Los Angeles, CA (News4usOnline) – “Reflect on the past and reenvision the future with us.” Those were the first words I read as I opened the pamphlet of the latest exhibit to debut at the California African American Museum (CAAM).
Hosting the KCRW Summer Nights Event on August 1, 2025, the DTLA museum brought in a surge of people throughout the city for a night of celebration, fellowship, music, food, and of course, art.
The energy of the event placed me in a state of ease long overdue. Friends and families filled the space within less than an hour upon opening, with strangers wandering in amazement as they observed the numerous pieces in the museum’s halls. The first piece of art that caught my immediate attention was the black-and-white murals created by Brooklyn-based artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh.
A master in public art, oil painting, and multimedia installations, her works serve as commentary to the experiences of black and brown women, queer folks, and individuals whose intersectionalities are uniquely represented in her art. Her pieces provide nuanced answers to our lack of universal understanding of race and gender.
Everyday experiences are translated into scriptures of still imagery within Fazlalizadeh’s work. That explained why I was so drawn to her featured piece, Speaking to Falling Seeds. The organic use of monochrome colors rendered in grain-like technique, captures black women evoking a sense of inner peace and isolation.
Fazlalizadeh also features a powerful quote by famed novelist Toni Morrison that reads, “That’s where the truth lies, in our myths, in our songs, that’s where the seeds are. It’s not possible to constantly hone in the crisis. You have to have love and you have to have magic.”
Fazlalizadeh’s choice in selecting this quote was relevant to the elements within the imagery of her murals. Dedicated to the black women who often – if ever – felt safety in the spaces they walked into with hesitance, deeply connected with me personally.
What I interpreted from the murals was the yearning to belong, and how belonging is the very seed, rooted to affirm our very existence.
A majority of the exhibition explored the same themes as Fazlalizadeh, only presented in different fonts. The exhibition “Reposessions” explored the integral concept of reparations for the community. The work shown was a collection of the work of five black artists, respectively: Marcus Brown, Chelle Barbour, Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, Rodney Ewing, and Curtis Patterson.
Demonstrating history through the form of collages, Repossessions is a time capsule, refurbishing maps and portraits into art that exudes lost colors from the past. One notable piece that stood out as my personal favorite from the collection was titled “Surreal Plantation,” by artist Chelle Barbour (2023).
The piece served as an ode to the exhibition’s name itself, portraying black slaves on the plantation.
The piece ensures to humanize their existence through color, in a time when they were denied the right to view themselves as humans. The piece also features presumed slave owners donning masks and UFO spaceships hovering over the slaves in the plantation. It reflects a cautionary truth that was slavery, and uses a layered collage method to bring forth its impactful legacy, haunting and yet, as mentioned before – surreal.
Awol Erizku’s first solo exhibition, X, pays homage to the famous Black Muslim revolutionary, Malcolm X, also known within the Nation of Islam as El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. Being the muse for this collection, the Ethiopian-born, Bronx-based Erizku attempts to bridge the historical with the modern.
Merging elements of history with the Black experience currently, Erizku seeks to honor it through sculpture, photography, film, and even a black Nefertiti disco ball, showcasing a new generation of blackness within America. Another exhibition that fascinated me was “Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe.”
The unconventional nature of the exhibition reflected well in the reputation of the now deceased artist. Born in Fayette County, Georgia, in 1900, Rowe was known as one of the key Black folk artists who helped pioneer contemporary art. Her unorthodox approach towards creativity reflected her identity as a “radical act of self-expression and liberation in the post-civil rights era South.”
The use of color within Rowe’s art pulls you in. How she used it to draw abstract, uncanny images that mirrored – and yet – countered realism is greatly profound. She was also a sculptor, photographer, and dollmaker, all of which were featured in her collection. One of the central themes of Rowe’s art was the domesticity of the everyday Black experience.
This also included elements of race, gender, her knowledge of African American folklore, and Black spirituality. Something interesting that the exhibition featured was a short film, titled Keeping Time. Directed by LA-based filmmaker Darol Olu Kae, the film explores the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (the Ark), a Black musical assemble – or as described in the gallery’s presentation – “an avant-garde jazz group from South Central LA.”
Filmed on original 16 mm, 35 mm, and digital film formats, Kae’s film explores the narratives of the jazz musicians, whose collective was founded by pianist and composer Horace Tapscott. The film connects how music is an integral part of the spectrum that is art, especially within the contexts of the Black community. Kae was also mindful of incorporating archival footage, ensuring audiences understand the fundamental history he is capturing in juxtaposition to the present.
Each musician recounts their personal experiences within the Ark, and how each of their legacies culminate into a tapestry that honors Black music. The final exhibition I was privileged to at least get a short glimpse of before I concluded my visit was the” Ode to ‘Dena: Black Artistic Legacies of Altadena.” The collection was a collaborative piece from numerous Black artists/creatives independently curated by Dominique Clayton.
After the western and eastern wildfires that inevitably destroyed many LA neighborhoods back in January 2025, these pieces sought to ignite memories for the people who have lost their lives and homes in the unfortunate disaster. Altadena, which was a growing black neighborhood since the 1950s and 60s, was one of the many neighborhoods impacted by the fires.
The watercolor piece captured the essence of the life Altadena carried before its untimely destruction. The vibrancy of the colors is almost mosaic and dreamlike. It offers a bittersweet, yet beautiful window back into time when the neighborhood used to stand.
The artwork from all of the exhibitions left me in utter awe. The beauty that is Blackness, and the authenticity in which the show demonstrated it in its rawest forms was important to view. I hope anyone reading this article will make sure to one day visit the CAAM and witness their treasures in the City of Angels. It truly is a show that cannot be missed.
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