Ada Pinkston
Ada Pinkston is a Baltimore-based artist, educator, and cultural organizer. She explores the intersection of imagined histories and sociopolitical realities on our bodies using performance, digital media, and mixed-media sculptures and installations. Her ongoing project, Landmarked, investigates new ways of activating the empty spaces left by the 48 Confederate monuments that have been removed. The project considers how we reframe public space to be more equitable and inclusive of all histories through civic engagement, the voices of people of color, and historical memories that are often overlooked by dominant cultural narratives found in public school textbooks. Each day this week her news curation will present a new focus on an individual set of stories.
Ada Pinkston is a multimedia artist, educator, and organizer living and working in Baltimore, Maryland. Born in New York, her artistic research interest spans the social sciences, global colonial histories, American Studies, and community art practices. Her work has been featured at a variety of spaces including The Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building, LACMA, The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Walters Art Museum, The Peale Museum, Transmodern Performance Festival, P.S.1, The New Museum, Light City Baltimore and the streets of Berlin, Baltimore, Orlando, Washington DC, and New York. She has presented lectures on public space at The French Embassy, NYU, UCLA and The National Gallery of Art. She is also an alumnus of the Monument Lab+Goethe Institute Transnational Fellowship. Her most recent work can be found in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
“Very honored to have been asked to participate in the artist news network. As we live in a world of multiplicities, there is never Only One of anything. That said, every day, there will be a new series/concept of focus.” – Ada Pinkston
Day 1 – Women artists who make public art (sometimes)
Day 2 – Strange Creatures in the universe
Day 3 – Moments of Black liberation
Day 4 – Controversial Public Art
Day 5 – Repair / Reparations
Day 6 – The Earth is going to Win (stories from the environment)
Day 7 – Looking up at the Ceiling and then seeing the sky (stories from outerspace)



Articles
Jan 30, 2023
Jeannette Ehlers: Archives in the Tongue: A Litany of Freedoms
Today’s focus – Women artists who make public art (sometimes)
Jeannette Ehlers
We’re Magic. We’re Real #3 (These Walls), 2021
Performance, Archives in the Tongue: A Litany of Freedoms
Published by The Brooklyn Rail
Sep 1, 2022
Read the article Here

Jan 30, 2023
Denmark’s First Public Monument to a Black Woman Celebrates a 19th-Century Freedom Fighter
Today’s focus – Women artists who make public art (sometimes)
La Vaughn Belle & Jeannette Ehlers
I Am Queen Mary, 2018
Located outside the Vestindisk Pakhus (West Indian Warehouse) on the waterfront in Copenhagen, Denmark
Published by Hyperallergic
Apr 2, 2018
Read the article Here



Jan 30, 2023
Envisioning a World Where White Men Are Pedestals for Sculptures
Today’s focus – Women artists who make public art (sometimes)
Catalina Ouyang
an elegy for Marco, 2016
Live performance at the Millitzer Gallery in St. Louis
Published by Hyperallergic
Dec 12, 2016
Read the article Here

Jan 30, 2023
East Oakland Latina artist Favianna Rodríguez brings hope through her art
Today’s focus – Women artists who make public art (sometimes)
Favianna Rodriguez
Markham Elementary Mural, 2022
Paint on asphalt
Located at Markham Elementary School, Oakland, CA
Published by CBS
Sep 21, 2022
Read the article Here

Jan 30, 2023
Faith Ringgold on capturing the complexity of the American experience: “It takes courage to be free”
Today’s focus – Women artists who make public art (sometimes)
Faith Ringgold
Groovin’ High, 2014
Located near the High Line in New York City
Published by Wallpaper
Nov 25, 2022
Read the article Here

Jan 30, 2023
Alison Saar on Transforming Outrage Into Art
Today’s focus – Women artists who make public art (sometimes)
Alison Saar
Imbue, 2020
Located at the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College in Claremont, California
Published by New York Times
Nov 5, 2020
Read the article Here

Jan 30, 2023
How Elizabeth Catlett Lifted Up Black Women Through Art
Today’s focus – Women artists who make public art (sometimes)
Elizabeth Catlett
Invisible Man, 2003
Bronze
15 ft. tall
Located in Riverside Park, New York, United States
‘How Elizabeth Catlett Lifted Up Black Women Through Art’
Sept. 2022
Published by Smithsonian Magazine
‘Nearly 70 Years Later, ‘Invisible Man’ Is Still Inspiring Visual Artists’
June 11, 2021
Published by New York Times
‘Invisible Man Revealed!: Public Art by Elizabeth Catlett’
Published by Studio Museum of Harlem
Published by Smithsonian Magazine
Sep 1, 2022
Read the article Here

Jan 30, 2023
Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, sculptor who depicted the Black experience
Today’s focus – Women artists who make public art (sometimes)
Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller
Emancipation, 1913 (cast 1999)
Bronze and granite
Located in Harriet Tubman Park in Boston, United States
Published by Boston Globe
Feb 24, 2022
Read the article Here

Jan 30, 2023
Edmonia Lewis: Why Google celebrates her today
Published by Al Jazeera
Feb 1, 2017
Read the article Here

Jan 30, 2023
As Confederate Statues Fall, What Should Replace Them?’
Today’s focus – Women artists who make public art (sometimes)
Augusta Savage
Lift Every Voice and Sing, 1939
Plaster
Commissioned for the 1939 New York World’s Fair
Published by New York Time
Nov 29, 2017
Read the article Here

Jan 30, 2023
The Private World of the Public Artist Maya Lin
Today’s focus – Women artists who make public art (sometimes)
Maya Lin
Ghost Forest, 2021
Madison Square Park Conservancy, New York
Published by Smithsonian Magazine
Dec 22, 2022
Read the article Here

Jan 30, 2023
‘I was traumatised at its demolition’ – Rachel Whiteread on making House
Today’s focus – Women artists who make public art (sometimes)
Rachel Whiteread
House, 1993
Cast concrete
30 x 14 x 50 ft.
Published by The Guardian
Jul 18, 2022
Read the article Here

Jan 30, 2023
The Monumental Success of Simone Leigh
Published by New Yorker
Mar 21, 2022
Read the article Here

Jan 30, 2023
New York City Picks Artist to Replace Monument That Honored Doctor Who Experimented on Slaves, After Another Proposal Is Withdrawn
Today’s focus – Women artists who make public art (sometimes)
Vinnie Bagwell
Victory Beyond Sims, 2021
Monument proposal
Published by ARTnews
Oct 8, 2019
Read the article Here

Jan 30, 2023
It was screaming for a female’: Shahzia Sikander on creating a statue of a woman for a Manhattan courthouse
Today’s focus – Women artists who make public art (sometimes)
Shahzia Sikander
Havah…to breathe, air, life
Co-commissioned by Madison Square Park Conservancy and Public Art of the University of Houston System
madisonsquarpark.org
Published by The Art Newspaper
Jan 13, 2023
Read the article Here

Jan 30, 2023
Karyn Olivier – The Battle Is Joined
Today’s Focus – Women artists who make public art (sometimes)
Karyn Olivier
The Battle is Joined, 2017
Acrylic mirror, wood, screws, and adhesive
Published by Monument Lab
Read the article Here

Jan 30, 2023
Reimagining Lady Liberty’s Torch to Meet This Moment
Today’s Focus – Women artists who make public art (sometimes)
Abigail DeVille
Light of Freedom, 2020
Welded steel, cabling, reclaimed rusted metal school bell, blue-painted mannequin arms, gold-painted metal scaffolding, and wood planks.
156 x 96 x 96 in.
Published by New York Times
Oct 23, 2020
Read the article Here



