“Creative art is for all time, and is therefore independent of time. It is of all ages, of every land, and if by this we mean that the creative spirit in man which produces a picture or a statue is common to the whole civilized world, independent of age, race and nationality, the statement may stand unchallenged.”[i]

Known for her large-scale abstract paintings comprised of rhythmic marks of exuberant color, Alma Thomas (1891-1978) was born in Columbus, Georgia in 1891. Her parents, John Harris and Amelia Cantey Thomas, were both teachers, and Alma Thomas and her three younger sisters grew up around the educated adults their parents often entertained, including Booker T. Washington. In 1907, the family moved north to escape the rise of violence against Black Americans in Georgia and settled in Washington, DC. Thomas attended the Armstrong Manual Training High School and, from 1911 to 1913, the Miner Normal School for teacher training. She finished with a certificate to teach kindergarten and took a job in Delaware. In 1921, Thomas returned to DC and enrolled in courses at Howard University, studying home economics with the intent of becoming a costume designer. When James Herring founded the art department at Howard in 1922, Thomas became its first major; two years later, she was also the first to graduate with a BS in fine arts. From 1930 to 1934, Thomas took summer classes ­­at Columbia University Teachers College, earning her master’s in art education. Throughout the 1930s, she continued to work in education and organize community art programs such as the Marionette Club, the School Arts League, and the Junior High School Arts Club. In 1943, Herring and Alonzo Aden founded the Barnett Aden Gallery, and Thomas became its vice president. Dedicated to avant-garde art, Barnett Aden was the first gallery in the nation’s segregated capital to exhibit work by both Black and white artists. In the late 1940s, Thomas became one of the Washington-area artists and art teachers affiliated with the “Little Paris Studio,” a collective started by Loïs Mailou Jones and Céline Tabary that met weekly and organized annual exhibitions. The group became an important venue for African American artists at the time.[ii]

1911-13      
Miner Teacher’s School, Washington, DC

1921-24       
B.S. Howard University, Washington, DC

1930-34       
M.A. Teacher’s College, Columbia University, NY

SELECTED MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
African-American Museum, Philadelphia, PA
Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH
American University Museum, Katzen Arts Center, American University, Washington, DC
The Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
The Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Carl Van Vechten Gallery of Fine Arts, Fisk University, Nashville, TN
The Central Intelligence Agency, McLean, VA
Colby College Museum of Art, Colby College, Waterville, ME
The Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR
David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN
Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
H.C. Taylor Collection, The University Galleries, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro, NC
Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Howard University Gallery of Art, Howard University, Washington, DC
LaSalle University Art Museum, LaSalle University, Philadelphia, PA
Luther W. Brady Art Gallery, George Washington University, Washington, DC
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, DC Public Library, Washington, DC
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
The Museum of African American Art, Tampa, FL
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, NC
National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
The Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
SCAD Museum of Art, Savanna College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, New York, NY
Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
Smith College Museum of Art, Smith College, Northampton, MA
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL
Tougaloo College Art Collection, Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, MS
University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IO
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
The White House Historical Association, Washington, DC
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1958
College Art Traveling Service, Washington, DC
Watkins Gallery, American University, Washington, DC

1959
Bennett College, Greensboro, NC

1960
Watercolors by Alma Thomas, Dupont Theatre Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; 1961, 62

1966
Alma W. Thomas: A Retrospective Exhibition (1959-1966), Gallery of Art, College of Fine Arts, Howard University, Washington, DC; 1975

1967
Margaret Dickey Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1968
Alma Thomas: Recent Paintings, Franz Bader Gallery, Washington, DC; 1974

1970
Alma Thomas: Earth and Space Paintings, Franz Bader Gallery, Washington, DC

1971  
Recent Paintings by Alma W. Thomas: Earth and Space Series, 1961-1971, Carl Van Vechten Gallery of Fine Arts, Fisk University, Nashville, TN

1972   
Alma W. Thomas, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Alma W. Thomas: Retrospective Exhibition, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1973   
Alma W. Thomas: Paintings, Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, NY

1976
Alma W. Thomas: Recent Paintings, H.C. Taylor Art Gallery, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro, NC
Alma W. Thomas: Recent Paintings, 1975-1976, Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, NY

