Twenty-Five Years After Post-Black: Reframing Contemporary African American Art
A special issue of Arts (ISSN 2076-0752).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 May 2026 | Viewed by 13
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Next year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of Freestyle, the Studio Museum exhibition where Thelma Golden first utilized the term “post-Black” to describe an emergent generation of artists who redefined notions of race while contesting the boundaries and limitations of Black identity. In the quarter century that followed, the landscape surrounding African American art has changed tremendously, ranging from critical reappraisals of the art historical canon and new curatorial emphases to the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement and subsequent politicization of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
In response to these developments, this special issue of Arts invites contributions on topics focused on contemporary African American Art, broadly defined as work produced following World War II to the present day. Essays may focus on a particular artist or group of artists, working in any medium including painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, collage, video, installation, ceramics, and the textile arts. Contributors might address historiographic or methodological debates within the field, ranging from critical models applied to contemporary African American art to reappraisals of exhibitions or visual culture. Research on transatlantic exchange or the African Diaspora are welcome, particularly as categories of American and Black identity remain fluid. The possibilities for submissions remain open in the spirit of Freestyle, affording an academic space free from, in Golden’s words, “narrow definition”, thus amplifying the expression of subjects and contributors alike.
To propose an article for publication, please send a title and short abstract of 200 words to the Editor, Daniel Haxall, at haxall@kutztown.edu, with a copy to arts@mdpi.com by 1 October 2025. Full manuscripts up to max. 15,000 words in length should be submitted by 1 May 2026.
Prof. Dr. Daniel L. Haxall
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Arts is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- African American Art
- Contemporary Art
- African Diaspora
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