James Baldwin: Born into a Lie #3 (2019), 62"x60"

Copyrighted © by Michael A. Cummings. All rights reserved.
Image reproduced here with artist’s permission.

Frida Kahlo (2018), 60"x61"

Copyrighted © by Michael A. Cummings. All rights reserved.
Image reproduced here with artist’s permission.

Freedom (2013), 67"x55"

Copyrighted © by Michael A. Cummings. All rights reserved.
Image reproduced here with artist’s permission.

Michael A. Cummings

Noted quilt artist and Harlem resident Michael A. Cummings is considered the nation’s leading African American male quilter, and one of only a few nationally known male quilters. Inspired by jazz, he quilts in the narrative, story-telling tradition, and his work often features bright, colorful African themes and African-American historical themes. Major quilt series include African Jazz (1990), Haitian Mermaid (1996), and Josephine Baker (2000).

His work has been exhibited at museum galleries throughout the U.S., including Renwick Gallery (Smithsonian Institution), Art and Design Museum (NYC), Brooklyn Museum, International Quilt Museum (Lincoln, Nebraska), California African American Museum (Los Angeles), Getty Center for Education in the Arts (Los Angeles), Museum of Art Michigan State University, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (NYC), and Studio Museum in Harlem, among others.

Through its Arts in Embassies program, the U.S. State Department has posted several quilts by Cummings in its embassies in Rwanda and Mali.

For more details, please visit the Artist’s website:
www.michaelcummings.com

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Craft in America: Michael A. Cummings, which includes an 11-minute excerpt from a QUILTS video featuring Cummings discussing his art and creative process

⚡ Behind the Scenes with Craft in America: QUILTS by Laura McDowell Hopper (27 December 2019)

Publisher’s Note: To learn more about our Quilting Series, please see Clare MacQueen’s intro in Issue 7 of MacQ: MacQ is for Quilts.