California African American Museum

“Art, for me, is about opening us toward our aliveness. Its ability to shift our consciousness and awaken us to the very fact that we are alive and that we owe each other care, is everything.” –Paula Wilson “Paula Wilson: Toward the Sky’s Back Door” is organized by @tangteachingmuse um at Skidmore College and curated by @rebecannemc in collaboration with @paulalights . See this work and more on view through August 18, 2024, at CAAM.

Installation view of “Tatyana Fazlalizadeh: Speaking to Falling Seeds” on view at CAAM through August 3, 2025. 📷: @elonschoenholz

Hello, #CAAMFAM ! We are so happy to have re-opened our doors and welcomed you all back to CAAM. Thank you for checking out our exhibitions and programs this month. We ❤️ when you tag us in your photos so we can see and share your visit. These are some of our favorites of your June posts.

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh Gwen and Her Grandbaby, 2022 (installation view) Oil, acrylic, and vintage photograph on canvas See this work in “Tatyana Fazlalizadeh: Finding Soft Ground,” now on view through August 10, 2024, at @artandpractice .

“Salty & Fresh” is a creation story packed with contemporary cultural commentary, racialized historical narratives, and art-historical motifs such as ancient Greek amphorae—all layered with the whimsy of faces painted on performers’ buttocks and the power of a larger-than-life Black artist-goddess, played by @paulalights , rising from the sea. Filmed at Miami-Dade County’s Virginia Key Beach—which opened in 1945 as the only beach Black residents and visitors could legally enjoy in the segregated region—the video addresses notions of witnessing. “Paula Wilson: Toward the Sky’s Back Door” is organized by @tangteachingmuseum at Skidmore College and curated by @rebecannemc in collaboration with @paulalights . See this work and more on view through August 18, 2024, at CAAM.

Mark Oliver The Mt. Shasta Baptist Church in Weed, California, 2022. Courtesy the artist. Featured in the current exhibition “We Are Not Strangers Here: African American Histories in Rural California” on view through February 2, 2025, at CAAM.

KCRW Summer Nights are back🔥💃🏿 Enjoy a warm night and cool vibes with CAAM and @kcrw next Friday (6.28) from 7-11pm. The evening features live sets from KCRW DJs, food trucks, a beer garden, and after-hours museum access to all CAAM exhibitions. RSVP link in bio.

Margie Johnson and John Pettigrew at Bruce’s Beach, Manhattan Beach, California, July 10, 1927. LaVera White Collection; courtesy Arthur and Elizabeth Lewis. Now on view in “Black California Dreamin’: African Americans at America’s Leisure Frontier” through August 18, 2024.

When Simone Leigh began making ceramics, she worked with coiled pots (rather than a potter’s wheel), where coils of clay are layered, one atop another, and joined by hand before being fired in a kiln. Her techniques combine premodern and contemporary practices in a medium that melds the elements with time. “What I like about ceramics,” shares the artist, “is you create environments and the objects are changed by them, by their location, what they’re adjacent to, or what residue might be lingering in the kiln.” The stoneware busts found on plinths in these galleries showcase a range of motifs that have become @simoneyvetteleigh ’s signatures: from rosettes and raffia to her ongoing interpretation of face vessels and use of atmospheric glazes. Simone Leigh Slipcover, 2008/2023. Colored porcelain, steel, and plastic slipcover, 32 × 32 × 6 inches. Courtesy the artist and Matthew Marks Gallery. © Simone Leigh; Photo: Timothy Schenck See this work and more in “Simone Leigh,” on view at CAAM through January 20, 2025.

Join exhibition curator Alison Rose Jefferson for a tour of “Black California Dreamin’” this Wednesday from 2-3pm. Free and open to the public!

This Tuesday (6.18) from 7-8pm at @artandpractice , Tameka Blackshir of concept bookshop and creative space Reparations Club will guide readers in a discussion of “Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-Recovery” by bell hooks. Participants are encouraged to read the book in advance to facilitate discussion. Books will also be available for purchase on site from Reparations Club. RSVP in bio.

Tameka, 2023 Graphite on paper See this work in “Tatyana Fazlalizadeh: Finding Soft Ground,” now on view through August 10, 2024 at @artandpractice .