Black New York

Shasekh Augustin, Jenna Arvelo, Maya Beverly, SantanaCopeland, Nyzere Dillon, Laura Gayle, Garry Grant, GOODW.Y.N., Kahdeem Jefferson, Leah King, Ayanna Legros, Emily Manwaring, Alexis Mendoza, Aala Oni, Iris Phenix, John Ricard, Haley Sessoms, Alisa Sikelianos-Carter, Christina M. Tapper, Atiim Turnbull, Michael Young, Zawadi

Galerie Shibumi is proud to present Black New York, a group exhibition featuring painting, photography, sculpture, and film by a dynamic cross-section of NYC-based artists. Rooted in diasporic legacy and contemporary urgency, the show reflects on what it means to create—and exist—through a Black lens in the city that claims to be the capital of the world.

This is not a retrospective or a didactic timeline. Black New York unfolds like a poem: unbound by singular narrative or form, rhythmic in tone, layered in meaning, and alive with contradictions. It invites reflection, dialogue, and feeling. The works don’t explain—they resonate. Like a good poem, they ask to be felt before they are fully understood.

The title Black New York carries weight—and for some, complexity. But just as in subtractive color theory, where black is the culmination of all colors combined, the Black experience in New York is not absence, but presence. It is rich. It is the creation of shade, depth, and new dimensions. It holds histories, frictions, joys, and innovations all at once.

These artists reflect the expansive possibilities of Black expression in New York today. They come from different lineages and training—some self-taught, others institutionally trained—but all bring a distinct vision shaped by their lived realities, cultural memory, and emotional landscapes. Through their work, they transform the city’s chaos into clarity, and its density into poetry.

“This city is a mirror,” says Folana Miller, Director of Galerie Shibumi. “It reflects and refracts everything—language, pain, capitalism, culture, trauma, love. The artists in Black New York don’t just react to that; they transform it. They make sense of the noise through beauty, repetition, vulnerability, and vision.”

The exhibition marks the opening of Galerie Shibumi’s new space at 261 West 35th Street, Suite 1401, a hub for contemporary art that prioritizes discovery, discourse, and community-building. With this show, the gallery reaffirms its commitment to presenting work that is emotionally honest, culturally urgent, and unapologetically personal.