A career retrospective of a singular voice in contemporary American art, featuring six decades of artwork that chronicles his vision of the Black American experience New Orleansbased artist, community organizer, and cultural provocateur Willie Birch (b. 1942) has dedicated his career to storytelling. His incisive work across a wide variety of mediaincluding paintings, large-scale drawings, wood and papier-mâché sculpture, and public worksexplores his unique vision of Black America and draws on sources as diverse as Egyptian numerology, American folk art, and jazz music. This book showcases more than one hundred of Birchs artworks alongside essays by eminent scholars and curators. Russell Lord provides an introduction to the artists life and work; Lowery Stokes Sims writes about Birchs use of papier-mâché, for which he garnered acclaim during his time in New York City, and situates Birch within the New York art scene of the 1980s and 90s; Grace Deveney considers the ways Birch gives visual form to the complex relationship between Black Americans and mass media; and Leslie King Hammond discusses how the city of New Orleansits history and its communitieshas shaped Birchs work. Published in association with the American Federation of Arts Exhibition Schedule: California African American Museum, Los Angeles May 5October 4, 2026 New Orleans Museum of Art March 20September 5, 2027 Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, University of North Florida October 28, 2027May 14, 2028 Hudson River Museum September 22, 2028January 14, 2029
