Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012) , Black Girl, 2004, Lithograph

Photo credit: Courtesy of the Samella Lewis Collection

© 2024 Mora-Catlett Family / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Of Her Becoming highlights the printmaking, work, and impact of influential artist and activist Elizabeth Catlett (1915–2012) within an important site in Catlett’s career: Chicago’s South Side. Curated by Sheridan Tucker Anderson, the exhibition showcases an array of Catlett’s lithograph and linoleum prints alongside works by contemporary Black women printmakers from the South Side, Angela Davis Fegan, Krista Franklin, and Rebel Betty.

Examining the significance of Catlett’s time on the City’s South Side, this exhibition sheds new light on a period that revolutionized her artistic practice, and how her legacy still impacts artists and community organizers today.

Presented at Arts + Public Life’s (APL’s) Arts Incubator Gallery, an important community keystone of APL’s Arts Block, Of Her Becoming engages the neighbors of APL, the youth enrolled in its programs, as well as the local and regional artistic and scholarly communities. This exhibition and related programs offer lessons for today from Catlett’s legacy of advocating, through her artwork, for the well–being and advancement of her communities.

Arts + Public Life is honored to be a part of Art Design Chicago, a citywide collaboration initiated by the Terra Foundation for American Art that highlights the city’s artistic heritage and creative communities.

OF HER BECOMING: ELIZABETH CATLETT’S LEGACY IN CHICAGO is funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art.