Join us for a reception on Saturday, June 4, from 5-7 pm to celebrate the opening of the solo retrospective of paintings by Sherman Beck, original member of the historic Black Arts collective AFRICOBRA.
Following inclusions of Beck’s work in pivotal group exhibitions such as AFRICOBRA I: Ten in Search of a Nation, at the Studio Museum in Harlem, I Am Somebody, Expo Chicago sponsored, special offsite curated exhibition at the Peninsula Hotel in Chicago, AFRICOBRA 50 at Kavi Gupta, Maleness to Manhood: Reclamation of the Young Black Male, at the South Side Community Art Center in Chicago, AFRICOBRA and Beyond, at the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago, and AFRICOBRA: Messages to the People at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Kavi Gupta offers a comprehensive introduction to Beck’s practice.
Sherman Beck will be on view at Kavi Gupta | Washington Blvd. Fl 2 from June 4 through July 30, 2022.
Installation view, Sherman Beck, 2022, Kavi Gupta, Chicago, IL.
Sherman Beck (b. 1942, USA) is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago and completed further studies at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. His work was included in the authoritative early exhibitions AFRICOBRA I & II at the Studio Museum in Harlem, and has been included in multiple other influential exhibitions of AFRICOBRA’s work, including AFRICOBRA 50, Kavi Gupta, Chicago, IL, USA; Africobra and Beyond, DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago, IL, USA; AFRICOBRA: Messages to the People, MOCA North Miami, Miami, FL, USA; I Am Somebody, at the Peninsula Hotel, Chicago, IL, USA; Images of the Past: Collection of Artwork from the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s, South Side Community Art Center, Chicago, IL, USA; Maleness to Manhood: Reclamation of the Young Black Male, South Side Community Art Center, Chicago, IL, USA; and Contemporary Black Art, atRoosevelt University, Chicago, IL, USA; as well as in the solo exhibition Sherman Beck: Realms & Abstractions, African American Cultural Center, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL, USA. Beck is the former owner and operator of the Art Directions art supply store in Chicago, and taught commercial art for twenty-two years at his alma mater, Dunbar High School, in the Bronzeville neighborhood of south Chicago.
