Opening Rescheduled
Due to the snowstorm, the opening of "Afrofuturism: Re-imagining the Future by Honoring Now," a multi-site exhibition organized by Julie Keyes and Eden Williams, has been rescheduled for Feb. 4 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Natali/Keyes Gallery in Greenport.
Afrofuturism has been defined by Tate London as "a cultural aesthetic that combines science-fiction, history, and fantasy to explore the African-American experience and aims to connect those from the Black diaspora with their forgotten African ancestry."
The Greenport exhibition will feature the work of Clintel Steed, Claude Lawrence, Erika Ranee, and Faith Ringgold. The exhibition will continue through March 31.
Subsequent "Afrofuturism" shows will take place at The Church in Sag Harbor (Feb. 5); AB NY Gallery in East Hampton (Feb. 19), and Keyes Art in Sag Harbor (Feb. 26).
Reimagined Landscape
A solo exhibition of work by Richard Mayhew, an Amityville-born artist of Shinnecock and African-American descent, is on view at the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington through April 24.
Consisting of more than two dozen paintings and works on paper, "Reinventing Landscape" explores how Mr. Mayhew has reimagined 19th and 20th-century American landscape painting through the lens of African-American and Native American history and culture.
In conjunction with the exhibition, a panel discussion on environmental justice on Long Island will take place on April 5. Jeremy Dennis, an artist and tribal member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, and Mark Chambers, a professor of Africana studies at Stony Brook University, will discuss Mr. Mayhew's work and the intersections of environmentalism and racial justice on Long Island.
Sills on View in NYC
"Thomas Sills: Variegations, Paintings From the 1950s-1970s" is on view at the Eric Firestone Gallery at 4 Great Jones Street in Manhattan through Feb. 26. Sills (1914-2000) was an African-American artist who created a body of abstract paintings that respond to process, and natural phenomena and forces.
His early work was influenced by Surrealist automatism and experimentation. By 1955 central forms suggesting birds, nests, apertures, nebulae, and eyes populated his paintings.
Born in North Carolina and self-taught, Sills received four solo shows at the Betty Parsons Gallery between 1955 and 1961. His work is in numerous important public collections.
This article has been modified from its original and print version to reflect the rescheduling of the opening of the "Afrofuturism" exhibition in Greenport due to the snowstorm.
