Contemporary Black American art exhibition features Art Academy grad James Pate

Dayton area groups have joined together to help Black artists reach a larger audience. The Dayton Art Institute and the African American Visual Artists Guild had never collaborated. The exhibit is called Black Heritage through Visual Rhythms.

A graduate of the Art Academy and raised in Cincinnati, James Pate, won best in show for his charcoal illustration, “Ayo’s Chair.” A young Black boy sits on a carved wooden chair twice his size. He’s reading a book in an art studio. Art students and their teachers are sculpting a bust of Breonna Taylor, another of George Floyd. On an easel in the background, we can just make out the image of Emmett Till.

Learn how James Pate got his start right out of high school and the Black Heritage through Visual Rhythms show which continues at the Dayton Art Institute through May 22 here.