Women fight for a seat at the table daily. It's hard enough being a woman, but add being a black woman to the mix and things become even more difficult.

As a black woman in the art space who is overcoming these barriers, it is my goal to educate and help make art more accessible to people of color. With that in mind, I’m excited to share with you ten phenomenal living visual artists who happen to be black and female. They are leading the way and breaking glass ceilings in the visual art world. Because of their courage and perseverance, they are making a path for others following in their footsteps and they are ensuring that diverse stories are being told with excellence and care.

While there are many more women artists who are doing great things, these are the ten you need to know, to be “in the know.”  

1. Lorna Simpson (Painter, photographer, and video artist)    

Simpson is a multi-disciplinarian artist who works in painting, photography, and video. Her work deals with identity and culture. She was born in Brooklyn, New York and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Photography from the School of Visual Arts, New York and her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from the University of California, San Diego. Her work is included in many public collections such as The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Tate Modern, London, England; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; and The Collection of Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France.

Artwork (Right): Ice 5, 2018, Ink and acrylic on gessoed fiberglass, 274.3 x 243.8 x 3.2 cm / 108 x 96 x 1 1/4 in) 

2. Mickalene Thomas (Painter, photographer and video artist)

Thomas started her professional art career at the age of 25 after deciding against pursuing a law career. Her work deals with female sexuality, beauty, and power, and was heavily influenced by her mother. She is widely known for her collage based portraiture that is often embellished with rhinestones. She was mentored by Carrie Mae Weems, a renowned photographer, and video-based artist. Thomas received her BFA from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY in 2000; MFA from Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT in 2002. She is included in numerous public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. Her work can be seen in the exhibition "You Are Here" at the North Carolina Museum of Art until July 22, 2018.

Artwork (Left): Naomi Sims, from the installation, Do I Look Like a Lady? 2016, silkscreen ink on an acrylic mirror mounted on wood panel, 72 x 134 in., Courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong, © 2018 Mickalene Thomas / Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York)

3. Lorraine O’Grady (Photographer and performance artist)

O’Grady who was born in 1934 in Boston, Massachusetts began her art career in her forties in the late 1970s. Still actively exhibiting work today, her work focuses on gender and female prejudice. She attended Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts and received a B.A. in economics and was an MFA candidate at Iowa Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. Her work is included in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, and the Brooklyn Museum, Contemporary Art Collection, Brooklyn, NY. 

Artwork (Right): Art Is. . . (Dancer in Grass Skirt), 1983/2009, C-print in 40 parts, 16h x 20w in, 40.64h x 50.80w cm, Courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York, © 2018 Lorraine O'Grady/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York) 

4. Jennie C. Jones (Painter) 

Jones, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, is a conceptual artist whose minimalistic works typically merges together modern abstract painting and African American music – jazz. Her works include painting and audio collages. Jones attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she received her BFA and Rutgers University where she received her MFA. Her works are included in numerous public collections such as The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; The Deutsche Bank Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

Artwork (Left): Recording Red, Gray Distortion (for Elvin Jones), 2016, Acoustic absorber panel and acrylic paint on canvas, 2 parts: 48 x 54 inches (121.9 x 137.2 cm), overall © Jennie C. Jones, Courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York.

5. Kara Walker (Installation Artist)

Walker is an artist whose work addresses violence, race, sexuality, and gender. She is known for her paper cutout silhouette of the antebellum south – the time period prior to the American Civil War. She is one of the youngest recipients of the MacArthur Fellow Award and she was included in Time Magazine’s 2007 listing of the 100 most influential people. She is currently the Tepper Chair of Visual Arts at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Most recently she debuted the performative sculpture Katastwóf Karavan at the Prospect 4 in New Orleans, Louisiana.  Her work is included in notable public collections such as National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, Tate Gallery, London, U.K, Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt, Germany. She attended Atlanta College of Art for her BFA and Rhode Island School of Design for her MFA. 

