November 1, 2022
Storied Strings: The Guitar in American Art, at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, runs through March 19, 2023. For true music lovers who want to enhance the exhibition experience, there’s a Storied Strings Spotify playlist available for further reflection and listening enjoyment. Its tracks are inspired by the exhibition’s narrative and themes and pay…
February 22, 2021
Artist Hamilton Glass, also known as “Ham,” is a Philadelphia-born, Hampton University graduate, who has proudly called Richmond home since 2007. And it’s here in RVA where he has also made his name as a painter and muralist with a genuine concern for building community and bridging divides. His relationship with VMFA has always involved…
August 28, 2019
This video was created by Field Studio and was made possible in part by Virginia Humanities. In February 2019, VMFA unveiled RVA Community Makers, a public art project featuring portraits of eight African American community leaders. The initiative is one example of VMFA’s commitment to opening our doors to a more diverse audience. Local artist…
October 12, 2018
Pindell’s journey presented at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is unique to the artist but not unusual. We’ve heard the tale: the impressive work ethic of a brilliant black mind, occupying double roles, only to still fall short on respect from her white colleagues as well as the white-dominant art world. Pindell worked as…
August 21, 2018
Howardena Pindell has consistently broken new ground during her five-decades-long artistic career. In 1967, she was the first female African American to graduate from Yale University’s MFA program then began working as the first female black curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Her diverse body of art—from abstract canvases to photography…
April 12, 2018
Esther Mahlangu, whose dazzling, mural-size paintings provide a gateway to the VMFA African art galleries, has just been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Johannesburg for “her legacy as a cultural entrepreneur and educator, skillfully negotiating local and global worlds.” Dr. Mahlangu, the most renowned artist of South Africa’s Ndebele people, developed the…
February 16, 2017
VMFA mourns the recent passing of Richmond-born artist Benjamin Leroy Wigfall (1930-2017). When the museum purchased his painting Chimneys in 1951, Wigfall was only 21, the youngest artist to have a work enter VMFA’s permanent collection. Wigfall was interviewed by the museum in 2003 and 2016 and was the subject of a program held at…
December 15, 2016
A lively spontaneity results from this approach, revealing the human touch of creation. No straight edge is used, no tape. Just the eye and the hand—although it’s important to mention the acrobatics and exertion also! Esther and Marriam painted standing, sitting, kneeling, and even reclining on scaffolding, ladders, and the floor. All the climbing was…
August 7, 2016
Kehinde Wiley talks about his father and his own yearning to be authentically connected to Africa.
August 6, 2016
Kehinde Wiley was influenced early on by such portrait painters as John Singer Sargent and Barkley Hendricks, both represented in VMFA’s permanent collection. Visit today to see Wiley’s work and the earlier masters who influenced him.
