The Everson Adds Several New Works to Collection

SYRACUSE, NY (January 6, 2022): We are pleased to announce the purchase of several new works for the Museum’s collection. These works, created by artists across the country working in a variety of media, reflect the Museum’s mission to diversify its collection and more fully represent multiple perspectives, identities, and stories.

The acquisitions were made during Miami’s Art Week, which took place the first week of December, and included numerous art fairs. The Everson acquired a total of nine pieces purchased at: Art Basel Miami, Independent Art Fair, New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA), and INK Miami.

The acquisitions are among several others made since fall 2020, when the Everson established a fund focused on purchasing works by emerging and established artists, artists of color, women artists, and other historically marginalized groups.

Among the artists represented is Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola, a first-generation American raised between Missouri and Nigeria, who uses culturally-significant items to explore the African experience, as well as divisions within Black culture.

Up-and-comer Matthew Kirk’s piece, Believe You Me, weaves together industrial materials covered with symbols that explore his Navajo heritage.

Red Robe by Katherine Sherwood, a painter and Professor Emerita of Art Practice and Disability Studies at UC Berkeley, poignantly depicts the vulnerabilities of the human body. Sherwood suffered a cerebral hemorrhage at age 44, which paralyzed the right side of her body, and ultimately required her to relearn how to paint with her left hand.

Born in Mexico and now based in Miami, artist Pepe Mar uses an experiential approach to mixed media that explores cultural alienation.

Los Angeles-based artist Alison Saar connects themes of female-identity, history, and cultures of the African diaspora in large-scale woodcuts, including the recent Blonde Dreams.

These works, and several others acquired recently, will be on view in an upcoming exhibition, Forever is Composed of Nows, opening in January 2022, curated by Assistant Curator Steffi Chappell.

We can’t wait to share these new works and artists with you. Scroll down for a sneak peek!

Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola (b. 1991 in Columbia, Missouri, lives in Brooklyn, NY)
Olumo #97, 2021
Durags and acrylic on wood panel
84 x 72 x 4 inches
Courtesy of: False Flag Gallery, NYC

Matthew Kirk (b. 1978 in Ganado, Arizona, lives in Queens, NY)
Believe You Me, 2021
Hand-cut tar paper, wire mesh, acrylic, oil, cotton, brass grommets, blue tacks, staples, and wire
60 x 60 inches
Courtesy of: Fierman, NYC

Pepe Mar (b. 1977 in Mexico, lives in Miami)
Border Crosser, 2021
Mixed media on wood in artist’s Plexi box
75 x 60 inches
Courtesy of: David Castillo Gallery, Miami

Katherine Sherwood (b. 1952 in New Orleans, Louisiana, lives in Rodeo, California)
Red Robe, 2020
Acrylic and mixed media on recycled linen
98 x 62 inches
Courtesy of: Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles

Alison Saar (b. 1956 in Los Angeles, California, lives in Los Angeles)
Blonde Dreams, 2021
Woodcut and screenprint on Okawa
66 x 12 inches
Courtesy of: Tandem Press, Madison, WI