Culture Type | The Month in Black Art: Here’s What Happened in May 2025

International curator Koyo Kouoh died, longstanding Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden fired, artist and curator Evangeline J. Montgomery died, David C. Driskell Prize went to artist Alison Saar

Artist and Curator Evangeline J. Montgomery (1930-2025). | Courtesy the artist, Photo by Erwin Thamm

LIVES | May 1: Artist, curator, and arts administrator Evangeline J. Montgomery (1930-2025) died in Rockville, Md. She was 94. Montgomery’s artistic practice spanned metal work, fiber, photography, and printmaking. Born in New York, N.Y., she was a nexus in the African American art community, an advocate and mentor who seemed to know everyone. Early in her career, Montgomery was active in California, where she was an independent curator. Later in Washington, D.C., she was a program development officer for the Arts America Program at the United States Information Agency (USIA), providing overseas exhibition and cultural exchange opportunities for numerous artists, including Elizabeth Catlett, Sam Gilliam, Betye Saar, and Joyce J. Scott. In 2022, the Getty Research Institute acquired Montgomery’s archives. | More to come

BOOKS > | May 5: Carnegie Mellon University historian Edda L. Fields-Black won a 2025 Pulitzer Prize in history for her book “Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War” (Oxford University Press). A portrait of Harriet Tubman painted by William H. Johnson covers the book, which also inspired a museum exhibition. “Picturing Freedom: Harriet Tubman and the Combahee River Raid” features art by an array of artists including Elizabeth Catlett, Aaron Douglas, Jacob Lawrence, Faith Ringgold, William H. Johnson, and Stephen Towns at the Gibbes Museum in Charleston, S.C., through Oct. 5, 2025. | More

FASHION | May 5: Channeling Black dandy style, this year’s Met Gala was inspired by “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” the spring exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. In New York, the Met Gala garners attention for its red carpet arrivals, where a succession of bold face names showcases avant-garde looks by a variety of designers. Figures from the fields fashion, film, sports, and entertainment appear annually. This year, many of the 400 or so guests worked Black designers on their look. High-profile Black artists, including Tyler Mitchell, Torkwase Dyson, Henry Taylor, Amy Sherald, and Arthur Jafa, were among those in the spotlight. | Culture Type

ACQUISITIONS | May 5: All 35 works from “Adam Pendelton: Who is Queen” were acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The exhibition was monumental five-story installation on view in MoMA’s atrium from 2021-22. The acquisition includes three videos and paintings and drawings from Adam Pendleton’s Black Dada and WE ARE NOT series. | Pace Gallery

APPOINTMENTS | May 6: Sidney P. Jackson Jr. is joining Chicago Sinfonietta as president and CEO. He brings two decades of experience, most recently serving as vice President for development at the New Jersey Symphony. “It is an extraordinary honor to lead Chicago Sinfonietta, an organization founded by the visionary Maestro Paul Freeman to shatter racial and cultural boundaries in classical music,” Jackson said. He starts May 15. | More

< AWARDS & HONORS | May 8: Multidisciplinary artist Kapwani Kiwanga (b. 1978) won the 2025 Joan Miró Prize. Born in Canada and based in Paris and Berlin, Kiwanga is an anthropologist-turned-artist. Focusing on forgotten, silenced, and marginalized histories, her research-based practice spans sculpture, installation, photography, video, and performance. Supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the prize focuses on early- and mid-career artists and is usually awarded biennially. The honor includes a €50,000 prize (about US $56,000) and a solo exhibition of Kiwanga next year at the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona, Spain. | More

NEWS | May 8: After targeting the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, NPR, and PBS, the White House set its sights on the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden was fired via an two-sentence email from the Trump Administration’s Office of Presidential Personnel. Democratic members of Congress praised Hayden’s performance and decried her firing, but it is unclear what, if anything, they plan to do about it. Hayden was nominated for the Senate-confirmed position and sworn-in as the first woman and first African American to head the national library in September 2016. Previously, Hayden served for more than two decades as CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Md. (1993-2016). Earlier, she was deputy commissioner and chief librarian of the Chicago Public Library (1991-93), where she first began her library career back in 1973. | New York Times and Associated Press

AWARDS & HONORS | May 9: The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Ga., announced the winner of the 2025 David C. Driskell Prize is artist Alison Saar (b. 1956). Los Angeles-based Saar will receive the $50,000 prize on Sept. 20 at the 20th annual Driskell Prize Gala at the High Museum. | Culture Type

IMAGE: Above left, Kapwani Kiwanga. | © Photo Angela Scamarcio

Curator and museum leader Koyo Kouoh (1967-2025). | Photo by Mirjam Kluka, Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

