Boundless: 10 Years of Seeding Black Comic Futures, celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture’s Black Comic Book Festival,  through photographs, memorabilia, creator highlights, comic book reading stations, and clips from past festival programs. Drawn from the Schomburg Center’s archival collections, this exhibition illuminates the long history of Black comics and sequential art creators and their motivations to render humor, justice, irony, and futurism in Black aesthetic and liberatory practices from the Golden Age of comic books (1938-1956) to the present. Above, from The Blacker the Ink by Frances Gateward and John Jennings

Selections from the Schomburg Center’s collection of comic books and graphic novels, dating back to the golden age of comic books, will be on display to illuminate the long history of Black comics and sequential art creators, and the drive to depict humor, struggle, irony, and futurism steeped in a Black aesthetics. Info

515 Malcolm X Boulevard (135th St and Malcolm X Blvd)
New York, NY Info

Opening February 16: Szilard Huszank | I Just Keep Painting, at Foley Gallery

In Huszank's enchanted German forest the flowing streams of spring, are rich with Fauvist purples and pinks, slashed with rushes of blue water; summery underbrush of dense blues, all tangled and explode with light; fall's rich burnt hues of oranges and yellows lie scattered among a soon barren tree stand; winter then appears with its harrowing light, gray branches prevailing.  All colors are imaginative in their realism but convert the experience of feeling these scenes in person, even with eyes shut. In our age of climate shifts, these seemingly untouched, pristine landscapes seem far removed from the pace of an urban world. Above, Szilard Huszank, LC #68, 2018, courtesy of Foley Gallery  Foley Gallery, 59 Orchard Street, NY, NY Info

Opening February 17: Lost and (Re) Found at Carter Burden Gallery

What is Lost? And What is Found? In 2021, The New York Artists Circle presented an online exhibition of 117 artists who explored and revealed what is important in our lives, as they coped with waves of serial losses and change during this pandemic time. This week the (re)grouping of selected work offers the second of two shows featuring 50 works distilled from the original 117; presenting an new opportunity for (re)reflection, (re)entering and (re)viewing up close and personal, aiming for a (re)bound through the (re)found. 

Artists include: Audrey Anastasi, Marianne Barcellona, Fran Beallor, Walter Brown, Kathleen Casey, Pamela Casper, Colleen Deery, Norma Greenwood, Valerie Huhn, Sandra Indig, Diana Jensen, Arthur Kvarnstrom, Yvonne Lamar-Rogers, Donna Levinstone, Christina Maile, Douglas Newton, Ellen Pliskin, Siena Gillann Porta, Amy Regalia, Gale Rothstein, Charles Seplowin, Regina Silvers, Geoffrey Stein, Joanne Steinhardt, and Alice Zinnes. Left: Catharsis by Yvonne Lamar-Rogers: 

Also at Carter Burden Gallery, Go Figure, featuring figurative work by Earlene Hardie Cox, Barbara Herzfeld, Bernice Sokol Kramer, Lindsay, Isaac Paris, Sheila Schwid, Regina Silvers, Susan Sinek, Syma, & Danny Turitz. Below Right: Syma’s Magic Lady, a fortune teller self-portrait, reflecting and originating in the artist’s past, who might offer a glimpse into the future. Info
Carter Burden Gallery, 548 West 28^th Street, NY, NY Info

Opening February 17: Invitation Personnelle, organized by Occupy Art Project #3

Curated by Shani Ha with works by Fanny Allie, Dominique Duroseau, Frances Ellen Zuma, Shani Ha, Amélie Gaulier and Yana Dimitrova. The exhibition was initiated by Eirini Linardaki who invited 15 curatorial projects to occupy Consulates in New York.
On view at 934 5th Ave, New York, NY Info 

The sold out opening reception will include a nusical performance by Dawud Rachman (Music On The Inside) at 6:00pm / Concetta Performances: Dominique Duroseau at 6:30pm / Amélie Gaulier, Yana Dimitrova; and  Abbate: LAMINARIA at 7:10pm

Thursday, February 17, 5:30-6:30pm: The Black Experience in Design, on Zoom

“A way of seeing design that was not possible in the past.” —Emory Douglas, Graphic Designer and Activist

The contributions of Black Americans—in particular, the work and experiences of Black designers—have long been erased and overlooked in history books. Influenced by Western and European modernist perspectives, design history and education has also been dominated by white culture and represented through a white lens. The Black Experience in Design, an anthology centering Black voices and perspectives, is a vital response to this systemic erasure within the design profession and American history at large. Not just a design book or a book about Black designers, the book opens a conversation about what it means to be Black, and the perspectives that collectively comprise “The Black Experience. Register here.

February 17, 6-9 pm: Open Studios at Peekaboo Studios, Miami

This just in from subscriber Tom Cocotos (right): Part of Miami Beach's Culture Crawl Stop by and check out 14 artist studios, see what we've been up to! 

690 Lincoln Road, 3rd floor, Miami Beach

Closing February 20: Making Knowing: Craft in Art 1950-2019 at The Whitney

Making Knowing foregrounds how visual artists have explored the materials, methods, and strategies of craft over the past seven decades. Some expand techniques with long histories, such as weaving, sewing, or pottery, while others experiment with clay, beads, and glass, among other mediums. The traces of the artists’ hands-on engagement with their materials invite viewers to imagine how it might feel to make each work.

Drawn primarily from the Whitney’s collection, the exhibition will include over eighty works by more than sixty artists, including Ruth Asawa, Eva Hesse, Mike Kelley, Liza Lou, Ree Morton, Howardena Pindell, Robert Rauschenberg, Elaine Reichek, and Lenore Tawney, as well as featuring new acquisitions by Shan Goshorn, Kahlil Robert Irving, Simone Leigh, Jordan Nassar, and Erin Jane Nelson. Below: Installation by Liza Lou

Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort Street, New York, NY Info

Continuing online through February 21: Animation First Festival at FIAF

French Institute/Alliance Francais celebrates the fifth anniversary of its popular with a special edition featuring distinct programs in person and online. Register

Animation First is the only festival in the US dedicated to showcasing the enduring legacy and trailblazing innovation of French animation. This year, the festival presents 51 premieres of feature-length and short films, Works in Progress of highly anticipated films, a 2nd Annual Student Short Film Competition (below), and more. A special talk on the influence of Disney in French Animation and the 30th anniversary screening of Beauty and the Beast is presented in partnership with The Met Museum. Read the curators’ note here.