KESHA BRUCE, VICTOR EKPUK & AMBER ROBLES GORDON speak at James A Porter Colloquium on African American Art – 2018 Schedule

WASHINGTON DC | HOWARD UNIVERSITY APRIL 6 – 8, 2018

Gala Ticket Page

Kesha Bruce, I Am A Black Ocean. 2017.  48 x 36 in Mixed-Media on Canvas.

The 29th Annual James A. Porter Colloquium on African American Art and Art of the African Diaspora

The 2018 Porter Colloquium, titled “Abstraction: Form, Philosophy, & Innovation,” will explore topics related to the history of abstraction in art across the African diaspora. It will offer a platform for new scholarship and artistic perspectives on abstract art by African American and African diasporic artists.

This colloquium will trace the progression and aesthetic influence of African art to figurative and non-objective abstraction. Another significant goal of the event is to investigate how artists use abstraction in terms design, innovation, and the introduction of new epistemologies by way of visual culture.

Among other notable presenters, the 29th Porter Colloquium will showcase Chakaia Booker, Valerie Cassel Oliver, Mary Lovelace O’Neal and Fred Eversly.

 Colloquium Location – Howard University College of Medicine

This year colloquium will be held at the Howard University School of Medicine 520 W St NW, Washington, DC 20059 3rd Floor.

2018 PROGRAM

 

April 6th Day 1

10:30 Opening Remarks

Day Moderator: Melani Douglass, Director of Public Programing, National Museum for Women in the Arts

11:00-11:50 Opening Lecture: “Freedom / Expression / Abstraction”

Nikki A. Greene, Assistant Professor of Art, Wellesley College

11:50-12:00 Q&A

12:00-12:50 LUNCH ON YOUR OWN

1:00-2:00 Collaboration from the Smithsonian’s American Art Journal: Washington Modernism and the Exhibition of Works by Negro Artists (1933)

“Toward a History of Washington Modernism: The 1933 Display of African American Art at the Smithsonian National Museum”

Charles Brock, National Gallery of Art – “Negro Artist exhibitions at the National Gallery, 1929-1933”

Michèle Gates Moresi, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture – “Herring, Porter, and Locke’s Perspectives on the 1933 exhibition”

Tobias Wofford, Virginia Commonwealth University – “How Children Became Modern: The Place of Students in the Exhibition of Works by Negro Artists and in Interwar Washington”

Seth Feman, Chrysler Museum of Art – “From Newspapers to Networks: Broadcasting Art of African Americans in the Nation’s Capital”

John A. Tyson, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Moderator: Tuliza Fleming, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

Organizer: Robin Veder, Smithsonian American Art Museum

2:00-2:15 Q&A

2:15-2:35 New Photographic Histories Presentation

Romi Crawford, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Visual and Critical Studies, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

2:35-3:20 Curator’s Panel: Curating African American Abstract Art

 

• Kevin Tervala, Associate Curator of African Art, Department Head, Arts of Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific Islands, Baltimore Museum of Art

• George N’Namdi, Founder, N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art

• Evelyn Hankins, Senior Curator, Hirshhorn Museum

 

Panel Moderator: TBD

3:20-3:30 Q&A

3:30-4:00 New Art Histories of the African Diaspora Lecture

• Freida High W. Tesfagiorgis, PhD, Evjue-Bascom Professor Emerita, Department of Afro-American Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison

 

4:00-4:45 Concerning the Practice of Diaspora Artist Panel

• Kesha Bruce

• Victor Ekpuk

• Representative from the editorial team of MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora

Panel Moderator: Lanisa S. Kitchiner, Ph.D., Head of Education and Scholarly Initiatives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution

4:45-5:00 Q&A

5:00 Floyd Coleman Lecture – Chakaia Booker 

“Back Ground Check”

6:30-8:30   Howard University Faculty Exhibition Reception, Howard University Blackburn Gallery

April 7th Day II

10:30 Opening Remarks

Day Moderator: Jessica Stafford Davis, Founder, The Agora Culture

11:00-11:15 New Media Artist Talk – Adrian Loving

11:15-12:15 New Art Histories Scholars Panel

• Zoma Wallace, MFA, Curator, DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities

• Melissa Messina, Independent Curator & The Mildred Thompson Legacy Project

• LeRonn P. Brooks, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Africana Studies, Lehman College, CUNY

Panel Moderator: TBD

12:15-12:30 Q&A

12:30-1:15 LUNCH ON YOUR OWN

1:30-1:40 The Impact of Edward Spriggs

• Margo N. Crawford, Ph.D., Professor of English, Department of English, University of Pennsylvania

1:45-2:15 Recalling a Legacy of Innovation: Defining the Frontiers of American Abstraction Artist Reflection

• Reflection by Mary Lovelace O’Neal

• Fred Eversley

2:15-3:15 Artist Panel: Materiality and Space

• James Maurelle

• Amber Robles-Gordon

• Gregory Coates

Panel Moderator:  Margo N. Crawford, Ph.D., Professor of English, Department of English, University of Pennsylvania

3:15-3:25 Q&A

3:30-4:15 James A. Porter Lecture

• Valerie Cassel Oliver, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

4:15-4:45 Trajectories Innovation Lecture – Torkwase Dyson

Closing Remarks

**Tentative Program open to minor adjustments.

Saturday Evening: GALA, Blackburn Ballroom

Gala Honorees

Lifetime Achievement Award

• Two-Dimensional: Mary Lovelace O’Neal
• Three-Dimensional: Fred Eversley

Humanitarian Award

• Edward Spriggs

James A. Porter Book Award

• Valerie Cassel Oliver

April 8th Day III

April 8 – Sunday

Studio Visit: Reginald Pointer, Associate Professor, Ceramics, Howard University