Artists represented and presented
“Black artists were not lying dormant like orchids, waiting for water to flow from the mainstream. They produced work in every medium and genre and along the way they created masterworks and a rich visual culture.
So too, Black owned galleries, dealers and advisors toiled for generations to present and avail the work that was often ignored by the very institutions that laud it today. It’s incredibly rewarding to have worked through the cusp and contributed to this shift in the canon.”“It is rewarding to see a generation of unjustly neglected artists receive their rightful place in the canon of American art. And it’s thrilling to observe the impact that young Black artists, curators, scholars and collectors have on the global art scene today!”
Noel
Click on Artist Below for images and text.
El Anatsui
2008: “The first sight of El Anatsui’s work literally took my breath away! I was in the African wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art NYC. The work was stunning, alluring, compelling, confusing… It felt both ancient and modern… was it textile, tapestry, sculpture? I did not know, but I was certain that I saw something marvelous and art historically significant. I traveled to see more and meet the artist so that I could balance my brimming enthusiasm with a depth of understanding about his process and intentions.
See the short video to experience the work I saw that day. El Anatsui Installing Between Earth and Heaven
The Ghanian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Art Biennale 2019
large tapestry
Benny Andrews: November 13, 1930 – November 10, 2006
“When I needed to determine which artist would be featured to premier Noel Gallery, Benny Andrews was my first choice. He & his work represented everything I wanted the gallery to be 1) A place of indisputable artistic excellence. His national reputation with monographs, videos, exhibition catalogs, etc provided ample support material for visitors to enjoy 2) Benny was a warm, kind, engaging, and inviting special guest who made both first-time gallery visitors and seasoned collectors welcome. 3) Benny, a native of Georgia with deep Southern roots but also a long-term resident of New York with politically cognizance and cultural activism. He represented the balance of my intentions. Benny traveled to each of my gallery openings, always effusive about his delight in the installations and the experience in general. He was a great communicator and I am proud to have years of correspondence from him
Estate now represented by Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
Armory Show, NYC 2021
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
John T Biggers: April 13, 1924 – January 25, 2001
See: https://thejohnsoncollection.org/john-biggers/
see: https://www.michaelrosenfeldart.com/artists/john-biggers-1924-2001
Houston Texas claimed him but John Biggers was a native of Gastonia NC, which was 35 min drive from Noel Gallery in Charlotte. Noel had the opportunity to know John over the course of years, visiting him & his beloved wife, Hazel Hales Biggers, at their homes in Houston and in Gastonia. “One of the many blessings of my art career was the direct tutelage of John Biggers, who shared the African symbols and iconography of his work, thereby decoding and gifting me with the essential messages in his work.”
2001: Upon his death in 2001 Noel was honored to be asked to speak at his memorial.
2003: Noel was instrumental in facilitating the John T Biggers mural at the Schiele Museum in Gastonia. She worked with family and Stephen Miotto of Miotto Mosaics Italy/NY in creating the mural of his painting “This Little Light of Mine”
Schiele Museum in Gastonia, NC
Elizabeth Catlett: April 15, 1915 – April 2, 2012
I have always wanted my art to service my people—to reflect us, to relate to us, to stimulate us, to make us aware of our potential,”
Elizabeth Catlett
One of the most important American artists of the past century, Elizabeth Catlett is honored as a foremother by subsequent generations. In the United States and in Mexico, where she resided for over sixty years, she produced an unparalleled body of politically charged and aesthetically compelling graphic and sculptural images that were grounded in what she regarded as the historically based necessity to render visible that which had not been the subject of art. see https://www.elizabethcatlettart.com/bio
June Kelly Gallery, NYC
Lithograph, 1982
At work
2009
Nick Cave
“Sheer genius! One of my favorite humans!” Noel met Nick Cave in 2001 and exhibited “Objects of Desire”, Noel Gallery, Charlotte, NC and has enjoyed the trajectory of his career ever since. She collaborates with Jack Shainman Gallery in securing his work for clients.
Mosaic mural, NYC subway, 42nd St.
2021
Ed Clark
May 6, 1926 – October 18, 2019
2006
Noel states: I had the opportunity to build a collection for an international hedge fund company and decided to highlight abstract work by African American masters. I secured two incredible Ed Clark brush paintings directly from his studio, enjoying all of Ed’s banter in the process. He fully understood the discrimination that affected the value of his work. He appreciated that I respected his price and bought two paintings.
