Congresswoman Robin Kelly flanked by Pigment's Patricia Andrews-Keenan and Phyliss North at her Matteson office. | |
Pigment International visited outgoing Congresswoman Robin Kelly at her Matteson office last week to thank her for entering Black Fine Art Month (BFAM) into the Congressional Record. Kelly entered the commemoration in October 2019, giving the observance a permanent place in the nation's historical record.
Kelly has represented Illinois' 2nd Congressional District since 2013, committed to improving the health and wellness of vulnerable communities across the country. During her tenure, she served as Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust and Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls. She also co-chaired the House Democratic Policy Group and the House Tech Accountability Caucus.
The visit follows a milestone year for Black Fine Art Month. Pigment International's 2026 Black Fine Art Convening: Chicago to the World was the organization's largest convening to date. It was preceded by Pigment's first Pigmented Black Fine Art Faire in 2025, and both were held in commemoration of Black Fine Art Month.
Kelly's recognition in the Congressional Record affirmed what Pigment has long championed: legacy, permanence, and the elevation of Black artistic excellence. Pigment International is grateful for her support and leadership and wishes her continued success in the next chapter of her public service.
Learn more about Congresswoman Kelly's work at robinkelly.house.gov.
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NORTH SHORE FINE ART EXPO PREMIERES IN EVANSTON THIS FRIDAY | Artists Anthony Brewer and Sunday Mahaja will be at this weekend's North Shore Fine Art Fair. | |
Evanston is about to get a new fall destination for collectors. The inaugural North Shore Fine Art Expo opens Friday, November 13, at The Orrington Hotel beside Northwestern University. It is a boutique, curated fair with artists chosen from across the country, many of them showing exclusively in Chicagoland.
What sets the Expo apart is access. Every artist will be on-site to talk about their work, and attendees can buy directly from them. The range is wide, from abstraction, figuration and portraiture to encaustic, fiber art, sculpture, mixed media and plein air painting.
Among the participating artists are Anthony Brewer, Carl Crawford, India Cruse-Griffin, Jeribai Andrew-JaJa, Lawal Said, sculptors Sunday Mahaja and Gedion Nyanhongo with Gedion Galleries. For collectors building a collection that reflects the full breadth of contemporary practice, this is a chance to meet these artists face to face.
Pigment International is proud to be a Media Partner of the Expo, alongside partners Chicago Alliance of Visual Artists, the Chicago Women's Caucus for Art, the Evanston Art Center and the North Shore Art League.
Event Details
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1st Look Preview: Friday, November 13, 6:30–9:30 PM
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Saturday, November 14: 11 AM–7 PM
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Sunday, November 15: 11 AM–6 PM
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Location: The Orrington Hotel, Evanston, IL
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Tickets: Eventbrite | northshorefineartexpo.com
| MICHELLE DUSTER’S MURAL PROJECT CEMENTS THE STORIES OF HISTORIC WOMEN ACROSS THE NATION | A dedication was held in NYC last month for the National Suffrage Mural Series. Next up is an unveiling in Portland. | |
Michelle Duster has spent years making sure history is visible where people live, work, and walk. Now the public historian, and great-granddaughter of Ida B. Wells, is helping carry that vision across the country.
As Co-Director of Monumenta's National Suffrage Mural Series, Duster, working with Artistic Director Neysa Page-Lieberman, is expanding a project that began in Chicago with three large-scale murals installed in 2021 and 2023. On October 23, artist Sam Kirk's mural was dedicated at P.S. 134 in New York City, portraying 16 women tied to the city's suffrage history. Portland, Oregon follows in early December with a mural by Addie Boswell honoring ten local leaders. Monumenta plans to reach ten cities in all.
Chicago remains the series' foundation, and Duster's imprint on the city's public landscape runs deeper still. She spearheaded the Ida B. Wells monument in Bronzeville, Light of Truth, created by the late sculptor Richard Hunt. Standing near the site of the former Ida B. Wells Homes, the sculpture honors the journalist and anti-lynching crusader whose work reshaped the nation's conscience. It is now a landmark of Black Chicago memory.
Duster's message is consistent: suffrage was not one story. "The strategies and victories were unique in each community and region," she says. The murals also remind viewers that the 19th Amendment did not secure the ballot for every woman. Black women gained full voting rights in 1965.
| A POEM FOR DEEP THINKERS | RASHID JOHNSON COMES HOME TO THE MCA | |
Chicago-born, Evanston-raised Rashid Johnson returns to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) with a retrospective that borrows its title from Amiri Baraka and, like the poem, treats thought as a living, restless thing. More than 70 works span nearly three decades, beginning with his student days at Columbia College Chicago.
His vocabulary is unmistakable. Mirrored tiles throw viewers back at themselves. Album covers hum with Black musical memory. Shea butter, black soap and wax turn surfaces into skin, scent and ritual. The target recurs, asking who is aimed at and who is doing the aiming.
Then there is family. Johnson speaks of his mother, a longtime college professor whose intellectual life shaped his own. His 2024 film Sanguine turns toward his own family, examining his relationships with his father, brother and son, and it incorporates a poem by Baraka. Verse becomes inheritance, a way of passing down what words alone can’t carry. At the center of the galleries stands Antoine's Organ, the plant wall familiar from his Guggenheim presentation. It is named for pianist and producer Antoine Baldwin, who first activated it in 2016, and a piano is hidden at the center of the structure. Throughout the run, musicians improvise live from inside it. It may be the truest self-portrait in the show: an intellectual still growing toward the light, with music kept inside.
Like Baraka's poem, the exhibition offers no tidy answers. It asks us to slow down, meet our own reflection, and keep growing.
Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers runs November 7, 2026, through April 25, 2027, in the Griffin Galleries at 220 E. Chicago Ave. The museum is open Tuesday 10 am–9 pm, Wednesday–Sunday 10 am–5 pm, and closed Mondays. The activations are free with admission. Performances happen at the top of each hour and last 30 minutes. Because capacity is limited, guests are encouraged to cycle through the gallery during a performance.
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Ian White, son of Charles White, and ED of the Charles White Archives, at the opening of the exhibition at the Logan Center for the Arts. White curated the show. | |
November 6, 2026 – January 31, 2027
Logan Center Gallery, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago
915 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637
Tuesday–Sunday, 9:00 AM–9:00 PM
Presented by | Charles White Archives, Logan Center Exhibitions, and South Side Community Art Center.
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Two of the Chicago based artists work were accepted into the juried show, including In the Land of the Free, which was shown in the exhibitions Glory! Glory and Revolutionary. Above the artist with his work Weight in the Water.
Art of Soul! 2026
October 24 – February 27, 2027
National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center (NAAMCC)
Wilberforce, OH
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