The March 2025 Cherry Basket is ripe and ready for picking! This series shares noteworthy art exhibitions across New York, Los Angeles, London, and Paris with an emphasis on Black artists. I hope you find something sweet ❤️ 🍒
New York
- What: The Book of Violette marks Kelly Sinnapah Mary’s debut solo exhibition at James Cohan. Through paintings, sculptures, and installations, the artist weaves folklore, literature, and history into an exploration of memory and myth. Her work challenges colonial narratives and draws inspiration from Caribbean intellectuals like Suzanne Césaire and Édouard Glissant. Set against the backdrop of her native Guadeloupe, her art blends surrealism, science fiction, and personal heritage to navigate themes of diaspora and identity. The exhibition immerses viewers into a world where ancestral connections and storytelling meet in striking visual form.
- Who: Kelly Sinnapah Mary
- Where: James Cohan (1230 5th Avenue at 104th Street | New York, NY)
- When: February 14 – March 22
- What: A deep exploration of the influence of science fiction visionary Octavia E. Butler, Shaper of God is a multidisciplinary exhibition by American Artist. Drawing inspiration from Butler’s Parable of the Sower, the project highlights themes related to the climate crisis, wealth inequality, and community resilience in the face of dystopian collapse. This presentation builds on the artist’s past showings at major institutions and will be accompanied by a Pioneer Works Press monograph. Through a blend of biography and fiction, American Artist highlights Butler’s impact on Black, feminist, queer, and politically engaged creatives. Shaper of God serves as both a reflection on our present and a call to imagine alternative futures rooted in collective survival.
- Who: American Artist
- Where: Pioneer Works (159 Pioneer Street | Brooklyn, NY)
- When: January 21 – April 13
- What: Oliver Lee Jackson’s third exhibition at Andrew Kreps Gallery showcases the Oakland-based artist’s dynamic fusion of abstraction and figuration, focusing on works created in the 1980s. Over six decades, Jackson has developed a recognizable style where vivid colors and gestural marks create compositions bursting with dynamism. Inspired by African artistic traditions, the improvisation of jazz, and Western painting, the artist’s large-scale, immersive works bring an undeniable vitality to any space they occupy.
- Who: Oliver Lee Jackson
- Where: Andrew Kreps Gallery (22 Cortlandt Alley | New York, NY)
- When: March 7 – April 12
Los Angeles
- What: Artist Woody De Othello’s Tuning the Dial combines ceramic and bronze sculpture, works on paper and canvas, sand, light, and an ambient soundscape composed by frequent collaborator Cheflee. Othello creates a sensory experience rooted in emotional resonance. The show’s title references the unseen frequencies of human emotion, akin to wavelengths or reverberations. As visitors move through the space, they engage in a dialogue between body and environment, and through being there, the hope is that their emotional states are recalibrated. Tuning the Dial invites introspection and encourages us to cultivate a deeper connection to the rhythms amongst us.
- Who: Woody De Othello
- Where: Karma Los Angeles (7351 Santa Monica Boulevard | Los Angeles)
- When: February 19 – April 5
- What: Dream Girl showcases new paintings and sculptures by artist Tschabalala Self, which explores the constructed nature of selfhood and femininity. The immersive exhibition serves as a mind map of Self’s creative process, revealing the inner worlds of her bold, expressive characters. Each painting acts as a vignette, offering intimate glimpses into the psyche of its subject. Dream Girl challenges perceptions of identity, inviting viewers into a space where reality and imagination overlap.
- Who: Tschabalala Self
- Where: Jeffrey Deitch Los Angeles (901-909 E 3rd | Los Angeles)
- When: February 15 – April 26
London
- What: This debut retrospective celebrates the late Noah Davis, whose career captured the richness of Black life, portraying moments of joy, solitude, and contemplation. With a deep desire to “represent the people around me,” Davis’ body of figurative paintings celebrates everyday people in scenes that are realistic yet dreamlike. Davis’ paintings offer a thoughtful reflection on the beauty and complexity of day-to-day life.
- Who: Noah Davis
- Where: Barbican Centre (Silk Street, London | EC2Y 8DS)
- When: February 6 – May 11
Christina Kimeze: Between Wood and Wheel
- What: Between Wood and Wheel is Christina Kimeze’s first solo exhibition in the UK, revealing a new series of radiant, textured paintings and works on paper. Drawing inspiration from the resurgence of roller skating in Black communities, Kimeze explores themes of freedom, flight, and escape from a female lens. Her figures occupy in-between spaces that tap into feelings of otherness and deep emotions. The show encourages us to reflect on the nature of memory, self-perception, and our inner worlds.
- Who: Christina Kimeze
- Where: South London Gallery (South London Gallery Fire Station | SE15 5LQ)
- When: January 31 – May 11
Paris
- What: Organized by OOA GALLERY and Artcurial, Only When I’m Dreaming showcases Megan Gabrielle Harris’ exploration of resilience, healing, and the interplay between inner peace and the natural world. Using symbolic doorways and windows, the dreamy compositions in the artist’s debut solo exhibition offer portals into spaces of solace and self-reflection. Informed by the artist’s life experiences and contemplative states, the works embrace light and shadow to create a visual language of hope. Only When I’m Dreaming, brings us into a sanctuary of calm, where imagination and introspection intertwine.
- Who: Megan Gabrielle Harris
- Where: Artcurial (7, Rond-Point des Champs-Élysées Marcel Dassault | Paris, 75008)
- When: February 28 – March 12