Artist Spotlight

View of the museum from outside showing the Neoclassical building from one corner. The building is a tan-colored stone with an arched doorway, long vertical windows, and detailed molding around the roof.
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Faith Ringgold Captures the “Long Road” Ahead for Women

Posted: September 26, 2013
Category: Artist Spotlight
The bleak walls of the Rikers Island Women’s prison may not be the most traditional venue to display art, but Faith Ringgold embraced the location and presented a mural to...
Installation view of a gallery space. A large painting showing an American flag splattered in blood and with people with a light skin tone standing behind the flag is hanging in the middle of the room.

History of Violence: Faith Ringgold Documents an American Past

Posted: September 12, 2013
Category: Artist Spotlight
While the 1960s resonate in the American cultural memory as a divisive and turbulent era, prevalent trends in contemporary art at the time offered very little indication of this national...
Close-up photograph of a painted quilt shows a medium-dark skinned woman dancing exuberantly. There is a white flower in her hair, and she wears dangling gold earrings and gold loops around her neck.

Audrey Niffenegger and Faith Ringgold (Part 2 of 2): Shock Value

Posted: September 6, 2013
Category: Artist Spotlight
Exhibitions of work by Audrey Niffenegger and Faith Ringgold are on view through November 10 at NMWA. At first glance their work seems quite different, but in addition to employing...

Audrey Niffenegger and Faith Ringgold (Part 1 of 2): Sending Messages

Posted: September 4, 2013
Category: Artist Spotlight
At first glance, the two exhibitions on view this summer at NMWA, Awake in the Dream World: The Art of Audrey Niffenegger and American People, Black Light: Faith Ringgold’s Paintings...
Installation view of a gallery space. A large painting showing an American flag splattered in blood and with people with a light skin tone standing behind the flag is hanging in the middle of the room.

Tragedy & Fantasy: A Rose for Isabella Blow

Posted: July 24, 2013
Category: Artist Spotlight
Audrey Niffenegger’s works explore the world of the unconscious mind through dreams and fantasies—within NMWA’s exhibition Awake in the Dream World.
A very tall and narrow, black-and-white print depicts a skeleton with folded arms and a rose fascinator perched on its head. The figure wears a collaged, three-dimensional, billowing skirt made of tissue and printed with roses.

“Hey, Soul Sister”

Posted: July 9, 2013
Category: Artist Spotlight
Faith Ringgold, forthright about demanding viewers’ attention, made this statement in regard to her controversial “American People” series, which often depicted violent and uneasy interactions, but it applies to her...
Modernist portrait of a dark-skinned woman with her hair styled in a 1960's updo, wearing pearl earrings and a pearl necklace. In a style akin to Cubism, solid-colored shapes in browns, blues, black and orange, are arranged to create the overall image.

Louise Moillon: Still Lifes and Saint-Germain (Part 2 of 2)

Posted: July 5, 2013
Category: Artist Spotlight
Boasting one of the most stellar artistic careers in 17th-century France, Louise Moillon played a crucial role in raising the genre of still-life painting to one of the most popular...

Exploring Faith Ringgold’s “American People” on July Fourth

Posted: July 3, 2013
Category: Artist Spotlight
On this Fourth of July, explore America through Faith Ringgold's paintings, now on view in the NMWA exhibition American People, Black Light: Faith Ringgold's Paintings of the 1960s.
Modernist portrait of a dark-skinned woman with her hair styled in a 1960's updo, wearing pearl earrings and a pearl necklace. In a style akin to Cubism, solid-colored shapes in browns, blues, black and orange, are arranged to create the overall image.

Louise Moillon: Still Lifes and Saint-Germain (Part 1 of 2)

Posted: July 2, 2013
Category: Artist Spotlight
One of the foremost French painters of the 17th century, Louise Moillon (1610–1696) was a leading proponent of still-life works. Her luscious, meticulously detailed renderings of fruits and vegetables elevated...

Subverting the Male Gaze: Lotte Laserstein and Kiki Kogelnik

Posted: June 25, 2013
Category: Artist Spotlight
Learn how painters Lotte Laserstein and Kiki Kogelnik subvert the male gaze in their portrayals of the female nude.
A light-skinned adult woman crouches near a small washtub and sponges her torso. One small bench holds a washcloth and water glass while garments rest on another. Posed within a cramped attic room and viewed from above, her body dominates the canvas and appears too large for the space.