Neither he nor I or my client could have imagined the realized appreciation over time
2021: Sotheby’s March 2021
“Contemporary Curated” auction
Ed Clark, who died in October 2019, set a new record for the artist when it sold for $746,000, nine times the low estimate of $80,000
Noel built a collection for an international hedge fund, featuring abstract work by African American masters. She secured two incredible Ed Clark brush paintings in 2008.
“The time spent in his home studio was precious; I enjoyed Ed’s banter and his art-historical perspective pertaining to the blatant discrimination that affected the value of his work. He understood that he deserved a place in the annals of American art.”
David Driskell 1931-2020
“Knowing and respecting David Driskell is a given but to have him know and respect me was an honor”.
Noel
David C. Driskell was an American artist, scholar, and curator; recognized for his work in establishing African-American Art as a distinct field of study. In his lifetime, Driskell was cited as one of the world’s leading authorities on the subject of African-American Art.
See Video: Driskell Center
Ed Dwight
Noel states “Ed Dwight is one of the most extraordinary persons I have ever met; a true Renaissance man!”
Known for his public art memorials around the US, Ed Dwight lives in the annals of American history as the first African American astronaut candidate! Born and raised in Kansas City, Kansas; Ed join the U.S. Air Force in 1953. After completing pilot training, he served as a military fighter pilot and obtained a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Arizona State University. In 1961 Dwight was chosen by President John F. Kennedy to enter training as an Experimental Test Pilot in preparation to become the first African American Astronaut. Ed completed the Experimental Test Pilot course and entered Aerospace Research Pilot training, in preparation for Astronaut duties. He successfully completed the course and continued on to perform duties as a fully qualified Aerospace Research Pilot.
2000: Ed Dwight’s sculpture exhibition at Noel Gallery
2006: Noel facilitated a sculpture commission for Pepsi Cola NC.
2019: NYTimes digital feature Ed Dwight first black astronaut?
Out of his entire “Small Collection”, NASA selected this sculpture to launch into space on the Orion mission to Mars. It launched, orbited the Earth for three orbits, and then ejected with all the other collections of artifacts, right before the vehicle left orbit for a three-month mission to Mars.
“This gift from Ed is one of my most treasured possessions. A gift to reflect my pioneer efforts to bring black art excellence to the South in the early 1990s.”
Watch the video: I Was Poised to be the First Black Astronaut.
Autobiography: Ed Dwight: Soaring on the Wings of a Dream
Sam Gilliam
1998 Noel states: I wanted my fine art gallery to be distinguished for excellence! I was honored and humbled that Sam allowed me to exhibit & represent his work. It was a thrill to welcome him to Charlotte, NC, and to introduce him to The Mint Museum and Bank of America collections.
2021 ‘Living Legend’ Sam Gilliam Is Enjoying His Greatest Renaissance Yet”; exhibited internationally from US Hong Kong and throughout Europe. Currently represented by Pace Gallery. A beveled edge painting exhibited at Noel Gallery in 1998 sold at Christie’s Auction in 2018 for $2,172,500
National Museum of African American Museum History and Culture
Washington DC
Commissioned drape painting for collector’s residence
Collector Testimonial
Richard Hunt
Richard Hunt was considered a prodigy when in 1969, at age of 34, he became the first African American sculptor to be honored with a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His illustrious career spans over fifty years.
“It’s been one of the distinct pleasures of my career to know Richard Hunt, to have exhibited his sculptures, and to have worked with him on public and private commissions. “
Noel
Public art sculpture
Romare Bearden Park, Charlotte, NC
Gordon C James
2003: Noel first met Gordon at the National Black Fine Art Show in NYC and was intrigued by his paintings. She was compelled to ask if she could nominate him for McColl Center residency and potentially exhibit his work. That became a life-changing invitation; Gordon was accepted to the residency and he & his new bride at the time moved to Charlotte where they continue to live work and raise their family! Gordon has achieved parallel success as a fine art painter and book illustrator
2021 Fine art painter and illustrator, award-winning book illustrator; “Crown” & “I Am Every Good Thing” Caldecott Honors, Newberry Honor, Coretta Scott King Award, Ezra Jack Keats Book Award; both books are New York Times bestsellers
- See him on Drew Barrymore show: https://gordon-james-pkrs.squarespace.com/news
Simone Leigh
- 2002 Noel featured Simone Leigh’s Hottentot vessels in exhibition she curated entitled Eros Negras. Supported her early in career placing work in private collections.
