Drawn from the private collection of Priscila and Alvin Hudgins III, Kindred Worlds reveals the couple’s deep and enduring devotion to the arts—not solely as a mode of creative expression but also as an intimate form of world-making.

Every art collection functions as its own universe, shaped by the vision and personal commitments of its collector. Drawn from the private collection of Priscila and Alvin Hudgins III, Kindred Worlds reveals the couple’s deep and enduring devotion to the arts—not solely as a mode of creative expression but also as an intimate form of world-making. Before coming to the Hudson River Museum, most of these paintings adorned the dining, living, and bedroom walls of the Hudgins family home in Yonkers. Meals were shared under richly painted canvases, bedtime stories told beside vibrant watercolors. For the Hudgins, building their collection was a way of building home and community—a practice that Priscila and Alvin take up in more ways than one, as they have become great friends with many of the artists featured in this exhibition. In turn, many of these artists have included images of Hudgins family members in their works. Together, the artworks demonstrate a dynamic amalgamation of relationships between collector and artist, artist and subject, subject and kin.

That’s not to say that these artworks do not have stories of their own to tell. Themes of myth and memory pervade the collection, as artists take up different visual strategies to convey personal histories. Here, artists such as Bony Ramirez, Laurena Finéus, and Naudline Pierre reinterpret classical techniques in order to create otherworldly renditions of femininity, Blackness, and migration. Others experiment with the materiality of art itself. Artists including Chase Hall and David Hammons use coffee beans, cotton, and grease as mediums, invoking specific histories of oppression and resilience—often in relation to the enduring and forceful presence of colonial structures.

Intimate vignettes provide another throughline across the collection. Drawing inspiration from childhood memories, ethnographies, and family photographs, many of the artists explore how ideas of “home” and “kinship” take on new and unexpected meanings when represented on the canvas. Jordan Casteel, for example, created her MTA series after observing the restful weariness of subway travelers, who find a moment for themselves in the comforting curve of plastic seats. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Raelis Vasquez turned to his family albums for solace, translating his photographs into painted scenes of quiet connection.

And, of course, there’s the ever-present presence of the Hudgins family themselves. We invite you to walk through the exhibition and locate images of Hudgins family members—captured, for example, in Henry Taylor’s gestural brushstrokes and Derrick Adams’s punchy, joyous color palette. Presented to the public as a collection for the first time, these selected works document the Hudgins family’s abiding support of the arts and their vital legacy of Black American collectorship, one that continues to prioritize the success of Black and Brown artists and ensure a more equitable and expansive vision of American art.

The eighth stop of our nationwide touring exhibition, Young, Gifted and Black gathers and elevates an emerging generation of contemporary artists who are engaging with the work of their predecessors while finding new and different ways to represent the Black experience. Kara Walker, Kerry James Marshall, Mickalene Thomas, Tomashi Jackson, Eric N. Mack, Troy Michie, Jennifer Packer, Paul Mpagi Sepuya and Tunji Adeniyi-Jones are among nearly 50 artists featured in this traveling exhibition drawn from the renowned private collection of Bernard I. Lumpkin and Carmine D. Boccuzzi.

The Hill Art Foundation is excited to present Jordan Casteel: Field of view, on view September 13 through November 23, 2024, which brings together 25 works spanning the past decade of Casteel’s practice. Her first solo presentation at the Foundation is curated by Lauren Haynes, Head Curator at Governors Island Arts and Vice President for Arts and Culture at the Trust for Governors Island in New York City.

Field of view offers glimpses into Casteel’s life over the last ten years, revealing the environmental and psychological elements that unite her bodies of work. The show aims to encourage conversations between paintings conceived in diverging spaces, years apart, revealing the artist’s distinguished style and clarity of vision. Sites and subjects shift with formal and thematic through lines in her renderings of textures and textiles, bold color palette, and compositional symmetries between the human form and the landscapes we inhabit. “Field of view,” a photography term that describes what is visible through a camera’s viewfinder, alludes to Casteel’s process of photographing her subjects prior to putting paint to canvas. The title simultaneously acknowledges Casteel’s perspective and inherent presence in each composition. These notions will be further explored in a forthcoming zine designed by Pacific and featuring text by curator Lauren Haynes.

The presentation invites viewers to consider sites within sites, informed by the Hill Art Foundation’s floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the High Line and Chelsea. The city views act as both backdrop and subject, embodying what is implied in oil on canvas. Furniture by Batsheva Hay and vintage rugs evoke a living room or an artist’s studio, bringing comfort, rootedness, and individuality out of the picture plane and into the gallery.