Artwork (Right): The Katastwóf Karavan, 2017, Steel frame mounted to lumber running gear, aluminum, red oak and muslin wall panels, propane fired boiler, water tank, gas generator, brass and steel 38-note steam calliope, calliope controller panel with MIDI interface, iPad controller with QRS PNO software, 152 x 216 x 100 inches (386.1 x 548.6 x 254 cm) Installation view: Algiers Point, New Orleans, presented on occasion of Prospect.4: The Lotus In Spite of the Swamp, February 23-25, 2018, Photo: Alex Marks, Artwork © Kara Walker, courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York.)

6. Howardena Pindell (Multidisciplinary artist)

Pindell attended Boston University for her BFA and received her MFA from Yale University and studied painting. While a painter, she was also a curator at the Museum of Modern Art which gave her the opportunity to see the interworking of the art world where she saw inequities. Her work addresses racism, gender bias, and discrimination. Her work has been included in important museum permanent collections such as the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA. 

Artwork (Left): Untitled #7G, 2009

7. Julie Mehretu (Painter)

Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Mehretu currently lives and works in New York City. She is known for her large-scale abstract paintings which include architecture. Her sought-after works have also made her one of the only living female black artists whose works have sold for millions of dollars. She was included in the inaugural “F series” exhibitions at The Studio Museum in Harlem and was also a resident in their Artist in Residency program in 2001. Some of her many awards include the Berlin Prize, Guna S. Mundheim Fellowship, The American Academy in Berlin, 2007, and U.S. Department of State Medal of Arts Award, 2015. She attended Kalamazoo College in 1992 and Rhode Island School of Design in 1997 where she received her BA and MFA respectively.

Artwork (Right): Conjured Parts (Syria), Aleppo and Damascus, 2016, Ink and acrylic on canvas, 60 x 120 1/4 in. / (152.4 x 305.4 cm), Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, Photo credit: Tom Powel Imaging 

8. Simone Leigh (Sculptor and video artist with a focus on social collaboration)

Leigh was born in Chicago, Illinois and her artistic practice focuses on black female subjectivity through sculpture, video, and collaboration. Black women are the primary audience for her work.   She attended Earlham University and graduated with a BA in Art and Philosophy. She is a finalist for the Hugo Boss Prize and has received the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and the Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize. One of her many notable works includes Free People’s Medical Clinic, a project celebrating the legacy of black nurses and The United Order of Tents, a secret group of black women nurses that started during the American Civil War.

Artwork (Left): Dunham, 2017, Terracotta, porcelain, raffia, steel, glass bead, epoxy, and India ink, 35 x 30 x 30 inches, (88.9 x 76.2 x 76.2 cm), © Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York.

9. Faith Ringgold (Painter, quilt maker, and sculptor)

Ringgold grew up in Harlem, New York during the Great Depression and her love for art was cultivated by her mother and father. She started her art career in the 1960s with politically charged paintings and posters. She believed in equality and protested for women and African-American civil rights. As her practice progressed, she started to make what she became most known for, her “story quilts.”  She learned the quilting technique from her mother and used text and paint to create elaborate stories. 

Artwork (Right): Coming to Jones Road Part II n.2 We Here Aunt Emmy Got Us Now, 2010, acrylic on canvas with fabric border, 172.7 x 160 cm, 68 x 63 in. © Faith Ringgold. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London. 

10. Joyce J Scott

Scott is a Baltimore, Maryland native. Her main medium is beadwork and glass which is included in most of her work which focuses on polarizing social issues such as race, domestic violence, and gun violence.  She attended Maryland Institute College of Art and received her BFA and Instituto Allende, San Miguel Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico and the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine. She is also a 2016 recipient of the MacArthur Fellow. Her works are in public collections such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, NY; Kruithuis Museum, Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; and National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 

Artwork (Left): Sex Traffic 2, 2017, Blown glass, metal, glass beads, thread, wire, 10 1/2 x 31 1/2 x 8 in. (26.7 x 80 x 20.3 cm),  Courtesy of Goya Contemporary, Baltimore, MD