1981
A Life in Art: Alma Thomas, 1891-1978, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

1998
Alma W. Thomas: A Retrospective of the Paintings, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN; Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ, Anacostia Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; The Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA 

2001
Alma Thomas: Phantasmagoria, Major Paintings, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY; Women’s Museum; An Institute for the Future, Dallas, TX

2015
Alma Thomas: Moving Heaven & Earth, Paintings and Works on Paper, 1958-1978, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2016
Alma Thomas, Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY

2021
Alma W. Thomas: Everything Is Beautiful, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA; The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN; The Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA

2022
Sand Unshaken: The Origin Story of Alma Thomas, The Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA

2023
Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC

1951
1st Annual Exhibition of the Lois Jones & Céline Tabary Studio Group, Inspiration House, Washington, DC

1952
8th Annual Exhibition of Paintings, Sculptures and Prints by Negro Artists, Trevor Arnett Library,
Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA; 1954, 64, 70

1953
Dupont Theatre Art Gallery, Washington, DC; 1960

1954
Six Washington Painters, Barnett-Arden Gallery, Washington, DC; 1956, 57, 59, 60
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; 1955, 60

1955
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; 1956, 59, 77

1958
Contemporary American Paintings, College Arts Traveling Service, Washington, DC
Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; 1959, 60, 63, 66

1959
Hilda Shapiro: Paintings, Sculpture; Alma Thomas: Paintings, Watkins Gallery (now American University Museum, Katzen Arts Center), American University, Washington, DC
Survey Number One: Visual Metamorphosis in Painting, Howard University Gallery of Art, Howard University, Washington, DC

1960
American Federation of the Arts, Washington, DC

1961
U.S. National Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; 1962, 63
New Vistas in American Art, Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1963
CORE, Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, NY
Margaret Dickey Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1967
Hampton University Institute, Hampton, VA
American Austrian Cultural Society, Washington, DC

1968
Encounters: An Exhibit in Celebration of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bi-Centennial, James B. Duke Library, Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, NC
Negro Artists in Washington, The George Washington University Art Gallery, George Washington University, Washington, DC
Dimock Gallery, George Washington University, Washington, DC
Anacostia Neighborhood Museum, Washington, DC; 1970, 75
The Art Club of Washington, Washington, DC; 1972

1969
Arts and Industries Building, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
The Washington Painters, Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL
1969: Twelve Afro-American Artists, Lee Nordness Galleries, New York, NY

1970
Dimensions of Black, La Jolla Museum of Art, La Jolla, CA
UNCF, Equal Opportunity Building, New York, NY
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Afro-American Artists: New York and Boston, The Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, Boston, MA; School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

1971
Black American Artists/71, Lobby Gallery, Illinois Bell Telephone, Chicago, IL
Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts, Kalamazoo, MI
Contemporary Black Artists in America, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
The Art Barn, Washington, DC
Audubon Naturalist Society, Chevy Chase, MD

1972
Black Matri-Images: A Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings by Laura Wheeler Waring and Paintings and Prints by Elizabeth Catlett, Lois Jones, Alma W. Thomas, Morgan State College Gallery of Art, Baltimore, MD

1973
McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, TX
United States Embassy, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

1974
Woman’s Work: American Art 1974, Museum of the Philadelphia Civic Center, Philadelphia, PA
Painting and Sculpture Today, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN; Contemporary Arts Center and Taft Museum, Cincinnati, OH
National Convention, American Institute of Architects, Washington, DC

1975
11 in New York, Women’s Interart Center Inc., New York, NY
Color and Image: Six Artists from Washington, DC, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA
Afro-American Art, Carl Van Vechten Gallery of Fine Arts, Fisk University, Nashville, TN
The District Building, Washington, DC
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Contemporary Arts Gallery, New York University, New York, NY

1976
Two Centuries of Black American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
The Hue and Far Cry of Color: Contemporary “Mural” Size Paintings, Performing Arts Center, Fort Wayne, IN
Communication in Black Culture, American Telephone and Telegraph Company, New York, NY

