Nicola Vassell | Image via AOL

Nicola Vassell
Age: Unknown
Location: New York
Notable project: “Black Eye”

Formerly a director at Deitch Projects and Pace Gallery, Nicola Vassell’s recent Tribeca show, “Black Eye,” featured 26 of the best black young and established artists working today. The list of artists included Kehinde Wiley, James Marshall, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Wangechi Mutu, and the supremely talented Rasheed Newsome. The show, unlike a lot of art shows, challenged the audience to step outside of the traditional art world experience to embrace what Vassell calls “black originals.” “Black Eye” is now traveling throughout the summer.

Naima Keith | Image via Saatchi Art

Naima Keith
Age: 31
Location: New York
Notable project: “Robert Pruitt: Women”

Naima Keith has put together some of the best contemporary art shows featuring black American artists in the last few years. In 2011, as a Curatorial Fellow at the Hammer Museum, she worked closely with curator Kellie Jones to organize the traveling show “Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980.” The show featured black artists’ reactions and interpretations during a time of revolutionary change in America. In spring of 2014, she will organize show a site-specific installation by Glenn Kaino entitled, “Glenn Kaino: 19.83,” and in late summer of 2014, she will continue exploring the Los Angeles art scene by putting together a major survey of Charles Gaines’ early work entitled, “Charles Gaines: Gridwork 1974-1989,” at the Studio Museum.

Read More Here via Complex Magazine