ON VIEW in the Marjorie Talalay, Peter B. Lewis, and Video Galleries

Organized by MOCA Cleveland

Curated by Margo Ann Crutchfield, Senior Curator

Unprecedented in our region, the exhibition brings together for the first time the rich holdings of contemporary African American art drawn from preeminent collections of contemporary art in the region - the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, the Akron Art Museum, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Progressive Corporation, and the Cleveland Museum of Art.  Presented are works by many of the most important artists of our time in a range of media - works on paper, painting, sculpture, and installations.  The exhibition features 27 artists, and begins with signature pieces by such pioneering figures of the 1970s and 1980s as Romare Bearden or Alma Thomas, and continues up to the present with prime examples of works by artists such as Lenardo Drew, Alison Saar, Willie Cole, David Hammons, Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems, René Green, Kara Walker and Kehinde Wiley, among others.  Addressing a range of themes and issues, the exhibition presents an overview of the rich cultural heritage voiced by contemporary African-American artists in their examination of history, identity, and memory.  Their universal search for meaning in facing the past and confronting the challenges of the present binds these works together in what ultimately represents a celebration of and triumph of the creative spirit.

Willie Cole's work also on view at the Akron Art Museum's Pattern I.D. exhibition, on view through May 9, 2010.