LIVES | May 10: Curator and museum leader Koyo Kouoh (1967-2025) died in Basel, Switzerland. She was 57. Her husband, Philippe Mall, told the New York Times the cause was cancer. Born in Cameroon, Kouoh was an influential curator who has organized exhibitions around the world. Since 2019, Kouoh served as executive director and chief curator of Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town, South Africa, one of the most prominent museums on the continent. In December, Kouoh was named artistic director of the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026. She would have been the first Black woman and second African-born curator to curate Venice Biennale. In a statement, the organizers of the Venice Biennale said they were “deeply saddened and dismayed to learn of the sudden and untimely passing” of Kouoh. | New York Times

AWARDS & HONORS | May 12: Norman Teague was honored at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City with the inaugural Webby Award for Special Achievement in Creative AI. The Chicago-based artist and designer was recognized for his exhibition “Norman Teague—Jam Sessions” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, for which he employed Adobe Firefly, a suite of generative AI tools, to visualize ideas for reinterpreting iconic objects from MoMA’s design collection. To honor Teague, he was presented with a one-of-a-kind, hand-built 2025 Webby trophy. The Webby Awards and Adobe collaborated with industrial designers Spencer Nugent and Pooria Sohi to reimagine the trophy for the first time. | More

GALAS | May 15: Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, Queens, New York, announced Los Angeles artist Alison Saar, Nat Oppenheimer of TYLin, and LOT-EK (Ada Tolla & Giuseppe Lignano) would be honored at its annual gala on June 5. The event will include presentations by Mabel O. Wilson and Maya Lin. | More

Los Angeles artist June Edmonds has explored several themes in her abstract paintings, including the Great Migration, the legacy of the Gee’s Bend quilters, and the American flag through the lens of the African American experience with justice and democracy. | Photo by Chris Warmald

REPRESENTATION | May 16: Galerie Lelong announced its representation of Los Angeles artist June Edmonds (b.1959), above, in collaboration with Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, her existing gallery. On Sept. 4, Galerie Lelong will present a solo exhibition of Edmonds in New York, her first solo show in the city. “We are excited to welcome June Edmonds to the gallery and proud to present her first solo exhibition in New York,” Mary Sabbatino, Vice President and Partner at Galerie Lelong said in the announcement. “Edmonds’s command of color and her deep investigation of symbolic forms specific to the African American experience in California, add significantly to the dialogue of abstraction today.” | More

COMMENCEMENTS | Ceramic artist Roberto Lugo gave the commencement address at Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI), his alma mater. Philadelphia, Pa.-based Lugo received an honorary doctorate in fine arts at the ceremony. He gave a heartfelt, personal speech and received a standing ovation. Lugo opened his remarks with the following: “This talk is dedicated to my mother, who for decades took a class one at a time to get her nursing degree and never quit through every conceivable obstacle. She kept going and that’s going to be my running theme to you guys today. Figure out a way to keep going.” | More

GALAS | May 17: Los Angeles artist Lauren Halsey was honored at the Hammer Museum at UCLA’s 20th annual Gala in the Garden, along with activist and actor Jane Fonda. Thelma Golden of the Studio Museum in Harlem took the stage to pay tribute to Halsey. Savannah James was among the co-chairs and attendees included LeBron James, Hammer Museum curator Erin Christovale, artist Mark Bradford, and collector V. Joy Simmons. The gala raised $2.4 million to support the museum’s exhibitions and public programming. | More

< ACQUISITIONS | May 19: “Future Histories: New Acquisitions at The Driskell Center,” the spring exhibition at the Driskell Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, included a public vote. The Center asked visitors to help determine its next acquisition by choosing their preference among three paintings by artists Jerrell Gibbs, Fabiola Jean-Louis, and Megan Lewis. The works were hung side-by-side and the largest painting displayed in the middle, received the most votes—a double portrait of two young men by Lewis. It was a “close call,” the center said. | More

ART FAIRS | May 21: Kyla McMillan was appointed executive director of The Armory Show in July 24. A former gallery director with David Zwirner and Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, McMillan will helm her first edition of the New York City art fair this fall. The Armory Show published an interview with McMillan about her vision for the 2025 fair. She plans to highlight artists and galleries from the U.S. South and the intersection between art and design. McMillan described The Armory Show as “an anchor to the New York art world” and said “we work to ensure that the fair is a strong platform that allows for risky, forward-thinking presentations.” She also emphasized creating an environment of discovery. People “should be able to spend the whole day at the fair seeing and acquiring fantastic art, building relationships, and enjoying a nice meal,” McMillan said. | More

COMMENCEMENTS | May 21: Multimedia artist Joyce J. Scott spoke to undergraduates at the University of Baltimore‘s spring commencement and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Kurt L. Schmoke, UBalt president and former mayor of Baltimore. The afternoon ceremony was held at The Lyric performing arts center in Baltimore. | More

