Artists

Dr. Yaoundé Olu (b.1945) is an artist, musician, educator, editorial cartoonist, illustrator, and indie comic publisher whose work has been exhibited at the Bridgeport Arts Center, the South Side Community Art Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Smart Museum, the Evanston Art Center, and many other venues.

Geraldine McCullough (1917-2008) was born in Kingston, Arkansas and moved to Chicago at the age of three.

Born in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood, Robert Paige (b. 1936) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans collage, sculpture, painting, and textile design.

Espi Frazier (b.1951) is a visual artist and art instructor born in Chicago and currently based in Baltimore whose work has been exhibited nationally since the early 1970s.

Marion Perkins (1908–1961) was born in Marche, Arkansas, and moved to Chicago at the age of eight to live with family.

Joyce Owens (1947-2024) was a Chicago-based artist, teacher, and curator originally

from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Known for his tenacious championing of Black art and community in Chicago, Douglas R. Williams (1938-2019) was born in Houston, Texas and moved to Chicago in his teens with his older sister.

Gregory Warmack, more popularly known as “Mr. Imagination” (1948-2012), was born in Chicago, the third of nine children.

John Carlis (1917-2003) was born and raised in Chicago and is known for his paintings, commercial art and design, and sculpture.

Ceramicist and sculptor Howard Mallory (1930-2012) was known for his involvement with AfriCOBRA and celebrated for his African masks made with found objects commemorating important figures in Black history