#JoeOverstreet started to think outside the two-dimensional box of paintings by 1970, when he began creating tent-like paintings, including “Boxes,” pictured here.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the artist created representational paintings about the history of racism in America. He saw his work from that period as a form of protest but underwent an important evolution that changed the course of his practice:

“By 1970 I had broken free from notions that paintings had to be on the wall in rectangular shapes ... I began to make paintings that were tent-like. I was making nomadic art, and I could roll it up and travel ... We had survived with our art by rolling it up and moving it all over ... I felt like a nomad myself, with all the insensitivity in America.”

We are proud to have “Boxes” in the #ArtBridges collection. Learn more about this piece—and how to bring it to your institution—by visiting our website.

Image: Joe Overstreet, Boxes, 1970, acrylic on constructed canvas with metal grommets and cotton rope, canvas: 42 1/2 × 39 × 35 1/2 in (108 × 99.1 × 90.2 cm), installed: 115 × 67 1/2 × 48 in (292.1 × 171.5 × 121.9 cm). Art Bridges. ...

⚡️#FlashbackFriday⚡️#KeithHaring in the New York City subway, 1984, via @guardian.

Haring bridged the gap between art shown in galleries and art made quickly on the streets and subways of New York City. His iconic style featured bold graphic lines in intricate patterns. He often used his work to develop profound narratives that dealt with religion, queerness, greed, death, and love.

Though he rarely made himself the center of his work, in 1985, he created a self-portrait in the traditions of European portraiture as a way to grapple with his own mortality in light of the AIDS crisis that was ravanging gay men in America. “I always knew ... that I would die young. I live every day as if it were my last,” that artist said. He did unfortunately pass away from AIDS not long after, in 1990.

The poignant, rare Haring self-portrait is part of the #ArtBridges collection. Visit our website to view it and learn more about it. Contact us if you are interested in borrowing it for your museum. Link in bio. ...

In many ways, a New York City subway car can feel like a moving museum of colorful characters. A New York native, artist #NormanWilfredLewis spent decades capturing the struggles and the beauty of the city and its inhabitants. In "Untitled (Subway Station),” the artist employs a range of palettes, patterns and contours to highlight the diversity of the urban scene. He also adds a bit of sand to the work, as a material manifestation of the metaphorical grit of the city. Learn more about the work—available for loan—in our collection on our website. #ArtBridges

Norman Wilfred Lewis, Untitled (Subway Station), 1945, oil and sand on canvas, 24 x 36 in (61 x 91.4 cm). Art Bridges. © Estate of Norman W. Lewis; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY. ...

#ArtistNews | #MarkBradford has been named one of @TIME’s Most Influential People of 2021.

As #AnitaHill writes: "Mark’s work gives me hope that the challenges we’ve faced will help to connect us. Though future disasters may seem inevitable, Mark’s art has shown us how we might avoid them, if only we are brave enough to see."

Bradford's monumental collage “Thelxiepeia" (2016) is part of the #ArtBridges collection and is currently on view at the @RiverfrontMuseum as part of the exhibition "American Verses: Terry Adkins, Mark Bradford & Kerry James Marshall." Visit our website to learn more about this work and contact us if you are interested in bringing it to your institution.

Image: via Time magazine

#TIME100 ...

“Within powwow culture you feel a sense of collectivity and community, but you also get to be an individual, and you get to see other people expressing themselves as individuals. It’s a really unique social space.”—Artist #JeffreyGibson, speaking with @bombmag in 2019.

As a New York–based Mississippi Band of Choctaw and Cherokee artist, the artist merges aspects of Native American visual culture with allusions to contemporary geometric abstraction.

The title of the work pictured here, “Migration,” recalls historically nomadic cultures of Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains, as well as the forced dispossession of many Native nations by the federal government across the country during the 19th and 20th centuries.

As a Native American and a gay man, the artist found acceptance at powwows and in queer club culture. “Migration” seems to vibrate with the energy and color of these environments, asserting that movement, so often a mechanism of division, can also be a tool of connection that fosters understanding.

📍This piece from the #ArtBridges collection is currently on view at the @bemiscenter as part of the exhibition “All Together, Amongst Many: Reflections on Empathy" (through September 19). ...