Messages and markers of time are revealed through intentional observation. Casteel’s interpretations of the intrinsic qualities of a space, whether intimate or shared, give

insight into the collective experience. Harlem Public (2021), depicting the facade of an iconic eatery at 149th Street and Broadway, is plastered with “masks required” signs; a sandwich board advertising takeout and delivery; partial renderings of “thank you New York” and a mention of first responders; and a poster of Breonna Taylor with the message “#SayHerName,” thrusting us back into the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. Amina (2017) demonstrates that this same sensitivity to light, shadow, and reflection was present four years earlier. The two works share a playful incorporation of portraits into what are, in effect, landscapes. On the signage of a hair braiding business, we find 37 individual images of women.

Interchanging setting and subject, Casteel depicts plant life sourced from her own garden in the Catskills in layered swaths of color that echo the gestural forms of her figurative portraits. In Peak Summer (2024), purple basil, tomato vines, and nasturtium and marigold blossoms overhang the garden bed, rendered in true-to-life hues or partial outlines. In leaving her underpainting visible, Casteel draws a parallel between the processes of painting and natural growth.

The exhibition closes with Jordan Hand (2014), the earliest painting in Field of view. The work is a partial self-portrait that obstructs Casteel’s visage while asserting the same indisputable presence. The artist is curled on her bed, surrounded by patterned textiles in a scene that mirrors the exhibition’s viewing experience. The floral pillowcase foreshadows the garden paintings that follow. The layers of paint describe sprouting stems and leaves at peak bloom—swift markings that signal new beginnings.

The High will be the exclusive venue in the Southeastern United States to present the first major exhibition of the world-class art collection owned by musical and cultural icons Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Dean) and Alicia Keys.

Organized by the Brooklyn Museum, where it debuted in February, Giants will feature a focused selection from the couple’s holdings, spotlighting works by multigenerational Black diasporic artists, from 20th century legends such as Nick Cave, Lorna Simpson, and Barkley L. Hendricks, to artists of a younger generation including Deana Lawson, Amy Sherald, and Ebony G. Patterson, who are expanding the legacies of those who came before them.

Giants stands as a testament to the Deans’ ethos of “collecting and preserving the culture of ourselves for ourselves, now and into the future.” Through approximately 115 objects, including 98 major artworks, the exhibition will trace the evolution of an audacious and ambitious collection and explore the ways in which the featured artists and their work have grappled with societal issues, embraced monumentality, and made a palpable impact on the art canon. In addition to paintings, photographs, and sculptures, the galleries will include noteworthy examples of the Deans’ early non-art collecting interests, including albums, musical equipment, and BMX bikes, along with related ephemera.

The unprecedented exhibition “Ancestral: Afro-Americas [United States and Brazil]” addresses the relations between the two countries from the perspective of the African diaspora and how it is present in the visual arts. Held at the FAAP Museum of Brazilian Art, the free exhibition brings together 132 works by great artists from both countries.

With an organic exhibition design, the exhibition, which will be on display from October 29 to January 26, 2025 , offers reflections on the affirmation of the body, the oneiric dimension of dreams, and the claim to space. Through these three axes – body, dream, and space – “Ancestral” promotes an encounter that values ​​the concept of African-American identity in Brazil and the United States and decolonial art. The exhibition not only pays homage to artists who challenged the brutalities and erasure of colonialism, but also seeks to foster an open dialogue on the impact and relevance of ancestral African roots in their formation and in their social contexts. 

Based on these provocations, the project proposes a renewed perspective on the world and a new way of existing, imagined by the group of participating artists. This creative process allows for a simultaneous movement between past and future, intertwining the ancestral lines that sustain the contemporary art scene and highlighting current productions that, in the future, may emerge as precursors of expressions of life as yet unexperienced. 

“We were guided by the groups and communities of the African diaspora who reimagined the concept of servitude in the colonial nations to which they were brought, contributing significantly to the construction of the national identity of these places. Based on the idea of ​​human beings reinventing their existence in a hostile environment, we selected artists who evoke this invention, this transformation, and this process of 'becoming' as a powerful poetic and aesthetic tool,” comments Brazilian curator Ana Beatriz Almeida. 

For American curator Lauren Haynes, the opportunity to work with Ana Beatriz “to present the work of African-American artists alongside the work of Afro-Brazilian artists was a great chance to explore connections and distinct practices of black artists working in two very different places. I hope visitors leave the exhibition having learned about new artists and new ways of making art.” 

