For Liberation and For Life: The Legacy of Black Dimensions in Art

“Black art has always existed. It just hasn’t been looked for in the right places.”
— Romare Bearden

For Liberation and For Life celebrates the 50th anniversary of Black Dimensions in Art, Inc. (BDA)—a volunteer-led group of creatives and activists founded in Schenectady in 1975. BDA presents this exhibition in partnership with the Albany Institute, which hosted the organization’s first major museum show—Black Artists in Historical Perspective—in 1976. For five decades, BDA has uplifted the art and artists of the African Diaspora through exhibitions, workshops, and programs throughout New York’s Capital Region, creating vital platforms for Black artists across generations.  

PHOTOS BY MARISA ESPE

Featuring paintings, photographs, film, textiles, sculptures, and mixed-media works, For Liberation and For Life honors BDA’s legacy and looks to its future. This major group exhibition brings together over 60 contemporary New York artists, nationally and internationally recognized artists, and acclaimed historic works, forming one of the largest exhibitions of Black Artists in the history of the Capital Region. The exhibition draws from works loaned directly from artists and their studios as well as NYS Office of General Services’ Harlem Art Collection, the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, and several other institutional and private lenders. Artists represented range from figures such as Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Roy DeCarava, and Henry Ossawa Tanner, to contemporary artists like Lola Flash and Stephanie M. Santana, and many artists who live and work in the region, including Marcus Kwame Anderson, Alisa Sikelianos-Carter, and Takeyce Walter. The exhibition title draws inspiration from Elizabeth Catlett’s powerful statement: “I have always wanted my art to service my people—to reflect us, to relate to us, to stimulate us, to make us aware of our potential. We have to create an art for liberation and for life.”

For Liberation and For Life: The Legacy of Black Dimensions in Art features works by Jamal Ademola, Marcus Kwame Anderson, Romare Bearden, April Bey, Diana Blain Fine, Julia Bottoms, Kwame Brathwaite, Aleathia Brown, R. Guy Brown, Royal G. Brown, Jillian Marie Browning, Michael A. Butler, Raúl Ayala Carasquillo, William PK Carter, Elizabeth Catlett, Mika Chante, Peter M. Clarke Jr., Ja'Deana Cognetta-Whitfield, Cornelia Cole, D. Colin, Miki Conn, Robert Cooper, David Cottes, James Counts, Ernest Crichlow, Stanwyck Cromwell, Margaret Cunningham, Fern Cunningham-Terry, I. Joseph Daniel, Francelise Dawkins, Avel de Knight, Roy DeCarava, James Denmark, Sean Desiree, B.A. DiLella, Emory Douglas, Paula Drysdale Frazell, Robert S. Duncanson, Mikel Elam, Patricia Encarnación, Lola Flash, Raè Frasier, Laura R. Gadson, Tamika Galanis, Daesha Devón Harris, Kim Vincent Harris, Lucia Hierro, Candace Hill Montgomery, Clementine Hunter, Linda Jackson-Chalmers, LeRoi Johnson, Benjamin Jones, Danny Killion, Jacqueline Lake-Sample, Hughie Lee-Smith, David R. MacDonald, Anina Major, Kerry James Marshall, Eugene J. Martin, Barry L Mason, Leita Mitchell, Zanele Muholi, Woodrow Nash, Otto Neals, Nefertiti, Clifford Oliver, Gordon Parks, Curtis Patterson, Charlese Annette Phillips, Tina Raggio, ransome, Stacey A. Robinson, Alison Saar, Stephanie M. Santana, Charles Searles, Yvonne Shortt, Alisa Sikelianos-Carter, George W. Simmons, Winosha Steele, Jean-Marc Superville Sovak, Taiitan, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Eric Treece, Stephen J. Tyson, James Van Der Zee, Takeyce Walter, Jade Warrick, Pheoris West, Deborah Willis, Fred Wilson, Michael K. Wilson, Paula Wilson, Hale Woodruff, Barbara Zuber, and Elizabeth Zunon.