Gallery opening: Echoes in Our Bones: The Empowering Legacy of Black Women Artists in American Art and Culture

About this event

Echoes in Our Bones The Empowering Legacy of Black Women Artists in American Art and Culture Curated by Judith K. Brodsky and Rhinold L. Ponder On View: Saturday, August 29 – Saturday, October 3, 2026 Opening reception: wednesday, September 9 from 5-7pm panel discussion: thursday, September 17 from 5:30-6:30pm at princeton university art museum. learn more. ABOUT THE EXHIBITION: Echoes in Our Bones will explore how themes of identity, history, and cultural resilience have endured and transformed across generations. The exhibition examines how these artists have explored and expanded the ideals articulated in the Declaration of Independence, “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”, using art as a powerful vehicle for expression, resistance, care, and community. Pairings of artists from past and present generations will include Faith Ringgold and Bisa Butler, Selma Burke and Allison Saar, Mary Lovelace O’Neal and Julie Mehretu, Betye Saar and Tschabalala Self, Carrie Mae Weems and LaToya Ruby Frazier, Laura Wheeler Waring and Jordan Casteel, Elizabeth Catlett and Kara Walker, and Howardena Pindell and Shinique Smith. Through these connections, the exhibition will not only showcase individual artistic voices but also trace a lineage of creative expression that has contributed to shaping and defining American art. The Pairings: Faith Ringgold and Bisa Butler create large-scale works celebrating African American life through a combination of fabric and paint—a medium pioneered by Ringgold and Miriam Schapiro during the early years of the Feminist Art Movement in the 1970s. Bisa Butler: Courtesy of the Artist and Jeffrey Deitch, New York and Los Angeles. Elizabeth Catlett and Kara Walker both explore the heritage of slavery through printmaking, a medium traditionally associated with social justice and political commentary: Laura Wheeler Waring and Jordan Casteel: Waring devoted much of her career to portraying the emerging African American middle class,…