WHY THIS MOMENT ON THE WORLD ART STAGE IN VENICE SHOULD MATTER TO ALL OF BLACK ART
WHY THIS MOMENT ON THE WORLD ART STAGE IN VENICE SHOULD MATTER TO ALL OF BLACK ART
Read the entire newsletter here.
Something historic is happening in Venice right now and we all need to take solace in how the art world can lift us up in such challenging times. For the first time an African woman was selected as curator of the Venice Biennale and a record number of Black artists from across the globe were invited to exhibit.
For Black Americans navigating a difficult moment at home, this Biennale is a reminder that we are world citizens — and that Black creative tradition has always been a global force. The artists who left this country in the 1960s to gain a wider view were onto something. Sometimes you have to look outward to deepen your resolve.
Big Chief Demond Melancon, founder of the Young Seminole Hunters tribe is among 111 artists worldwide invited to the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. As we reel from the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana designed to gut the Voting Rights Act (VRA) Melancon offers his own form of artistic rebellion. His ceremonial suits and hand-sewn beadwork canvases are on view in both the Giardini and the Arsenale.
On May 6, Melancon performed Blessing the Ancestors at the Giardini — a ritual procession rooted in over two centuries of Black Masking Culture, wearing his Jah Defender suit (2020). His participation was personally selected by the late Koyo Kouoh, the Cameroonian curator who became the first African woman ever appointed to lead the Venice Biennale. Kouoh died of cancer in May 2025 before seeing her vision realized. The exhibition, titled In Minor Keys, was carried to completion by her handpicked team exactly as she conceived it — a profound act of posthumous fidelity to one of the art world’s most important curatorial voices.
The relationship began with a direct message on Instagram. “Marisol Rodriguez contacted me,” and that’s how I got with Mariane Ibrahim. And she supported me in a major way to get there.” From that first conversation, the fit was clear. “From the beginning, they made me feel like family,” he said.
The exhibition runs through November 22, so we have time to experience these firsts. Stand in Venice and see what it looks like when a Big Chief from the Lower Ninth Ward and the first African woman to curate the world’s oldest art fair find each other — and change the conversation forever.
Big Chief Demond shares his experiences at the Biennale with Pigment International. Read the full interview here:
The Biennale’s thematic threads this year — tradition, legacy, and collective memory — are ideas you engaged with directly during your talk at Expo Chicago. When you’re working within the Big Chief tradition, how do you hold the weight of that legacy while also asserting your own artistic voice?
“Being a Big Chief in the Black Masking Culture of New Orleans is completely different from my artistic voice in the contemporary art world. Being a Big Chief, you’re holding onto tradition and culture, and it’s completely different when we’re masking in the streets of New Orleans — when we’re masking with our tribe. So, while the weight of the legacy within the Black Masking Culture of New Orleans is different, I’m creating a legacy within the art world. But it’s just different for me; the feeling is different when I’m creating the work versus when I’m creating my suit as a Big Chief. When I’m creating my suit, I’m in spirit. When I’m creating my artwork, I’m in spirit, too. But I’m trying to answer questions that I have within myself about my art practice while channeling that spirit.”
Read the rest of the interview here.
FINAL WEEK OF I USED TO LIVE IN CHICAGO AT BLANC GALLERY CELEBRATES LEGACY, MEMORY, AND COMMUNITY
The final week of I Used to Live in Chicago at Blanc Gallery in Bronzeville brings a powerful close to one of the season’s most resonant exhibitions, culminating with two special public programs before the exhibition ends May 24. A collectors tour will take place Tuesday, May 19, followed by a screening of the classic Chicago film Cooley High on May 20.
Curated by Anefertiti Bowman, the multidisciplinary exhibition explores memory, displacement, and cultural resilience across Chicago’s historic Black neighborhoods. The exhibition unites acclaimed contemporary artists Norman Teague, Max Sansing, and Steve Bravo alongside elder Chicago artists Sura Dupart, Tyrue “Slang” Jones, and Patric McCoy in a rare intergenerational dialogue grounded in lived experience and cultural memory.
The exhibition reflects the depth of Chicago’s Black artistic legacy through mural-scale painting, sculptural work, furniture and object-based design, and graphic storytelling. Teague’s work is featured in the forthcoming Obama Presidential Center, while Sansing’s celebrated works appear in collections and public spaces nationwide.
At its core, I Used to Live in Chicago is both a love letter and a reckoning — affirming the histories, neighborhoods, and communities that continue to shape the city. Works from the exhibition remain available for purchase through the close of the show.
