Clementine Hunter: Painting Black Life from Memory
Clementine Hunter taught herself to paint in her fifities and spent the rest of her life chronicling the Black Southern experience, not with slogans...
Wen Gu 19 June 2026
#folk art
13 Black Folk Artists from the American South
The thirteen self-taught artists below, from Bill Traylor to Nellie Mae Rowe, Thornton Dial to Mary T. Smith, among others, created some of the most...
Adam Oestreich 19 June 2026
Maria Gvardeitseva: Art as Transformation
In this deep-dive interview we explore the work of contemporary artist Maria Gvardeitseva, who explores exile, identity and belonging through the mediums of performance, sculpture and video.
Candy Bedworth 25 May 2026
American Folk Art Museum Staff Picks
With the collection spanning more than 7,000 artworks, the American Folk Art Museum, located in Manhattan, New York, celebrates some of the most...
Szymon Jocek 21 May 2026
In the Playhouse: Art Brut and American Folklore in Nellie Mae Rowe’s Work
By transforming discarded objects into part of an organic environment and turning personal experience into visual language, Nellie Mae Rowe created...
Carlotta Mazzoli 11 May 2026
Ex-voto: How Mexicans Bargained with God
When tragedy or misfortune happens, some people turn to a greater power. The possibility of divine intervention gives them hope. Usually, these...
Jimena Escoto 5 May 2026
It’s Never Too Late: The Story of Grandma Moses
For most of her life, Grandma Moses was a wife, a mother, and a hardworking woman living on a farm. She began painting in her late seventies to keep...
Kinga Dobosz 30 March 2026
AE Russell’s Visions of Ireland
George William Russell, known as AE, painted the spirits and visions he had seen since childhood. His Irish landscapes are topographically familiar,...
Hannah Demaine 17 March 2026
William H. Johnson in 10 Artworks—From Post-Impressionism to Folk Art
William H. Johnson’s paintings show a breadth of styles ranging from realism to Post-Impressionism, and later a folk art aesthetic that would...
Theodore Carter 12 February 2026
The Intriguing Tale of Shocking Sheela Na Gig and Its Art References
Everyone remembers their first sighting of a Sheela Na Gig. Wandering around an old church, breathing in the architecture, the history, the silence.
Candy Bedworth 2 January 2026
Scrimshaw: True American Art
Despite the enormity of whales, those pursuing them could go weeks, even months at a time without seeing a single one. With all that time between...
Anthony de Feo 4 July 2025
Discover Slavic Art Deco—The Story of Zofia Stryjeńska
Zofia Stryjeńska was a prominent Polish artist active during the interwar period. Known as the “Lady of Polish Art,” she gained...
Katarzyna Waszak 28 April 2025