- 2021: Noel states “I could not be more proud of her ascent in the art world! ” She is currently represented by Hauser & Wirth Gallery and Simone is the first African American woman artist to represent the United States in the Venice Biennale!
Willie Little
1997: Noel Gallery provided Willie his 1st gallery representation. The collaboration and juxtaposition of Willie’s pure unadulterated depictions of his family, their lives in rural tobacco farmland of NC, and the characters of his father’s juke joint; presented in the modern pristine metropolitan setting of Noel Gallery made for truly extraordinary and memorable exhibitions. Noel has continued to support WIllie’s career over the past 24 years with letters of recommendation for national and international grants and residencies; facilitating the inclusion of Juke Joint into the permanent collection of the National Museum of African American History & Culture
2021: Noel states: It has been thrilling to follow Willie Little’s career for nearly 25 years. He exhibits throughout the US, has authored a book entitled “In the Sticks”, and is the most recent recipient of the Oregon Contemporary Foundation’s Creative Heights grant for a solo exhibition.
Willie Little Memoir
Martin Puryear
Barbara Chase Riboud
2005 Noel states I will never forget the awe I felt standing in front of Chase Riboud’s sculpture in The Spelman College Museum of Fine Art in 1996. At that time I could only dream of representing her work. In 2005 that dream was realized & I became the sole US representative of her work for nine years 2005 – 2014, exhibiting and placing her work in public and private collections throughout the US
2021: BCR remains a phonon as both award-winning poet & novelist as well as revered American sculptor whose work is in the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Centre Pompidou, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Museum of Modern Art
2014
2012 Noel organized collectors presentation on work of Barbara Chase Riboud featuring Carlos Basualdo, curator of Barbara Chase Riboud Malcolm X Steles from Philadelphia Museum of Art and Lowery Stokes Sims American art historian and curator of modern and contemporary art who curated Barbara Chase-Riboud: The Monument Drawings at the Metropolitan Museum 1999
Joyce Scott
“At first glance, her art seared into my spirit and memory! Her 1992 SECCA (South Eastern Center for Contemporary Art) Joyce Scott’s ‘Nanny now, Nigger later’ was visually arresting with the most audacious title I had known to date.
It has been a thrill to know her, to have exhibited her work, and to have facilitated a gift to the Mint Museum collection. She is a 2016 MacArthur Fellow Sculptor -beadwork”
https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-2016/joyce-j-scott
Danny Simmons
Daniel “Danny” Simmons Jr. is a Neo-African abstract expressionist painter, a published author, poet, and philanthropist. He is the older brother of hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons and rapper Joseph Simmons (“Reverend Run” of Run-DMC). He is the co-founder and Chairman of Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, which provides disadvantaged urban youth with arts access and education.
As part of Rush Philanthropic, Simmons also founded Rush Arts Gallery and soon thereafter converted part of his loft in Brooklyn into the Corridor Gallery. Both galleries provide exhibition opportunities to early and mid-career artists who do not have commercial representation through galleries or private dealers. Along with his brother Russell, Simmons established Def Poetry Jam, which has enjoyed long-running success on HBO. In 2004, Simmons published Three Days as the Crow Flies, a fictional account of the 1980s New York art scene. He has also written a book of artwork and poetry called I Dreamed My People Were Calling But I Couldn’t Find My Way Home.
Kehinde Wiley
2006: Noel states: I first met Kihende in his Brooklyn studio in 2006. His virtuosity was undeniable and his concept to insert contemporary Black males into the visual art canon was revolutionary. I literally had to negotiate my place in the queue of people waiting for one of his masterworks.
2007: Noel was able to secure a phenomenal painting for her client’s collection; She included the caveat that the work would need to be available for future museum exhibitions if requested.
2008: Noel facilitated the loan of the painting for exhibition at the National Academy Museum on 5th Ave NYC
2018: Kihende was selected by President Barack Obama to create his official portrait for the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Brooklyn Studio 2006
Presidential Portrait
