studio Museum in Harlem. [5] Her work has been exhibited in institutions such as The Bronx Museum of the Arts. [6]
Charles Henry Alston was an American painter, sculptor, illustrator, muralist and teacher who lived and worked in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem. Alston was active in the Harlem Renaissance; Alston was the first African-American supervisor for the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. Alston designed and painted murals at the Harlem Hospital and the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Building. In 1990, Alston's bust of Martin Luther King Jr. became the first image of an African American displayed at the White House.
African-American art is a broad term describing visual art created by African Americans. The range of art they have created, and are continuing to create, over more than two centuries is as varied as the artists themselves. Some have drawn on cultural traditions in Africa, and other parts of the world, for inspiration. Others have found inspiration in traditional African-American plastic art forms, including basket weaving, pottery, quilting, woodcarving and painting, all of which are sometimes classified as "handicrafts" or "folk art".
Lois Mailou Jones (1905–1998) was an artist and educator. Her work can be found in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Muscarelle Museum of Art, and The Phillips Collection. She is often associated with the Harlem Renaissance.
Mami Wata is a water spirit venerated in West, Central, and Southern Africa and in the Afro-American diaspora. Mami Wata spirits are usually female but are sometimes male.
Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller was an African-American artist who celebrated Afrocentric themes. At the fore of the Harlem Renaissance, Warrick was known for being a poet, painter, theater designer, and sculptor of the black American experience. At the turn of the 20th century, she achieved a reputation as the first black woman sculptor and was a well-known sculptor in Paris before returning to the United States. Warrick was a protégée of Auguste Rodin, and has been described as "one of the most imaginative Black artists of her generation." Through adopting a horror-based figural style and choosing to depict events of racial injustice, like the lynching of Mary Turner, Warrick used her platform to address the societal traumas of African Americans.
Alison Saar is a Los Angeles, California based sculptor, mixed-media, and installation artist. Her artwork focuses on the African diaspora and black female identity and is influenced by African, Caribbean, and Latin American folk art and spirituality. Saar is well known for "transforming found objects to reflect themes of cultural and social identity, history, and religion."
Lorna Simpson is an American photographer and multimedia artist whose works have been exhibited both nationally and internationally. In 1990, she became the first African-American woman to exhibit at the Venice Biennale. She came to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s with photo-text installations such as Guarded Conditions and Square Deal that questioned the nature of identity, gender, race, history and representation. Simpson continues to explore these themes in relation to memory and history using photography, film, video, painting, drawing, audio, and sculpture.
William T. Williams is an American painter and educator. He is known for his process-based approach to painting that engages motifs drawn from personal memory and cultural narrative to create non-referential, abstract compositions. He was a Professor of Art at Brooklyn College, City University of New York from 1971 to 2008.
Betty Blayton was an American activist, advocate, artist, arts administrator and educator, and lecturer. As an artist, Blayton was an illustrator, painter, printmaker, and sculptor. She is best known for her works often described as "spiritual abstractions". Blayton was a founding member of the Studio Museum in Harlem and board secretary, co-founder and executive director of Harlem Children's Art Carnival (CAC), and a co-founder of Harlem Textile Works. She was also an advisor, consultant and board member to a variety of other arts and community-based service organizations and programs. Her abstract methods created a space for the viewer to insert themselves into the piece, allowing for self reflection, a central aspect of Blayton's work.
Valerie Jean Maynard was an American sculptor, teacher, printmaker, and designer. Maynard's work frequently addressed themes of social inequality and the civil rights movement.
Joseph Kossivi Ahiator is an African politician and Ghanaian artist known for his temple mural paintings in Bénin, Ghana, and Togo. He is a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and a former Member of Parliament for the Ketu South Constituency in the Volta Region of Ghana.
Kathe Sandler is a filmmaker. She won a 1996 Guggenheim Award and two Prized Pieces Awards from the National Black Programming Consortium. She also received two fellowships from New York Foundation for the Arts for filmmaking.
John Woodrow Wilson (1922–2015) was an American lithographer, sculptor, painter, muralist, and art teacher whose art was driven by the political climate of his time. Wilson was best known for his works portraying themes of social justice and equality.
Ato Malinda, also known as Alex Mawimbi is a multidisciplinary performance artist.
Janet Henry is a visual artist based in New York City.
Stephanie Elaine Pogue (1944–2002) was an American professor, printmaker, artist, and curator. Her artistic interests included the portrayal of women and the human figure.
Carole Marie Byard was an American visual artist, illustrator, and photographer. She was an award-winning illustrator of children's books, and the recipient of a Caldecott Honor, as well as multiple Coretta Scott King Awards.
Evelyn Alcide is a Haitian drapo Vodou artist. Alcide studied under compatriot Myrlande Constant. Alcide often focuses her work on important Vodou religious figures. Her drapo are heavily beaded and have satin borders. Two of her flags depicting Lasirène were included in Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas a traveling exhibition originated at the Fowler Museum at UCLA that travelled to several venues including National Museum of African Art.
Elizabeth Colomba is a French painter of Martinique heritage known for her paintings of black people in historic settings. Her work has been shown at the Gracie Mansion, the Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, the Musée d'Orsay, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
William "Bill" Lowell Howell was a graphic designer, painter, illustrator, set designer and photographer. He was an early member of the Weusi Artist Collective, a group of artists who helped birth the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s. He was art director for The New Lafayette Theatre in New York and its Black Theater magazine. He co-founded the Pamoja Studio Gallery in New York in 1967.