2nd Annual Black History Festival of the Arts
Rephrasis en Noir: The visual interpretation of Black Literature

The OH Art Foundation is proud to present the 2nd Annual Black History Festival of the Arts, an expansive multi-gallery experience celebrating the stories, dualities, and cultural richness of the BIPOC experience in the U.S., opening Friday, January 16, 2026, at Zhou B Art Center.

 

About Exhibition:

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Think of the literary prowess that examines, expresses, and undergirds Black culture. 

 

In the spirit of the breadth of Black thought and imagination   -  i.e., Black folks be thinkin' -  this exhibition opens its walls to works that respond to our literary greatness.

 

Often, good literature helps us see. What did you see when you first read Toni Morrison's Beloved or The Bluest Eye? Did James Baldwin's essays or his retreat to Southern France make you see America's injustice or the hillsides of a free land, or both? Did Giovani's Room or Beale Could make you see color, or line, or shape? 

 

If literature, Black literature, has impacted how you see and how you create, how do you share these stories when you are a visual artist? We'd like to see what you see. Share with us how you have responded to our best, our finest literature. And its ok to think big, heck, Toni did.

 

This exhibition, (the second African American Art) 2nd Black History Festival of the Arts group exhibit to be held by OH Art Foundation at Zhou B Art Center, will showcase these inspired worlds by the best of Chicago's rich Black talent pool.

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About the Curator:

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Candace Hunter is a Chicago-based multidisciplinary artist, curator and advocate whose work interrogates history, identity and transformation through collage, painting, installation and performance. Drawing on found materials—vintage maps, magazine clippings, cloth, repurposed magazines—Hunter re-assembles landscapes of memory, politics and culture into rich mixed-media works that both celebrate and critique the legacies of race, place and power.

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Hunter has exhibited widely—her solo exhibitions Dust in Their Veins and Hooded Truths premiered in Chicago (at the DuSable Museum of African American History and the South Side Community Art Center) and traveled nationally. Her contributions have been recognized with numerous honors, including the 3Arts Next Level Award (2021), the Elevate Climate Changemakers Award (2022) and the 3Arts Award (2016).

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As curator of this Open Call, Hunter brings a deep commitment to narrative, community-engaged practice and making visible the threads of history that connect past, present and future.

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Follow the Oh Art Foundation on Instagram at @ohartfoundation for updates and behind-the- scenes previews.

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Inquiries - info@ohartfoundation.org

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