Presented below is a list of galleries in the United Stated found or run (partially or entirely by Black gallerist. These art spaces have done much to represent and launch the careers of artist who may otherwise have been ignored. This is by no means an exhaustive list. Check artdictionmagazine.com/exhibits for updates.
Arkansas
Hearne Fine Art
hearnefineart.com
@hearnefineart
Since 1988 this wife-and-husband duo, Garbo and Archie Hearne, have brought greater visibility to the work of African American artists in Arkansas. Their has hosted countless exhibitions over the past 32 years, spanning from painting and printmaking to folk art and photography, and featuring works by artists such as Phoebe Beasley, Kevin Cole, Sylvester McKissick, and Latoya Hobbs.
California
Band of Vices
bandofvices.com
@bandofvices
Band of Vices was founded in 2015 by veteran screen actor and prolific collector Terrell Tilford . He has used his years of experience with art collecting and turned Band of Vices into a formidable player in Los Angeles’s gallery-heavy West Adams Art District. Recent exhibitions have showcased work by rising artists such as Grace Lynne Haynes, Yoyo Lander, and Shantell Martin.
Nous Tous Community Gallery
noustous.co
@noustousla
Launched by dancer and designer Maceo Paisley and designer Teresa Hu in 2016, Nous Tous is part gallery, part store, and part community event space located in Los Angeles’s Chinatown neighborhood. The space has hosted exhibitions devoted to artists Chinaedu Nwadibia, Lorenzo Diggins, Jr., Panteha Abareshi, and many more, while fostering a diverse community of designers, photographers, painters, sculptors, and other creatives.
Thelma Harris Art Gallery
thelmaharrisartgallery.com
@thelmaharrisgallery
Thelma Harris Gallery specializes in both contemporary and historical Black artists, from modern names like Claude Clark and Jonathan Green, Palmer Hayden, and Aaron Douglas. Founded in 1987 by dealer Thelma Harris, the gallery accepts artists at any stage of his or her career, and features those working in painting, sculpture, and mixed-media art, among other media.
Jenkins Johnson Gallery
jenkinsjohnsongallery.com
@jenkinsjohnsongallery
Karen Jenkins-Johnson founded her namesake gallery in San Francisco in 1996, and over the years, she has turned it into a powerhouse within the Bay Area art community. The gallery shows artists like Black Arts Movement members Jae and Wadsworth Jarrell; Senegalese photographer Omar Victor Diop; collage and video artist Rashaad Newsome; and the Bahamaian painter Lavar Munroe.
Florida
N’Namdi Contemporary
nnamdicontemporary.com
@nnamdi_gallery
In 19891, Jumaane N’Namdi’s father, started G.R. N’Namdi Gallery in Detroit. Upon graduation from Morehouse College in 1997, Jumaane joined him at the helm of the gallery’s Chicago output. In 2012, after helping to expand G.R. N’Namdi Gallery to New York, Jumaane started N’Namdi Contemporary in Miami to bring his 15 years of experience to a new city. N’Namdi Contemporary represents blue-chip African American artists such as Ed Clark, Frank Bowling, Al Loving, and Robert Colescott.
Georgia
Arnika Dawkins
adawkinsgallery.com
@arnikadawkins
Former marketing executive, Arnika Dawkins, opened the doors of her gallery in 2011 with a focus on representing Black artists. Well-known photographers like Gordon Parks, French-Senagalese portrait photographer Delphine Diallo have received recognition at her gallery showcasing a wide range of experience and a variety of styles. Through July 15th, Dawkins is running a COVID-19 relief effort—proceeds from a print sale will be donated through Feeding America, a nationwide network serving communities in need.
September Gray Fine Art
septembergrayart.com
@septembergrayart
September Gray Gallery represents artists of the African diaspora at all stages of their careers. Before her career as a gallerist, founding director September Gray worked in the performing arts, as well as at an arts consultancy firm. Most recently, the gallery hosted the exhibition “The Four Horsemen,” focusing on four Black masters of abstraction: Melvin Edwards, Sam Gilliam, Richard Hunt, and William T. Williams.
ZuCot Gallery
zucotgallery.com
@zucotgallery
ZuCot Gallery is reportedly the largest Black-owned gallery in the American Southeast. Troy Taylor founded the gallery and named it after his grandmother, Frances Ann Taylor, whose fierce reputation as one of the first female grocers in the local market earned her comparisons to a tough “zoo cat”—or ZuCot. Taylor says that “the name of the gallery is a tribute to the pioneers and giants whose shoulders we stand on.” Recent exhibitions include “HER,” a survey of emerging Black female artists such as Georgette Baker and LaToya Hobbs, as well as “4HUNDRED,” a group show focused on tracing the legacy of the Black experience in America.
Sabree’s Gallery of the Arts
sabreesgallery.com
@sabreesgallery
Patricia Elaine Sabree started her gallery as an outlet to pay homage to the Gullah culture native to the coastal low country in states like Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Sabree is originally from a town in that region called Lake City, which is in South Carolina. She uses her roots in the Gullah experience to create the bright, blocky, intensely evocative paintings that she also sells through her gallery.
