1 Day to 30 Americans(1943–2010) Self-taught artist Purvis Young made lurid and kinetic large-scale paintings and murals depicting the people of his hometown of Miami. He blended wild horses, jazz singers, and scenes from ancient battles, making poignant social commentaries on urban life. One of his most famous works is Goodbread Alley, his 1972 public mural located at the intersection of Northwest Third Avenue and 14th Street in the Overtown district in Miami. Learn more ... Read More

2 Days to 30 Americans(born 1977) In the ten years since receiving his master of fine arts from Yale University, Kehinde Wiley has catapulted to the upper echelon of the contemporary art world. His super-realistic paintings of men of color in heroic, majestic, or bucolic settings deliberately reference works by the Old Masters. Learn more about the 30 Americans exhibition at http://arkansasartscenter.org/30-Americans. To view Wiley's work visit http://kehindewiley.com/. Video photo: Kehinde Wiley Share this Post

3 Days to 30 Americans(born 1953) For more than twenty-five years, Carrie Mae Weems has explored themes of race, gender relations, and family history in her installations. In 2010, the award-winning visual artist teamed up with the critically acclaimed jazz pianist Geri Allen on Flying toward the Sound, for which she produced images and videos to accompany Allen’s amazing piano excursions. Learn more about the 30 Americans exhibition at http://arkansasartscenter.org/30-Americans. Learn more about Weems at http://carriemaeweems.net/. Video ... Read More

4 Days to 30 Americans(born 1969) With a cursory glance, Kara Walker’s black cut-paper silhouettes look like benign nineteenth-century antebellum scenes or Walt Disney cartoon characters from such classic pieces as the 1946 film Song of the South. A closer, probing investigation reveals the underlying terror surrounding race, gender, and sexual identity politics in America. Learn more about the 30 Americans exhibition at http://arkansasartscenter.org/30-Americans. Learn more about Walker at http://www.art21.org/artists/kara-walker. photo: Sari Goodfriend, http://creativetime.org Share this Post

5 Days to 30 Americans(born 1971) While exploring and challenging long-held notions of feminine beauty, Mickalene Thomas uses rhinestones, acrylic, and enamel to create stupendously textured paintings. Sometimes she pairs these paintings with video installations that juxtapose Blaxploitation film imagery with that of classic Western European portraiture. Thomas’s influences range from historical figures such as Henri Matisse and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres to contemporary artists such as Carrie Mae Weems and Kara Walker. She also looks to 1970s Blaxploitation ... Read More

6 Days to 30 Americans(born 1976) The world of advertising—and all the sociopolitical implications it has regarding race, gender, and class—provide the launching pad for Hank Willis Thomas’s bold photographs. Sometimes his works include autobiographical information, as in Priceless #1, which riffs off the famous MasterCard slogan (“There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s MasterCard.”), yet depicts the funeral of his murdered cousin, Songha Willis. Learn more about the 30 Americans exhibition at ... Read More

7 Days to 30 Americans(born 1958) Various characters from Henry Taylor’s Los Angeles surroundings often inhabit his vivid paintings. Taylor has incorporated the likenesses of family members, as well as neighborhood friends, in his works. While attending the California Institute of the Arts, Taylor worked as a psychiatric technician at the Camarillo State Hospital. There he sketched various patients. Learn more about the 30 Americans exhibition at http://arkansasartscenter.org/30-Americans. photo: Johnny Misheff, New York Times Style Magazine Share this ... Read More

8 Days to 30 Americans(born 1968) Jeff Sonhouse concentrates on themes of black masculinity in his striking paintings that often find his subjects donning menacing, multipatterned masks and vivid, dandy-like suits. At times focusing on iconic or controversial figures, Sonhouse has created portraits of Colin Powell, Michael Jackson, and Diddy. In 2008 Sonhouse broke with his practice of depicting only men with his exhibition Pawnography, which included a portrait of former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. ... Read More