1977
35th Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Pattern, Grid and System Art, Wilson Gallery, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Summit Gallery, New York, NY
Pattern, Grid and System Art, Ralph Wilson Gallery, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA

1979
Black Artists/South, Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL
Reflections of a Southern Heritage: 20th Century Black Artists of the Southeast, Gibbes Art Gallery, Charleston, SC
Women Artists in Washington Collections, University of Maryland Art Gallery and Women’s Caucus for the Arts, College Park, MD

1980
Forever Free: Art by African-American Women, 1862-1980, Alexandria, VA

1981
Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NB

1983
Celebrating Contemporary American Black Artists, Fine Arts Museum of Long Island, Hempstead, NY
Six Washington Masters, Evan-Tibbs Collection, Washington, DC

1984
Since the Harlem Renaissance: 50 Years of Afro-American Art, The Center Gallery (now Samek Art Museum), Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA; The Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, College at Westbury (now SUNY Old Westbury), State University of New York, Old Westbury, NY; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY; University of Maryland Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, MD; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA; Museum of Art (now Palmer Museum of Art), Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

1985
Art in Washington and Its Afro-American Presence, 1940-1970, Washington Projects for the Arts, Washington, DC

1986
Unbroken Circle: Exhibition of African-American Artists of the 1930s and 1940s, Kenkeleba House, New York, NY

1989
African-American Artists, 1880-1987: Selections from the Evan-Tibbs Collection, Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Washington, DC
Making Their Mark: Women Artists Move into the Mainstream, 1970-85, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

1990
Die Sammlung Hans und Hildi Muller und die Schenkung an das Bunder Kunstmuseum, Bunder Kunstmuseu, Chur, Switzerland

1991
The Search for Freedom: African American Abstract Painting, Kenkeleba House, New York, NY
The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art, The Beach Institute African-American Cultural Center / King-Tisdell Cottage, Savannah, GA; Hammonds House Galleries and Resource Center (now Hammonds House Museum), Atlanta, GA; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL; Boston University Art Galleries, Boston University, Boston, MA; Main Gallery, Arts Consortium of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH; UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures, University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), San Antonio, TX; Canton Art Institute (now Canton Museum of Art), Canton, OH; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE; University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Art Gallery, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI; Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI; Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL; Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center, Pittsburgh, PA; Cheekwood Museum of Art, Cheekwood Estate & Gardens, Nashville, TN; Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV; Walter Anderson Museum of Art, Ocean Springs, MS; Meadows Museum of Art at Centenary College of Louisiana, Shreveport, LA; Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC; The Museum of Art/Tallahassee, Tallahassee, FL; Museum of Arts and Sciences, Macon, GA; Henry Ford Museum (now The Henry Ford), Dearborn, MI; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA; Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, TX; Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN; Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY; Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS

1992
Free Within Ourselves: African-American Artists in the Collection of the National Museum of American Art, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT; IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, NY, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN, Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA

1994
The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art, San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX; El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX; Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, GA; Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN

1995
The Barnett-Aden Collection, The Museum of African American Art, Tampa, FL

1996
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, III, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
Bearing Witness: Contemporary Works by African American Women Artists, ExhibitsUSA, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA; Polk Art Museum, Lakeland, FL; Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA; African American Museum, Dallas, TX; Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, MN; Kennedy Museum of American Art, Athens, OH; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, KS; Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Washington State University, Pullman, WA

1997
Revisiting American Art: Works from the Collections of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, IV, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; Fisk University Galleries, Nashville, TN

1998
Tradition & Conflict: A Visual History of African-Americans in Art, 19th and Early 20th Centuries, Ledbetter Lusk Gallery, Memphis, TN

1999
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VI, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI
To Conserve A Legacy: American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries, Atlanta, GA; Fisk University with Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN; Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA

2000
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VII, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; The Appleton Museum of Art, Florida State University, Ocala, FL
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery: The First Decade, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY

2001
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VIII, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; Texas Southern University Museum, Houston, TX
Abstraction on Paper: 1950-1965, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY

2002
In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Charles H. Wright Museum of African American Art, Detroit, MI; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE; Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, NY; Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN; Montgomery Museum of Fine Art, Montgomery, AL
Free Expressions: Community Voices and Contemporary African American Art from the Collection, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, IX, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; Tubman African American Museum, Macon, GA

2003
Five African American Artists, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, X, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
African American Masters: Highlights of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, New York Historical
Society, New York, NY; Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, TN; The Cummer Museum of Art, Jacksonville, FL; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH; Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH; The Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE; Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT
An American Legacy: Art from the Studio Museum in Harlem, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY

2004
Mood Indigo: The Legacy of Duke Ellington – A Look at Jazz and Improvisation in American Art; Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
Presence, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, NY
Recent Acquisitions, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME

2005
Stroke! Beauford Delaney, Norman Lewis & Alma Thomas, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY

2006
Pre – Post, Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, NY
Lines of Discovery: 225 Years of American Drawings, The Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA; Gilcrease    Museum, Tulsa, OK; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI; Arkansas Arts Center, Little    Rock, AK

2007
Decoding Myth:  African American Abstraction, 1945-1975, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

2008
African American Art:  200 Years, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY
Circa 1958:  Breaking Ground in American Art, Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Beyond the Canon: Small-Scale American Abstraction, 1945-1965, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY

2009
Abstract Expressionism: Further Evidence (Part One: Painting), Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

2010
Color Balance: Paintings by Felrath Hines and Alma Thomas, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC

2011
Abstract Expressionism: Reloading the Canon, A Selection of Paintings and Sculpture, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2012 
African American Art in the 20th Century, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
After Tanner: African American Artists since 1940, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
To be a Lady: Forty-five Women in the Arts, 1285 Avenue of the Americas Art Gallery, New York, NY
Blues for Smoke, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
African American Art Since 1950: Perspectives from The David C. Driskell Center, organized by Smithsonian Institute of Traveling Exhibition Services (SITES), The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, University of Maryland, College Park, MD; Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA; Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL; Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA; The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, Charlotte, NC; Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH
INsite/INchelsea: The Inaugural Exhibition, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2013
Abstract Expressionism / In Context: Seymour Lipton, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Regarding the Forces of Nature: From Alma Thomas to Yayoi Kusama, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME

2014
Venus Drawn Out: 20th Century Drawings by Great Women Artists, The Armory Show Modern, New York, NY
Beyond the Spectrum: Abstraction in African American Art, 1950-1975, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
RISING UP/UPRISING: Twentieth Century African American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
The Harmon & Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art: Works on Paper, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era and Beyond, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue from the Collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Camille O. and William H. Cosby Jr., Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC
Prospect.3: Notes for Now, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA

2015
Represent: 200 Years of African American Art in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
America Is Hard to See, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Chromatic, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
Collectors Legacy: Selections from the Sandra Lloyd Baccus Collection, The David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Women and Abstraction, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL

2016
The Color Line: African American Artists and the Civil Rights in the United States, Musee du Quai Branly, Paris, France
Expansive Visions: GW Collections Past, Present, Future, George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum, Washington, DC

2017
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, Tate Modern, London, England; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; The Broad, Los Angeles, CA; de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX
The Time Is N♀w, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
The Last Ten Years: In Focus; Selections from the David C. Driskell Center Collections, David C. Driskell Center Gallery,University of Maryland, College Park, MD

2018
Hopes Springing High: Gifts of Art by African American Artists, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Something to Say: The McNay Presents 100 Years of African American Art, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
Histórias Afro-Atlânticas, Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) and Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil
Central to Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the Johnson Collection, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS; Huntington Museum of Art, Hungtington, WV; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN; The Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, FL; Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA
Celebrating 50 Years of the US Open Championships, United States Tennis Association (USTA) President’s Suite, Arthur Ashe Stadium, Flushing Meadows, NY
The Long Run, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
The Joy of Color, Mnuchin Gallery, New York, NY
Epic Abstraction: Pollock to Herrera, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Alma Thomas: The Light of the Whole Universe, Smith College Museum of Art, Smith College, Northampton, MA            
Peindre la nuit, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France  

