Fridman Gallery is honored to announce the representation of the visionary painter and mixed-media quilter Dindga McCannon, whose five-decade career has bridged personal and social histories through exploration of music, cultural heritage, feminism, and collective action. The gallery will the artist’s first solo exhibition and catalog in September 2021.
Dindga McCannon is a mixed-media artist who explores music, cultural heritage, feminism, and social justice through her intricate textiles and works on canvas. Self-taught, McCannon became a leader in an alternative African-American art ecosystem, which gave artists who were not welcome in the mainstream art world a place to create and commune. As a co-founder of both Weusi, an influential African-American art collective, and Where We At, the first women’s artist collective in Harlem, McCannon not only created space for her own creative exploration, but provided opportunity and support for an entire generation of Black artists.
Born and raised in Harlem, McCannon came of age as a self-taught artist and young mother during the rise of feminist art in New York City and the civil rights movement across the nation. She became an activist and leader in an alternative African-American art ecosystem, which gave artists who were not welcome in the mainstream art world a place to create and commune. As a co-founder of Weusi, an influential African-American art collective, and Where We At, the first women’s artist collective in Harlem, McCannon created space for her own creative exploration and helped build a support network for an entire generation of Black artists.
McCannon’s work is in the public collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, among others. Her work has been included in recent exhibitions We Wanted A Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-1985 organized by the Brooklyn Museum; Black Power at the National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, TN; and Phillips X Presents: Dindga McCannon, on view through December 16, 2020.
WEST HARLEM ART FUND 