Alvin D. Loving, Untitled, 1983. Collage of acrylic on wove paper. Collection Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, gift of Garth Greenan. Courtesy the Estate of Al Loving and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York. © Estate of Al Loving

Alvin D. Loving: Folding Geometries will be a comprehensive retrospective of Alvin D. Loving’s (1935–2005) practice. With this project, Valerie Cassel Oliver spotlights an artist whose work has long been underappreciated. Loving had a profound impact on the development of abstraction as well as on discussions around the intersection of African American identity and artistic expression. Along with such peers as Sam Gilliam, Howardena Pindell, Ed Clark, Mavis Pusey, and Jack Whitten, Loving helped to shape the framework of abstraction for subsequent generations.

Alvin D. Loving, Humbird, 1989. Mixed media on board. Courtesy the Estate of Al Loving and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York. © Estate of Al Loving

Cassel Oliver’s research will explore the three major movements in Loving’s practice—hard-edged geometric paintings, torn canvas works, and mixed media constructions—to highlight the evolution of his artistic voice. The planned exhibition aligns with Cassel Oliver’s focus on expanding the field of art history to reflect culture in its most authentic sense, allowing audiences to be challenged and seen.

Valerie Cassel Oliver is the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA). Before joining VMFA in 2017, she spent sixteen years at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH) as Senior Curator. Previously, she was Director of the Visiting Artist Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Program Specialist at the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2000, Cassel Oliver was one of six curators selected to organize the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York). She has curated the exhibitions Double Consciousness: Black Conceptual Art Since 1970 (2005), Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art (2014), Howardena Pindell: What Remains to be Seen (2018, co-curated with Naomi Beckwith), The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse (2021), and Dawoud Bey: Elegy (2023), among others.

Victoria Sung, Tausif Noor, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA)