Celebrate Black History Month with Four Artworks by Contemporary Black Artists On View at SAM

Rachel Eggers on Feb 20 2025

Celebrate Black History Month with Four Artworks by Contemporary Black Artists On View at SAM

Happy Black History Month! Founded by Dr. Carter G. Woodson in February 1926, this month is a time to learn and share about Black history, life, and culture in the US. Nearly 100 years later, this work remains urgent, especially in the face of ongoing efforts to dismantle the vision of a pluralistic society and target Black people specifically.

This year, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) has chosen “African Americans and Labor” as the central theme. We’re spotlighting four artworks by contemporary Black artists that you can see on view now in SAM’s galleries. And we’ll be thinking about how their art connects with the idea of labor, whether through the physical acts of their creative process or the deeper themes expressed in their work.

The Odyssey: 1862 / 1837 (2024)
Bethany Collins

“Collins’s eraser lends particular poignancy to Odysseus’s feelings of statelessness, grief and unrecognition – whether we are watching a new presidency take shape or seeing a flame flicker on the horizon.” – Claudia Ross, Frieze Magazine. 

Bethany Collins is the recipient of the 2023 Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Prize, awarded biennially by SAM since 2009 to an early to mid-career Black artist—defined loosely as an artist in the first decade of their career. At Sea is the solo show in honor of her win, debuting 15 works that have never been on view.

In her conceptual work, the Chicago-based artist uses strategies of erasure and redaction to point out the limits and possibilities of language. Her own intense labor is a key part of her practice. Using a Pink Pearl eraser and her own spit, she obstructs select words from familiar texts, revealing deeper meanings in the process. In The Odyssey: 1862 / 1837, she takes on Book 13 of the ancient Greek epic, obstructing every line but one from the two translations. From the 1837, it’s the timely line:

‘Then he bewail’d / His native isle, with pensive steps and slow / Pacing the border of the billowy flood, Forlorn.”

Two Way Connection (2021)
Woody De Othello

Woody De Othello’s deep blue ceramic sculpture Two Way Connection requires a full 360-degree turn around the work to see all the shapes that emerge. Different body parts—lips, ears, and fingers—meld together. On top, there’s a clearly defined green telephone receiver, a handle, and a spout.

Othello created this work during the COVID-19 pandemic when human connection was mostly limited to the virtual realm. Othello brings the body and the senses back into those distanced conversations and, in this piece, the two faces become one, connected through the phone.

The sculpture is also influenced by face vessels, a distinctive art form created by enslaved Black potters in Edgefield, South Carolina during the 1800s. These potters created stoneware for food and water at a mass scale under slavery, but also with artistry, creativity, and their own representations of Black people. Edgefield face vessels capture theatrical expressions with intricately sculpted features protruding from the surface and the spout emerging from the top of the head, which is echoed in Othello’s work.

Opposing Parallels – Blues Up and Down for G. Ammons and S. Stitt (2015)
Thaddeus Mosley

At 98 years old, Thaddeus Mosley works in his studio every day making his large-scale wood sculptures. Often, the sound of jazz rings throughout the space while he works, mingling with the sounds of his tools as he carves and buzzes and sands the wood into the shapes and textures he wants. Mosley is a passionate fan of classic jazz, and his studio is stocked with vinyl records of this essential Black art form. 

Opposing Parallels – Blues Up and Down for G. Ammons and S. Stitt (2015) is one of 17 of the artist’s works on view in Following Space: Thaddeus Mosley & Alexander Calder. The sculpture is installed so that visitors can walk around the entire work and look through it. The title recognizes two virtuoso jazz saxophonists, Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt, who frequently played and recorded together starting in the 1950s. Just as Ammons and Stitt engaged in a dynamic call-and-response style of improvisation, Mosley’s process embraces spontaneity and rhythmic flow—translating the spirit of jazz into three-dimensional form.

All she wants to do is dance (Fran) (2009)
Mickalene Thomas

Mickalene Thomas celebrates the complexity and individuality of Black women by bringing them into the art world and refuting stereotypes. She cites inspiration from Blaxploitation films of the 1970s that capitalized on exaggerated portrayals of the Black community and particularly the promiscuousness of Black women.

Thomas doesn’t shy away from sexuality or sensuality and portrays her subjects in control of their bodies and their environment. The women Thomas depicts are not restrained or holding back but overflowing with confidence and personal style—bold patterns, glitter and glam, accessorized to the max, and staring back at the viewer.

In some of her pieces, Thomas recruits models from her everyday life—Fran, depicted here, was her hairdresser.  In this collage, Fran is striking a pose with her hand on her hip, pursing her lips, and looking directly into the camera, showing off her chunky metal jewelry and reptilian boots. Fran isn’t overly sexualized or idealized as someone’s image of a party girl; she’s just herself and “all she wants to do is dance.”

Celebrate Black History Month in Seattle with these suggested events. 

Through Feb 28
Coloring Outside the Lines

The Northwest African American Museum invites you to celebrate Black art, culture, and communities all month long. Plan a visit to the Central District to enjoy a wide range of free and ticketed programming, including art exhibitions, lectures, and workshops galore. Ticketed events include an interactive painting workshop with AshaAung Helmstetter (Feb 22).

Through Feb 28
Call to Conscience

Every Tuesday through Sunday in February, Columbia City Theater transforms into the Call to Conscience Black History Month Museum. Experience powerful exhibitions, displays, and installations that honor the legacy of the Black communities in the Pacific Northwest. Learn about the untold stories of local groups, including Seattle Black Panther Party. Make sure to secure your time slot and tickets online.

Sat Feb 22
Black Art Takeover

As part of Coloring Outside the Lines, the Northwest African American Museum hosts the Black Art Takeover. This free community event highlights local Black artists working across many mediums, from photography to ceramics. Explore the pop-up market to meet artists and purchase artwork. Other offerings include artist panels, film screenings with Scope Screening, family-friendly art activities, and guided museum tours. 

Sat Feb 22
Black History Month Soirée 2025

Dance the night away to live music and performances at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. When you need a water break, wander through Seattle’s Black Love Market, full of goods from Black-owned businesses and vendors. All ages are welcome, so bring the whole family!

Sat Feb 22
SAM Body + Mind: Poetry Evening featuring Bay Davis

Join us at the Olympic Sculpture Park for a poetry show focused on self-discovery and healing curated by Inside. The headlining poet, Bay Davis, draws from her experience as an Afro-Indigenous Black trans woman and utilizes her work to weave the tools of her own survival as offerings to challenge, heal, and question the systems and climate we exist in today.

Sun Feb 23
Black Ice: An American Sitcom Improvised

Get ready to laugh at this unique comedy show. Unexpected Productions Improv presents a 1970s sitcom-style performance, inspired by TV shows centered on the Black experience, such as All in the Family and The Jeffersons. Audience participation is expected!

Wed Feb 26
Victor Luckerson: A Scheme to Forget, a Demand to Remember

Head to Town Hall Seattle to hear an insightful public lecture from writer Victor Luckerson. The journalist and author will discuss the heartbreaking story of Greenwood and black Tulsans, which is the subject of his book, Built from the Fire. Presented by the University of Washington Office of Public Lectures, the event will be held in the Wyncote NW Forum. If you can’t make it in person, a livestream is also available.

Thu Mar 6
Living Voices: Fly for Freedom

Head to Museum of History and Industry for a multimedia program that spotlights Black women who worked in the aeronautics industry during World War II. Through live theater and archival film, these sidelined stories will take center stage in the Joshua Green Foundation Theater.

– Rachel Eggers, Associate Director of Public Relations and Nicole Block, Collections Associate

Photo credits: The Odyssey: 1862 / 1837, 2024, Bethany Collins, graphite on Somerset paper in 2 parts, overall 46 1/2 x 69 x 1 3/4 in., Courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York; PATRON Gallery, Chicago, © 2024 Bethany Collins, Keith Nkeze, Natali Wiseman, Keith Nkeze.

Celebrate Women’s History Month With Five Artworks by Women Artists on View at SAM

Nicole Block on Mar 13 2024

Celebrate Women’s History Month With Five Artworks by Women Artists on View at SAM

Every March, the United States recognizes women’s past and present contributions to society with Women’s History Month. On International Women’s Day on Friday, March 8, we took to social media to highlight the five ongoing and upcoming solo SAM exhibitions by remarkable contemporary women artists. They include:

Now, our celebration of Women’s History Month continues with this round-up of five artworks by women artists you can currently see on view in SAM’s galleries. The five artworks discussed below represent only a few of the many works by women artists in SAM’s collection, but show the range of different techniques, subject matter, and ideas they bring to their art. Women have always been artists and craftspeople, but they have not always been celebrated or acknowledged for their contributions. Plan your next visit to the Seattle Art Museum to appreciate these artworks in person and learn more about the historical and contemporary artists who made them.

Yunarla, 2010
Yukultji Napangati

The precisely painted dots of Yunarla form patterns and undulations that take on a meditative, entrancing quality. Curving lines radiate out from the central knot, suggestive of a topographic map in some ways, but also referring to the vines of the bush banana. Also called the silky pear vine, the bush banana (marsdenia australis) only grows in Australia and serves as food with edible fruit, roots, leaves, seeds and flowers. The name Yunarla also signifies a particular rockhole and soakage site where ancestral women camped to replenish their energy near these places in the desert where water is stored beneath the surface of the sand. 

