Black Expressions: 50 Years of Black Art at UW-Madison

UW Archives Student Historian Sophia Abrams highlights the exhibitions she curated on Black Arts for spring 2022.

APRIL 18, 2022 THROUGH MAY 13, 2022

Black Expressions: 50 Years of Black Student Artists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison surveys the work of Black student artists who attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison. These works capture a 20th and 21st-century interpretation of what it means to be a Black artist from 1969 to present-day. Black Expressions: 50 Years of Black Student Artists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison pays homage to Professor High’s 1973 show Black Expressions. The show robustly demonstrates the depth of Black art and analyzes what time and space mean to Black artists who attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Student Historian and curator Sophia Abrams interviewed the selected artists for her University Archives Oral History Project on Black artists in 2021. After interviewing 17 Black student artists who attended UW-Madison, Abrams spent the 2021-2022 school year translating her oral history interviews into exhibitions and documentaries. Black Expressions: 50 Years of Black Student Artists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison features the work of Professor Freida High Wasikhongo Tesfagiorgis, Dr. Jerry Butler, Roger Allan Cleaves, Tanya Crane, Alex Jackson, Jay Katelansky, Anwar Floyd-Pruitt, Shiloah Coley, Taj Matumbi and Sophia Abrams.

Black Expressions: 50 Years of Black Student Artists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison  is organized and curated by Sophia Abrams, with support from University Archives, WUD Art and the UW–Madison Division of the Arts’ Lyman S.V. Judson and Ellen Mackechnie Judson Student Award in the Creative Arts.

VIEWING THE SHOW

Black Expressions: 50 Years of Black Student Artists at UW-Madison is on display at the Memorial Union’s 1925 Gallery from April 18, 2022 through May 13, 2022. This exhibition will be available for viewing during open Union hours.