Exhibit Dates: March 11 - June 14, 2026
Exhibit Location: MLK Library, Floor 5
A Black Artists of DC (BADC) Exhibition
Curated by Gia Harewood (@giametricart)
Featured Artists:
Akili Ron Anderson (@akiliron), Neville Barbour (@nevillebarbour), Adjoa J. Burrowes (@adjoaburrowes_art), Daniel T. Brooking, James Brown Jr. (@baba_jamesjmebrownjr), Claudia "Aziza" Gibson-Hunter (@gibsonhunterstudio), T.H. Gomillion (@t.h.gomillion), Kristen Hayes-Campbell (@krishayesart), Harlee H. Little Jr., Imar Lyman (@imarhutchins), Lex Marie (@thelexmarie), Michael B. Platt, Amber Robles-Gordon (@amberroblesgordon), Alec Simpson, Autumn Spears (@autumnspears.art), Stan Squirewell (@ssquirewell), Marcel Taylor (@Cellyt00), Jessica Valoris (@JessicaValoris), Prelli Anthony Williams (@prelli_art_works)
In November 2009, Black Artists of DC (BADC) presented an exhibition at the DC Arts Center entitled BLACK. The exhibition invited 29 artists to interpret Black as a concept, color, and/or racial identity.
As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, public narratives increasingly amplify ideals of freedom, liberty, and star-spangled patriotism. As articulated by Nikole Hannah-Jones in The 1619 Project: A Visual Experience, Black history complicates these narratives. At this moment, renewed efforts to suppress, narrow, and remove Black history from public view have intensified shaping a cultural climate of erasure in America.
It is within this context that BLACK is reprised as BLACK(ER). Select artists from the original exhibition, along with six new artists, present works as homage and testament. Their presence nearly two decades later affirms not only persistence, but inheritance—artists working within a continuum shaped by ancestors who understood survival itself as a form of freedom and resistance.
BLACK(ER) does not respond to recent erasures with recovery or correction. Instead, it simply asserts presence and continuity. By foregrounding artists whose practices have endured and deepened over time, the exhibition reflects Black culture as cumulative and unerasable—carried forward, reshaped, and renewed across generations.
Image: Adjoa J. Burrowes, Horizon of Hope_1, 2021
Image: Kristen Hayes-Campbell, Grand Unified Theorem Waters of Nu Series #2, 2022
Acrylic and Chalk Paint on Unprimed Canvas
Related Events
Exhibition Reception & Artist Talk
Wednesday, April 29 | 6-8 p.m. | MLK Library
Please join us for a reception and artist talk to celebrate the exhibition BLACK(ER), on view on the fifth floor of the MLK Library through June 14.
Light refreshments will be served. Registration is recommended.