Yukultji Napangati (born ca. 1970) lived with her family in the Gibson Desert until 1984, when she and several others from her Pintupi tribe made contact with non-Indigenous Australians for the first time. The “Pintupi Nine” became a media sensation as a “lost tribe,” while they insisted they were not lost, as they were living as their ancestors had for millennia. While adjusting to culture shock, Napangati became aware of the Papunya Tula’s community art center, which established a thriving business for Australian Aboriginal people to create and sell their art in 1972. Women began painting in the mid-1990s, and Napangati quickly adopted the ethos of educating outsiders by conveying extensive knowledge about her community and culture through this restrained mark making. Don’t miss your chance to see this work in Honoring 50 Years of Papunya Tula Painting, which closes after April 14.

The First People, 2008
Susan Point

The First People was commissioned for the Seattle Art Museum and stands twelve feet tall, greeting visitors to the museum’s Native American art galleries. Prominent Northwest Coast artist Susan Point (born 1951) brings traditional Salish forms and techniques to contemporary and often public settings to share the history and culture of First Nation people. Point has been credited with single-handedly reviving a unique Salish style that laid dormant for nearly 100 years; she is among only a handful of Native female artists working in the media of woodcarving.

In this work, the eight faces connecting via flowing tendrils refer to the hereditary roots and extended families of the Salish people. These root-like forms also signify the fjords and meandering pathways that punctuate the traditional homelands of her own people, the Musqueam of the Fraser Delta in present-day Vancouver. These pathways are the lifelines that yield salmon and other foods for Salish people. Looking closely at the carving, we can see the perfectly smooth surface of the faces, in contrast to the visible chisel marks of the roots, both showcasing the natural beauty of the cedar wood itself, a material highly valued by First Peoples.

Dug Up from Kitchen Weeds, 2014
Ebony Patterson

In its barrage of color, pattern, and glittering textures, Dug Up from the Kitchen Weeds, on view in Remember the Rain, hides a more somber image. The black-and-white stripes at the center clothe a figure that is lying face down. Though this form is camouflaged within the pink floral background, rhinestones, and tropical birds and plants, it is also hypervisible. Once you notice the stripes, leopard print pants, and red shirt, you can’t overlook them.

Ebony Patterson (born 1981) cites bling funerals, an increasingly popular occurrence in Kingston, Jamaica, as a source of reference, as “the glitter and bling shines light on things.” These lavish celebrations held for working class people say, “You may not have noticed me when I was alive, but you will damn well see me before I leave.” Patterson is interested in bringing people on the margins into focus in her work—first by catching the eye with striking color and imagery, and then by asking viewers to look more closely and see what they find embedded within and protruding from the surface of her collages. Her aesthetic of ornamentation and ostentation often takes on qualities of both disguise and hypervisibility to engage with issues one might rather ignore, such as wealth disparity, high murder rates, and police-related deaths in Jamaica.

Codigo Desconhecido #5, 2015 
Marilá Dardot

Marilá Dardot (born 1972) often works with text-based materials—including books, printed cards, and magazines—to explore ideas of language, communication, and memory. In Codigo Desconhecido #5 (which translates to “unknown code”), books are cut down to their spines, rendering them illegible. Instead of reading and accessing the books’ knowledge, the viewer is left to see these books as objects or artifacts. Each book is cut or ripped to reveal its unique paper and binding materials rather than its words, making its structure but not its content visible.

This work, on view in SAM’s modern and contemporary art galleries, is part of a series that Dardot began during an artist’s residency in Vienna, when she was surrounded by books in a language she could not read. Words are powerful, but here she removes them and in doing so, opens up many avenues for interpretation. Dardot’s work plays with books as our main source and conduit of knowledge—questioning which stories get told or repressed, how translation and language can limit our understanding of others, and possibilities for political resistance on the page and outside of it.

The Sink, 1956
Joan Mitchell

The Sink (1956) is nearly ten feet in length; its size engulfs the viewer in a range of colors, textures, and feelings. Joan Mitchell (1925–1992) was an artist who used her memories, experiences, and environment as inspiration for her abstract works, seeking, in her own words, “to define a feeling.” The Sink, also on view in SAM’s modern and contemporary art galleries, is an abstracted landscape of sorts, with its pools of green and blue interrupted by swirls, drips, and jagged lines in yellow and red and interspersed with thick applications of white paint. Rather than capturing a strictly realistic image of nature, this painting seems more like a memory or impression of a place built up with emotive brushstrokes and applications of paint.

