2013 Visual Arts

Michael A. Cummings: Art work

Cummings, Michael A.

The New York Times noted in 1992 that Cummings "... draws inspiration from Africa and the art of African Americans, particularly the great quilters of the South.” Cummings' keen sense of history, his reverence for the spiritual, and his reworking the possibilities of the present and the future make his quilts striking" I guess you could say that my home is like my art: It is a living, breathing collage or a shadow-box filled with objects like Joseph Cornell's artworks." It is filled with African and African American art, period furniture and art from other countries. In addition to an HBO commission, Cummings has had solo exhibitions with Bates College in Maine, Hallmark Cards, New York City's Cinque Gallery and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Group shows include the Cincinnati Art Museum, Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC, New York City's American Craft Museum, Yale University and Atlanta's High Museum of Art. Cummings' work appears in some notable collections -- Bill and Camille Cosby, Whoopi Goldberg, Alonzo Mourning, Renwick Gallery (Smithsonian Institution), American Craft Museum (NYC), the Studio Museum in Harlem, and recently added to the American Embassy collection in Mali. Cummings' work can also be found in many books, Pioneering Quilt Artists 1960-1980 by Sandra Sider (2010), Masters/Art Quilts by Martha Sielman, 2008; the Japanese publication "Patchwork" (Tsushin, February 2011); Facts & Fabrications Unraveling the History of Quilts & Slavery by Barbara Brackman (2006), Spirits of the Cloth: Contemporary African American Quilts by Carolyn Mazloomi, A Communion of the Spirits: African-American Quilters. He illustrated a children's book entitled In the Hollow of Your Hand. He has appeared on several local and national television programs including Martha Stewart and Home and Garden. Cummings was commissioned by Emory University to create etchings for a limited edition and had a solo exhibition in Japan in 2011.