Category Archives: American Art
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Ruth Asawa Sculptor of Space in three books
Ruth Asawa: Sculptor of Space Ruth Asawa had an extraordinary childhood. In her early years she grew up on a farm with her immigrant parents, sharing in the hard work. That idea of hard work stayed with her throughout her career as an artist. In April 1942, when she was sixteen her family […]
This entry was posted on August 30, 2025 and is filed under American Art, Contemporary Art, Contemporary Asian American Art, Contemporary Sculpture by Women, Feminism, Uncategorized. -
Kenjiro Nomura American Modernist
“Kenjiro Nomura American Modernist, An Issei Artist’s Journey” (Cascadia Art Museum, Edmonds, to February 20) Kenjiro Nomura (1896 – 1956) came from Japan to Tacoma at the age of ten in 1907. while living in Tacoma as a child, he attended a Japanese Language school where he was fortunate to have a skilled teacher who […]
This entry was posted on February 1, 2022 and is filed under American Art, art criticism, Uncategorized. -
Charles White: Humanist
The huge mural by Charles White, “5 great American Negroes” overwhelms us before we even enter the Charles White retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In this first mural Charles White created for the government sponsored WPA mural program, Sojourner Truth leads a march of freed slaves […]
This entry was posted on October 29, 2018 and is filed under African American history, American Art, Art and Activism, Art and Politics Now, Uncategorized. -
Carletta Carrington Wilson’s “letter to a laundress”
Carletta Carrington Wilson addresses her “letter to a laundress” to her great great grandmother, but her profound photo/poem installation currently on view at the Kittredge Gallery in Tacoma (only until September 29) honors the work of all those who, in her words, “took in wash.” She found photographs of anonymous […]
This entry was posted on September 7, 2018 and is filed under African American fiction, African American history, American Art, Arican American history, Art and Activism, Art and Ecology, Art and Politics Now, art criticism, Civil War, ecology, Uncategorized. -
Kerry James Marshall Maestro and Shaman
Kerry James Marshall Retrospective glories in the humanity and history of African Americans, and confronts the prejudices of the white eye, the white museum, the white art history
This entry was posted on March 1, 2017 and is filed under African American history, American Art, Art and Activism, art criticism, Art of Democracy, Black Art, Black Panthers, Ethnicity, Uncategorized. -
“¡Presente!: The Young Lords in New York”
El Presente at El Museo del Barrio features the Young Lords of 1969-71, their activism and their art, a wonderful piece of history.
This entry was posted on December 8, 2015 and is filed under American Art, Art and Activism, Art and Politics Now, art criticism, Black Panthers, Feminism, Feminism, Uncategorized. -
Art AIDS America at the Tacoma Art Museum on World AIDS Day
On this World AIDS Day, I offer a review of the comprehensive exhibition at the Tacoma Art Museum, Art AIDS America. It includes 127 works, many media, and a thesis that artists who addressed AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s permanently changed the course of American art by demonstrating strategies to address political issues.
This entry was posted on December 1, 2015 and is filed under American Art, Art and Activism, art criticism, Contemporary Art, democracy, First Nations Art, Uncategorized. -
Led by Indigenous voices, all ages protest Arctic Drilling
From Indigenous poets to Raging Grannies, from children and youth to college students, to people of every age, everyone is participating in the protest of Shell’s Polar Pioneer oil drilling platform with creative non violent civil disobedience at its best
This entry was posted on June 11, 2015 and is filed under American Art, Art and Activism, Art and Ecology, Art and Politics Now, art criticism, Contemporary Art, Contemporary Indigenous Art, ecology, First Nations Art, Indigenous Art, Seattle Art, Uncategorized. -
American Art at the Newly Expanded Tacoma Art Museum
The generous donation of the Haub Family Collection gives the Tacoma Art Museum an opportunity to rethink Western Art and its meaning.
This entry was posted on January 16, 2015 and is filed under American Art, art criticism, Western Art.