Mitchell grew up in Chicago with strong interests in athletics, art, and literature, thanks to her mother, the poet Marion Strobel Mitchell. She studied art at the School of the Art Institute and then in France on a fellowship. She moved to New York in 1949 and joined the artistic scene there, becoming one of the few female Abstract Expressionists celebrated in her own time. About a decade later, she settled in France where she found artistic inspiration in Impressionists like Paul Cézanne and Claude Monet, continuing a long tradition of artists observing nature and finding her own unique visual language.

– Compiled by Nicole Block, SAM Collections Associate

Photos: Jo Cosme, Chloe Collyer, and Alborz Kamalizad.

The Contemporary American Struggle: Bethany Collins

Chelsea Werner-Jatzke on Apr 14 2021

“My Country, ‘Tis of Thee”—it’s a song that everyone likely knows some version of and Bethany Collins is sharing why she created a chapel space where you can hear layered recordings of it inside of Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle at SAM. The exhibition questions the stories we’ve been told by amplifying narratives that have been systematically overlooked from America’s history. This exhibition reunites Lawrence’s revolutionary 30-panel series Struggle: From the History of the American People (1954–56) for the first time since 1958. These 30 panels are heavily informed by the contemporary issues of Lawrence’s time as they address the history of what it means to be an American. Collins’ installation extends the conversation around what it means to be an American into the art being made today.

Bethany Collins (b. 1984) is a multidisciplinary artist whose conceptually driven work is fueled by a critical exploration of how race and language interact. Her work in the exhibition titled America: A Hymnal is an immersive audio experience within a chapel space where six layered voices sing different versions of “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.” The altar object within the gallery is a book containing the sheet music to 100 versions of this well-known song which has changed and been used for various purposes since it was first penned as “God Save the Queen” in Great Britain. Collins describes the book as “100 dissenting versions of what it means to be American, bound together.”

Jacob Lawrence’s Struggle series interprets the democratic debates that defined early America and echoed into the civil rights movements during which he was painting the series. Works by contemporary artists Derrick Adams, Bethany Collins, and Hank Willis Thomas engage themes of democracy, justice, truth, and the politics of inclusion to show that the struggle for expansive representation in America continues.

Who is Jacob Lawrence? The American Struggle Overview

Chelsea Werner-Jatzke on Mar 9 2021

Join Theresa Papanikolas, Ann M. Barwick Curator of American Art, for an in-depth virtual exhibition overview of Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle, on view at SAM through May 23. Get to know Jacob Lawrence—a New Yorker, a University of Washington professor, a modernist painter, and an influential Black American artist—through this talk and by visiting SAM to see Lawrence’s revolutionary story. Advance tickets are required and are selling out so get yours soon, more tickets will be made available on a weekly basis, every Thursday. Speaking of Thursdays, starting April 1, First Thursdays at SAM are entirely free!

The American Struggle reunites Lawrence’s revolutionary 30-panel series Struggle: From the History of the American People (1954–56) for the first time since 1958, and SAM will be its only West Coast venue. Works by Derrick Adams, Bethany Collins, and Hank Willis Thomas engage themes of democracy, justice, truth, and the politics of inclusion to show that the struggle for expansive representation in America continues.

This talk was originally offered as a free SAM member-exclusive event. Interested in learning more about the perks of membership? Find out more about all the benefits you get when you join SAM.

Free Ways to See Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle

Chelsea Werner-Jatzke on Mar 2 2021

Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle opens this Friday, March 5, and tickets to opening weekend are already sold out! But, don’t worry, future dates are available and released on a rolling basis, every week on Thursdays. Meanwhile, we all love the sound of free—find out how you can experience this revolutionary story as told by Jacob Lawrence and contemporary artists Derrick Adams, Bethany Collins, and Hank Willis Thomas for free.

  • Free community passes are available to any requesting individual, family, or group as passes are available. Passes are especially those for whom the cost of a ticket is prohibitive and groups who have been historically excluded from the museum space due to systematic oppression, including communities of color, immigrant and refugee communities, low income communities, queer communities, and the disability community.
  • First Thursdays are back and better than ever starting April 1 (no foolin’)! Previously, admission to special exhibitions wasn’t included as part of Free First Thursday but now the entire museum, including The American Struggle, is free on the first Thursday of every month.
  • First Friday: With this reopening, we’ve also expanded benefits on First Fridays. Now, admission to The American Struggle is free for anyone 65 years and older and $7.99 for everyone else!
  • UW Art Students, fill out our customer service form to request free tickets.
  • Members of City of Seattle’s Gold and FLASH card program can get free tickets for caregivers by filling out our customer service form.
  • SAM members and children (14 & under) are free.

SAM is for everyone and we’re here to make sure anyone can see the art they love! Don’t forget, entry to SAM’s permanent collections is always suggested admission! You can experience our global collection year-round and pay what you want by calling our customer service center. At this time, capacity at the museum is limited and everyone must get tickets in advance of their visit. We can’t wait to see you at the museum again.

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