Kentucky
E&S Gallery
eandsgallery.com
@eandsgallery
Walter and Cathy Shannon present contemporary art alongside that of older generations. The Shannons sell work by artists including 20th-century luminary Elizabeth Catlett, self-taught sculptor Kimmy Cantrell, and the wildly influential Jacob Lawrence. Walter Shannon has been selling art since the 1970s and has built up a national collector base from Louisville.
Louisiana
Stella Jones Gallery
stellajonesgallery.com
@stellajonesgallery
Stella Jones Gallery was started by Dr. Stella Jones and her husband Harry in 1996. The gallery focuses on African American art, as well as contemporary African and Caribbean art. Past exhibitions have centered on printmaker and painter Samella Lewis and artist Jammie Holmes—who recently garnered attention for his project commemorating George Floyd.
Maryland
Galerie Myrtis
galeriemyrtis.net
@Galeriemyrtis
Founder Myrtis Bedolla brings more than 30 years of art-world experience to Galerie Myrtics. Bedolla has also curated shows at the National Museum of Niger, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American Art in Detroit, and the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, D.C. Galerie Myrtis hosts approximately six exhibitions a year, and past shows have included artists such as Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Delilah Pierce, Amy Sherald, and Charles White. Galerie Myrtis also hosts a recurring live talk series, “Tea with Myrtis,” where artists and art professionals discuss art trends.
New York
Dorsey’s Art Gallery
dorseyartgallery.com
Founded by Lawrence Peter Dorsey in 1970, Dorsey’s Art Gallery is the oldest, continuously run, Black-owned and -operated art gallery in New York City. The gallery has served as a haven for Black artists and collectors. Regulars included Ernest Crichlow, Tom Feelings, Elizabeth Catlett, Arthur Coppedge, , Bob Blackborn, Otto Neals, James Denmark, Jacob Lawrence, Ann Tanksley, Christopher Gonzales, Emmett Wigglesworth, and James Brown. Dorsey died in 2007. His daughter Laurette and members of the community have kept the gallery open.
Essie Green Galleries
essiegreengalleries.com
@essie.green.gall
Serving as a vital centerpiece of the community’s Black cultural renaissance, Essie Green Galleries opened its first exhibition on December 15, 1979. Its roster of 19th- and 20th-century Black masters includes artists like Romare Bearden, Charles Alston, Lois Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, Henry Ossawa Tanner, and Charles Ethan Porter.
Skoto Gallery
skotogallery.com
@skoto_gallery
Established in 1992, Skoto Gallery was among the first spaces to specialize in representing contemporary African artists in New York City. The gallery has since expanded its mission to become a nexus for artists of any ethnic or cultural persuasion, allowing African art to be in conversation with the global cultural dialogue. Represented artists include Uche Okeke, Ifeoma Anyaeji, Ibrahim El Salahi, and Osaretin Ighile.
The Compound Gallery
thecmpdgallery.com
@compoundgallery_
Set Free Richardson has run The Compound in the South Bronx since the early 2000s. It’s the creative agency where he works on campaigns for major brands and invites friends and creatives to exchange ideas. In 2018, Richardson opened The Compound Gallery nearby—a natural extension of the original business—together with Yasiin Bey (a.k.a. Mos Def). The gallery shows artists and art forms that are underrepresented and often excluded from the gallery system, from rising street artists to legendary photographers who’ve captured the hip-hop community.
Mackey Twins Art Gallery
mackeytwinsartgallery.com
@mackeytwinsart
Karen and Sharon Mackey founded the Mackey Twins Art Gallery in 2004 to address the lack of representation and support for artists of color in the art industry. The sisters—twins, as the gallery name indicates—are both former high school teachers who purchased their first work, a James Denmark print, over 40 years ago by pooling their salaries. The gallery now represents Denmark, along with other iconic Black artists such as Elizabeth Catlett and Jacob Lawrence. The Mackey sisters are also actively involved with the City College of New York.
Pennsylvania
Rush Arts Philadelphia
rushphilanthropic.org
@rushartsphilly
Since its opening in 2016, Rush Arts Philadelphia has fostered the activist spirit, which has remained at the core of the space’s programs. In the last two years, its exhibitions have ranged in theme from portraits of victims of gun violence, to “Giving Up The Ghost: Artifacts/A Study of Power and Solidarity Against White Violence in Modernity” (a show curated by Niama Safia Sandy), to street photography by Jay Potter, and, just before the pandemic hit, to an exhibition of large-scale drawings made by Imo Nse Imeh in response to a racist children’s book and nursery rhyme from the early 20th century.
South Carolina
Gallery Chuma
gallerychuma.com
Gallery Chuma celebrates the creativity of the Gullah people—the descendants of enslaved Africans who settled off the south Atlantic coast in isolated communities during the 19th century. Run by Chuma Nwokike out of Charleston, South Carolina, Gallery Chuma represents artists including James Denmark, Jonathan Green, John W. Jones, Carol A. Simmons, and Irene Tison.
Neema Gallery
neemagallery.com
@neemagallery
Owned by Meisha Johnson, Neema Gallery features to Black artists from the South, including James Denmark, Tyrone Geter, Otto Neals, potters Winton and Rosa Eugene, and civil rights photographer Cecil Williams. Johnson is an artist herself. Around the corner, Johnson recently opened a second space, Gallery Elevate, featuring Black artists from across the United States. “It’s a place where we’ll nurture beginning collectors,” Johnson said.
