After the opening of O’Grady’s first exhibit, The Knight, or Lancela Palm-and-Steel, at the Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, artist Ayana V. Jackson wrote about her experience of meeting O’Grady who Jackson has long revered. Jackson notes how O’Grady’s pathmaking opened up worlds for Black women to come: “She stood alone so we can stand together… And on our own.”
Forbes, 2024. Chad Scott reports on O’Grady’s “Both/And” exhibit at the Davis Museum of Wellesley College. As an alum of Wellesely, O’Grady’s exhibit and accompanying archival materials offers a unique experience for students to learn about the journey of a former student forging their own path in the art world.
Art History, 2023. Jamie Danis reviews Stephanie Sparling William’s “Speaking Out of Turn: Lorraine O’Grady and the Art of Language” in conjunction with “Howardena Pindell: Reclaiming Abstraction” by Sarah Louise Cowan. Danis contends with the importance of giving critical and arguably overdue attention to Black American women artists without minimizing the wide-range of their careers outside of the mainstream art world.
ARTnews, 2023. Alex Greenberger covers the news that O’Grady joined the Chicago-based Marian Ibrahim Gallery, departing from Alexander Gray Associates. In the article O’Grady is quoted as noting her belief in Mariane Ibrahim who she describes as a trailblazer in the art industry.
The Guardian, 2023. Veronica Esposito’s review of group exhibition, Inheritances, at the Whitney curated by Rujeko Hockley. Along with Ephraim Asili’s 2020 film ‘The Inheritance,” Hockley cites O’Gradys “Rivers, First Draft” as one of the major inspirations for the show as he sought to present challenging works of Black avant-garde art.
The Strategist, 2023/ 22 Best Black Coffee-Table Books — Tembe Denton-Hurst provides a comprehensive list of coffee-table books from Black artists and writers. The list includes Both/And, the accompanying catalogue to O’Grady’s retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum. O’Grady is also noted as an icon in “The Soul of a Nation Reader,” featured on the list.
Holland Cotter reviews Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces, which showcased the ground-breaking Black-owned gallery, JAM, that opened in 1974. In his review, Cotter recounts the gallery’s history and monumental works, including O’Grady’s seminal persona, Mlle Bourgeoise Noire which she debuted at JAM.
Malik Gaines talks with O’Grady about the meaning behind her retrospective title, Both/And, through which she signifies an affront to Western binarist thinking. Unlike writing, which O’Grady has foreseeably mastered, she keeps returning to art because there is no correct way to do it – her struggle is a source of joy and motivation.
At 86, Lorraine O’Grady is experiencing what she calls her “first big break” with the Brooklyn Museum’s retrospective Both/And. For more than four decades, O’Grady has forged a singular path in performance, collage, and critical writing—work that probes identity, inclusion, and the limits of art history. In conversation with Ben Davis, she reflects on her Boston upbringing, her influence on younger artists, and the unexpected moment when a Biden administration post-election ad brought her work into viral circulation.
Kate Guadagnino sits down with O’Grady to learn about her day-to-day as a concept-based artist. She speaks honestly about her process of making art by returning to old projects with fresh eyes, sometimes years later, while also including more personal details like her favorite films and her life at Westbeth. The artist notes that “having come to art later in life, [...] I’m out there to make the best possible work and as close to a masterpiece as I can. [...] What I’m trying to do is get as much of myself expressed as possible because there is so little out there that allows for an understanding of the fullness of the Black mind or soul.”
Jarrett Earnest speaks with Lorraine O’Grady as part of a series of artists who are also writers, for David Zwirner’s podcast. They discuss the artist’s “both/and” approach that is crucial to her retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum, and what she learned from her exhibition.
For Those Who Will Know—In her introduction for O’Grady’s “Writing in Space,” the first collection of the artist’s writing, Aruna D’Souza illuminates the throughline of forward-thinking found in O’Grady’s groundbreaking art. Resisting the simple and rigid classifications that box in many women and Black artists, O’Grady has continuously complicated and challenged cultural notions of binarism. This provocation has taken form in all modes of her practices—from her seminal performance of alter ego Mlle Bourgeoise Noir to the recurrent diptychs bridging unexpected figures like Michael Jackson and Charles Baudelaire. D’Souza delineates how these works are foregrounded by O’Grady’s training as a writer.
Part two of a two-part discussion between artists Lorraine O’Grady and Juliana Huxtable. The dialogue took place by phone from O’Grady and Huxtable’s respective studios in New York City. This is part two of a two-part discussion and the first time the artists have spoken.