IMAGE: Above left, MEGAN LEWIS, “I Feel Less Pressure But I Have My Moments,” 2024 (oil on photograph mounted on canvas, 48 x 48 inches). | Courtesy of Galerie Myrtis

The international exhibition at the 61st Venice Biennale will be based on the concept envisioned by late artistic director Koyo Kouoh with the advisory team she had assembled. | Photo courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

BIENNIALS | May 27: The 61st Venice Biennale in 2026 is titled In Minor Keys and will run from May 9-Nov. 22, 2026. The news was announced following the May 10 death of Koyo Kouoh (1967-2025), the executive director and chief curator of Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town, South Africa, who had been named artistic director of the next Venice Biennale. With the blessing of Kouoh’s family, the announcement said, the exhibition will realize the vision she developed with the leadership and guidance of advisory team she had identified: curators Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie Helene Pereira and Rasha Salti; editor-in-chief Siddhartha Mitter, an art writer who contributes regularly to the New York Times; and assistant Rory Tsapayi. Further details about the theme, invited artists, participating countries, and exhibition design will be announced Feb. 25, 2026. | More

APPOINTMENTS | May 28: The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, Pa., named Judia S. Jackson deputy director for human resources and chief culture officer. Jackson recently served as chief people and culture officer at Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts. She officially started at the Barnes on May 12. | Culture Type

NEWS | May 28: A six-year legal dispute between Harvard University and Tamara Lanier over daguerreotype portraits of an enslaved man and his daughter, Renty and Delia, is reported to be resolved. In 1850, the photographs were made in a South Carolina studio at the behest of Louis Agassiz, a Swiss-born zoologist and Harvard professor “as evidence for a discredited pseudoscientific theory of Black racial inferiority.” Lanier claimed to be a descendent of the subjects and sought custody of the controversial images. Harvard is giving up the photos, but they will not go to Lanier. They will transferred, along with five other images of enslaved people, to the International African American Museum in Charleston, S.C. | New York Times

SEYDOU KEÏTA, Untitled, 1949–51, printed circa 1994–2001 (gelatin silver print). | Courtesy the Musée national du Mali. © SKPEAC/Seydou Keïta, courtesy The Jean Pigozzi Collection of African Art

EXHIBITIONS | May 28: The Brooklyn Museum announced the most expansive North American exhibition of Malian photographer Seydou Keïta (1921-2001) opening this fall. “Keïta documented Malian society in the late 1940s to early 1960s, an era of transformation and aspirations for independent statehood,” the announcement said. “A master at lighting and composition, Keïta has a unique ability to capture the tactile qualities of his sitters—from their fashion and choice of accessories to the personality and self-presentation they put forward.” “Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens” features nearly 275 works, including loans from the Keita family, previously unpublished photos, and personal belongings, such textiles, clothing, jewelry, and accessories that can be seen in the artist’s studio portraits. The exhibition will be on view Oct. 10, 2025-March 8, 2026. Documented by a fully illustrated catalog, the exhibition is organized by guest curator Catherine E. McKinley with Imani Williford, curatorial assistant, Photography, Fashion, and Material Culture at the Brooklyn Museum. | More

APPOINTMENTS | May 28: New board of trustees appointments at Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) include Karen H. Bechtel as president and the addition of members Alexander P. Adams, Patricia Howell, Kristina Newman-Scott, Wayne Seaton, and Esta Stecher. Washington, D.C., native, Howell is a graduate of Howard University, and a former model and dancer. Since moving to Miami, she has been active with PAMM, serving for the past four years as co-chair for Art + Soul, the annual benefit for the PAMM Fund for Black Art. Newman-Scott is vice president of the arts at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami. Jamaican-born Seaton earned an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and MBA from Columbia University. He is the regional head of Sustainability, Business Development, and Financial Institutions at S&P Global. | More

GALAS | May 31: The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, hosted its 2025 gala, inaugurating a new theme focusing on visionary leaders. The gala celebrated three “MOCA Legends”—Chicago artist Theaster Gates, architect Frank Gehry, and philanthropist Wendy Schmidt. MOCA said more than 600 artists, patrons, and culture leaders attended—including Charles Gaines, Kenturah Davis, Todd Gray, Arthur Jafa, Rodney McMillian, Thomas J Price, Christina Quarles, Cauleen Smith, Henry Taylor, Hamza Walker, David Alan Grier, Ava DuVernay, LA Mayor Karen Bass, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who continues to represent her San Francisco district—raising more than $3.1 million to support the museum’s exhibitions, programs, and operations. | More
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