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.

Gordon Parks. Jean-Michel Basquiat. Lorna Simpson. Kehinde Wiley. Nina Chanel Abney. These names loom large in the past and present of art—as do many others in the collection of musical and cultural icons Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Dean) and Alicia Keys. Expansive in their collecting habits, the Deans, both born and raised in New York, champion a philosophy of “artists supporting artists.” The first major exhibition of the Dean Collection, Giants showcases a focused selection from the couple’s world-class holdings. The Brooklyn Museum’s presentation spotlights works by Black diasporic artists, part of our ongoing efforts to expand the art-historical narrative. 

“Giants” refers to several aspects of the Dean Collection: the renown of legendary artists, the impact of canon-expanding contemporary artists, and the monumental works by such creators as Derrick Adams, Arthur Jafa, and Meleko Mokgosi. Immense pieces—including the largest ever by Mokgosi—are paired with standouts such as Parks’s seminal photographs, Wiley’s revolutionary portraits, and Esther Mahlangu’s globe-bridging canvases. 

The term also evokes the strength of the bonds between the Deans and the artists they support, and among the artists themselves. Along with examining these links and legacies, the exhibition will encourage “giant conversations” inspired by the works on view—critiquing society and celebrating Blackness.

A major study of the Black figure – and its representation in contemporary art. 

This exhibition, curated by writer Ekow Eshun, showcases the work of contemporary artists from the African diaspora, including Michael Armitage, Lubaina Himid, Kerry James Marshall, Toyin Ojih Odutola and Amy Sherald, and highlights the use of figures to illuminate the richness and complexity of Black life. As well as surveying the presence of the Black figure in Western art history, we examine its absence – and the story of representation told through these works, as well as the social, psychological and cultural contexts in which they were produced.

The exhibition will feature the work of leading artists including Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Hurvin Anderson, Michael Armitage, Jordan Casteel, Noah Davis, Godfried Donkor, Kimathi Donkor, Denzil Forrester, Lubaina Himid, Claudette Johnson, Titus Kaphar, Kerry James Marshall, Wangechi Mutu, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Chris Ofili, Jennifer Packer, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Thomas J Price, Amy Sherald, Lorna Simpson, Henry Taylor and Barbara Walker.

Download the digital guide on Bloomberg Connects to unlock audio commentary, offering reflections from artists Thomas J Price, Amy Sherald, Claudette Johnson and Jordan Casteel, as well as the chance to hear from exhibition curator Ekow Eshun.

Coin­ciding with the 50th anniver­sary of the birth of Hip Hop, the Schirn is dedi­cating a major inter­dis­ci­pli­nary exhi­bi­tion to Hip Hop’s profound influ­ence on the current art and cultural land­scape.

Hip Hop first emerged in the Bronx, New York in the 1970s as a cultural move­ment among Black and Latinx youth who expressed them­selves through MCing, DJing, graf­fiti writing, and break­dancing. From its incep­tion, Hip Hop critiqued domi­nant struc­tures and cultural narra­tives and offered new avenues for expressing dias­poric expe­ri­ences and creating alter­nate systems of power, leading to social and polit­ical conscious­ness and knowl­edge-building.

Hip Hop has now evolved into a global phenom­enon that has driven numerous inno­va­tions in music, fashion, tech­nology, as well as visual and performing arts. Grounded on the origins of Hip Hop in the U.S., yet with a focus on art and music from the last twenty years, the exhi­bi­tion features over 100 paint­ings, photographs, sculp­tures, and videos, as well as fashion and vinyl, by inter­na­tion­ally renowned contem­po­rary artists including Lauren Halsey, Julie Mehretu, Tsch­a­balala Self, Arthur Jafa, Khalil Joseph, Virgil Abloh, and Gordon Parks. THE CULTURE illu­mi­nates Hip-Hop’s unprece­dented economic, social, and cultural resources and further­more addresses contem­po­rary issues and debates – from iden­tity, racism, and appro­pri­a­tion to sexu­ality, femi­nism, and empow­er­ment.

THE CULTURE is co-orga­nized by the Balti­more Museum of Art and the Saint Louis Art Museum, and is presented in collab­o­ra­tion with Schirn Kunstalle Frankfurt.