The exhibition takes place in the year that marks the bicentennial of diplomatic relations between Brazil and the United States. “The decision to place Afro-descendant art at the center of this celebration is very important and highlights the complex legacy that both the United States and Brazil share as a result of our histories with slavery. In 1824, the United States and Brazil had the largest populations of enslaved Africans. Two hundred years later, our current governments are working together to relaunch the U.S.-Brazil Joint Plan of Action to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Discrimination and Promote Equality (JAPER). I am confident that this exhibition will inspire us to intensify our efforts in the fight to end racism,” said U.S. Ambassador to Brazil Elizabeth Frawley Bagley. 

Against this historical backdrop, the exhibition brings together 73 artists of great international relevance from both nations. Among them are new works by Brazilians Gabriella Marinho and Gê Viana, and American Simone Leigh , who brings a new work from her personal collection. Born in Chicago, the internationally recognized artist is the first African-American woman to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale. Another American artist, Nari Ward , who has already had the opportunity to perform in Brazil, is another name who brings to the exhibition a work created on Brazilian soil exclusively for the occasion. The artist incorporates everyday objects into his works, thus enriching the artistic exchange between the nations. 

The curators of “Ancestral” also include Abdias Nascimento , an icon of cultural activism in Brazil, widely recognized for his contributions to the promotion of Afro-Brazilian culture and for having been awarded the Zumbi dos Palmares Prize. Among the North American artists, Kara Walker stands out with her provocative art, which examines historical and social issues and earned her the prestigious MacArthur Prize. Julie Mehretu is another significant presence, recognized for her complex paintings that establish a dialogue with current geopolitics, accumulating a series of awards throughout her career. Complementing this panorama, the Brazilian Rosana Paulino , awarded the PIPA Prize, brings a critical look at race and identity, highlighting the diversity and depth of the voices represented in the exhibition. 

They are joined by names such as the young artist Mayara Ferrão , who uses artificial intelligence to rethink scenes of affection between black and indigenous people not told by “traditional history”; and the Sergipe native Bispo do Rosário , with his embroidered cloaks and objects that have transcended time and subverted the concept of beauty and madness. Reinforcing the powerful dialogue about identity, culture and history, and reflecting the complexity of the human experience, we see the inclusion of works by Kerry James Marshall , Carrie Mae Weems and Betye Saar .  

“Ancestral” investigates the intertwined narratives between Brazil and the United States through the lens of art, which transcends geographic and cultural boundaries, evoking the constant sensation of being in an unknown space and remembering another place, such as a trip to Salvador, where people and places could be mistaken for New Orleans. “The word ‘ancestral’ is common in both English and Portuguese. It is this shared origin that we seek to highlight in contemporary art, something that transcends geographic, linguistic and cultural barriers. The exhibition ‘Ancestral’ demonstrates that, even in the face of so much pain, suffering and with all the distance of centuries of African diaspora, its art persists in the ability to keep a flame burning over time”, highlights the artistic director of the exhibition, Marcello Dantas. 

This exhibition features 28 Black and African diasporic contemporary artists who use figurative painting, drawing and sculpture to illuminate and celebrate the nuance and richness of Black contemporary life.

Curated by British writer and curator Ekow Eshun, The Time Is Always Now takes its title from an essay on desegregation by American writer and social rights activist James Baldwin. It highlights a sense of urgency around contemporary artistic expression, while acting as a reminder that Black artists exist within an always-evolving artistic lineage.

The more than 60 contemporary works featured in this exhibition unfold around three core themes: Double Consciousness, The Persistence of History and Our Aliveness. Double Consciousness, a theory first introduced in 1897 by the African American sociologist W.E.B Du Bois, explores concepts of being, belonging and Blackness as a psychological state. The Persistence of History explores the absence of Black figures in many mainstream narratives and shows how artists have responded. Our Aliveness features assertions and celebrations of Black assembly and gathering.

Traveling to the Philadelphia Museum of Art from the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Black and African diasporic artists in this exhibition work in the U.S. and the U.K. They include Michael Armitage, Claudette Johnson, Kerry James Marshall, Toyin Ojih Odutola, and Amy Sherald. For the show’s U.S. premiere, additional artists working in Philadelphia, London, and New York have been added, including Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, Robert Lugo, Danielle Mckinney, Deborah Roberts, and Arthur Timothy.