HARLEM: 2504 Frederick Douglass Blvd, New York, NY 10030. 646-964-5062
Calabar Gallery represents underserved artists locally and globally: African, African American and Caribbean artists, with the mission of providing a place for community, exhibition, creative initiatives and projects. It provides a venue for them to innovate, sustain, grow and expand ideas, concepts, projects and leverage opportunities by the use of our space, networks and relationships, and a distinctive location in Harlem New York City
Excited to say we have upgraded our website to include the ability to accept Flexible Payments (code word - a 3 month payment plan) and Crypto Currency (code word- that new money thing). Yes, it's time to expand our options. The world around us is shifting in many ways and more people are looking to buy art and giving them options to do so is vital so we can continue to create access.
As we head into Summer - we will be doing more Artsy Online Exclusive exhibitions of our represented artists and other special projects with artists. Yes, we finally did join Artsy - we did so to prepare for the addition of more artists and to bring new artists into that market besides participating in Art Fairs. So you will find us on https://www.artsy.net/partner/calabar-gallery
Spring has brought in more people to the gallery - more walk-ins and more tourists. New York is getting out of Covid in unusual ways. Most people are now working hybrid with 3 days in the office and 2 at home. It's a new way of being so during the week, the gallery gets lunch and break time at home workers - it's a new experience for us and we actually like it as they come back weekends to the gallery.
If you are in New York this spring - come visit us, I would love to see you. Our gallery features the work of Black artists, so please reach out to assist us do more to increase the profile of these artists. Black Artists need places like us and help us grow and strive. Buying art is one way to do so, but more ways include advocating for us, sharing us with others and telling us about other opportunities.
The Weusi Artist Collective: Black Joy and Resilience
June 18th, 2022 to July 28th, 2022 Open Wednesdays to Sundays, 12-7pm
The Weusi Artist Collective: Black Joy and Resilience at Calabar Gallery is a group exhibition that spotlights the work of some of the members of the collaborative artists’ group founded during the Black Arts Movement (1965 - 1975). Curated by Atim Annette Oton, this exhibit features twenty-eight (28) works from eleven (11) of the collective’s current members: Deborah Singletary, Dindga McCannon, Ed Sherman, Jesse Henry, Jimmy James Greene, Ken Wright, MLJ Johnson, Otto Neals, Robert Daniels, Stanwyck Cromwell, and Taiwo Duvall. Each artist, in their unique artistic authenticity, visually expresses the Black form; explores deep stories of spirituality; highlights the interconnected culture shared between African and African Diaspora people; and creatively expands on the identity of Black culture.
Dennis Owusu-Ansah and Nii Narku Thompson: GHANAIAN ARTISTS IN PORTRAITURE is curated by Atim Annette Oton and pairs the work of these two Ghanaian emerging and mid-career artists: Dennis Owusu-Ansah and Nii Narku Thompson who are based in the US and working on distinctive ways to capture the essence of people, through mediums - from paint on wood and canvas to burlap. Each artist storytelling is working on a series of personal and investigative works about the body, culture, politics, memory and race are juxtaposed to create colorful images and portraits of people.
Ghanaian Portraiture has evolving the last five years and Ghanaian artists have continued to focus on it but are redefined in in terms of political statement and using mediums innovatively “The intentional pairing of these two African artists for our Spring exhibition at Calabar Gallery is about exploring the connection of Africans working with Portraiture in the US with a global perspective using identity and process to create new work and new visual language and representation while living in the diaspora, one in New York and the other in Texas” indicated curator Atim Annette Oton. The exhibition, though modest, captures a stage in the career of these two artists ends in late May.
Dennis Owusu-Ansah is a New York-based Ghanaian artist whose pop art images are taking Instagram by storm. He is behind the Africanization of Kanye West, Chris Brown and others. By illustrating them in African clothing, he hopes that it will bring awareness to traditional culture,and allow people to start educating themselves and those around them in African culture. His series of Long Neck people is Contemporary African Art dedicated to Nana Akwasi Baafi. His new series looks at the 1990s in Ghana through people.
Nii Narku Thompson is a Ghanaian-born Texas, Dallas-based artist whose works are centered on the universal themes of religion, culture, politics, and race. Painting mostly in acrylics, his works are heavily textured and colorful, and his work can be described as abstract or surreal.
Calabar Gallery showcases contemporary African Artists and African Diaspora artists globally. Curated by Atim Annette Oton, each artist selected has work that deals with the complexities of the African experience. Based in Harlem, work featured is inspired and influenced by Black African culture globally with a focus on dynamic ideas about art and society. Calabar Gallery represents under-served artists locally and globally: African, African American and Caribbean artists, with the mission of providing a place for community, exhibition, creative initiatives and projects. The gallery opens Wednesday to Sunday from 12 to 7pm.
Adeline Gregoire (B. 1981) is a visual Artist from Trinidad & Tobago. Her artistic and curatorial practice explores themes of memory and decoloniality, as well as the varied and alternate narratives of Caribbean, BIPOC and postcolonial societies. Her most recent work investigates the idea of “Island DNA” or the way in which landscape – a complex accumulation of geographical, historical, and multiple elements – continues to inform and shape the lived realities of the people who inhabit these spaces. Adeline Gregoire is the Editor of CULTUREGO (2013) a cultural platform which highlights creatives from Trinidad and Tobago across the Caribbean and is the Founder of HOT SUN Caribbean Contemporary Art (2021).
SISTERHOOD: BLACK WOMEN ARTISTS AT CALABAR GALLERY
A COLLECTION OF WORK HONORING THE MEMORY OF MARGARET ROSE VENDRYES
In Memory of Margaret Rose Vendryes, I decided to honor the Sisterhood of Black Artistsshe supported through the her life in art. In talking to her wife, the importance of keeping her work and spirit of joy, sisterhood, community and mentorship was vital and one way was to gather and present work for sale by Black Women Artists on our website for the month of April. As a gallery, just like Margaret, we are constantly reaching out to artists especially the work of Black Women Artists to place their work through all our exhibitions, auctions and for our participation at art fairs. In reviewing our website of 20 pages, our curatorial choices celebrate their work, their techniques and stories they tell. Please join us beginning this week to celebrate women and the life of Margaret Rose Vendryes. We were intentional of not doing this as part of women’s history month. We wanted to honor the present, today, and the future Black Women Artists we work with. You can help our online and email event by buying a piece today. Please Help us advocate for the growth and support of the work of Black women artists.
Margaret Rose Vendryes was 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 that 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 was Professor of Art History, Performing and Fine Arts and Director of the Fine Arts Gallery at York College, City University of New York.
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