2019      
Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI; Smith College Museum of Art, Smith College, Northampton, MA; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Echoing Forms: American Abstraction from the Permanent Collection, Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL
Generations: A History of Black Abstract Art, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Seeing America, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
The Expanding Universe of Postwar Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Elevation from Within: The Study of Art at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, The Johnson Collection Gallery, Spartanburg, SC
Spiritual by Nature, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Art Purposes: Object Lessons for the Liberal Arts, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
Abstract Expressionism: A Social Revolution, Selections from the Haskell Collection, Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL
The Blues and the Abstract Truth: Voices of African-American Art, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD
The Kinsey Collection of African American Art, African American Museum, Dallas, TX
African American Art in the 20th Century, organized by Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; Dubuque Museum of Art, Dubuque, IA; Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL; The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, PA
"Henri Matisse," Collection 1880s-1940s, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Afrocosmologies: American Reflections, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
The Lay of the Land: Landscape Paintings from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT
Modern and Contemporary: Art Post-1945, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT
The Making of a Museum: 100 Years, 100 Works, Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL
The Fullness of Color: 1960s Painting, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY

2020
Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition, curated by Adrienne L. Childs, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
Paper Power, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Explorations in Self: Black Portraiture from the Cochran Collection, Phillip and Charlotte Hanes Art Gallery, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC
Expanded Painting in the 1960s and 1970s, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Memories and Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art, Gilcrease Museum - Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History & Art, Tulsa, OK; Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art, University of Richmond Museums, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA; Appleton Museum of Art, College of Central Florida, Ocala, FL; Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT; David Owsley Museum of Art, Ball State University, Muncie, IN; Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV; Albany Museum of Art, Albany, GA; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN; Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH; August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Pittsburgh, PA; Carnegie Arts Center, Turlock, CA; Oklahoma State University Museum of Art, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK; Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA; Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA; Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, MS; Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA; The Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University, Salem, OR

2021
Colliding with History: African American Works on Paper from the Collection of Wes and Missy Cochran, The Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design Gallery, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA
Supernatural America: The Paranormal in American Art, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH; Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
African American Art in the 20th Century: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS
Mark Makers: The Language of Abstraction, Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Distinctive/Instinctive: Postwar Abstract Painting, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
In Great Company: David C. Driskell and Howard University, Howard University Gallery of Art, Howard University, Washington, DC
Seeing Differently: The Phillips Collects for a New Century, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
Afro-American Images 1971: The Vision of Percy Ricks, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO
Memories & Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art, Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT
Alternative Worlds: Mary Bauermeister, Lee Bontecou, Claire Falkenstein & Alma Thomas, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
The Kinsey African American Art & History Collection, Greenwood Cultural Center and ONEOK Boathouse, Gathering Place, Tulsa, OK; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA; The Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA
There Is a Woman in Every Color: Black Women in Art, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME; El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX; Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota, Duluth, MN; Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, The University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL
Afro-Atlantic Histories, curated by Kanitra Fletcher; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
A Drawing Show, Paula Cooper Gallery, Palm Beach, FL

2022
New Acquisitions and African-American Masters, Howard University Gallery of Art, Howard University, Washington, DC
Put It This Way: (Re)Visions of the Hirshhorn Collection, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
9th Street and Beyond: 70 Years of Women in Abstraction, Part 2: The Geometric, Hunter Dunbar Projects, New York, NY
Dead Lecturer/distant relative: Notes from the Woodshed, 1950-1980, curated by Genji Amino, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Lenfest Center for the Arts, Columbia University, New York, NY
Summer At Its Best, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
America: Between Dreams and Realities, Selections from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
Revisiting 5+1, Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery, Stallar Center for the Arts, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY
In the Balance: Painting and Sculpture, 1965–1985, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Art and Activism at Tougaloo College, Amistad Center for Art and Culture, Hartford, CT; Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK; Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA; Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA
Homecoming, Stanley Museum of Art, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

2023
Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970, Whitechapel Gallery, London
Southern/Modern, curated by Dr. Jonathan Stuhlman and Martha R. Severens, Georgia Museum of Art, The University of Georgia, Athens; Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN; The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC

2024
David C. Driskell and Friends: Creativity, Collaboration, Friendship, David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD; Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
A Bold and Beautiful Vision: A Century of Black Arts Education in Washington, DC, 1900-2000, Anacostia Community Museum, Washington, DC