From canvases to galleries and on the screen, Black painters have long used their work to illustrate their culture, history, and identity. Yet, for too long, their contributions to the art world have remained in the shadows of mainstream media. However, a shift is underway. As more Black-led TV shows and films hit the screen, painters of the African diaspora are receiving the exposure they deserve, with their works now featured prominently in set designs.
Whether it is dramas, sitcoms or romance, they are beginning to feature the work and stories of African-American fine artists, helping to bring their artistry further into the public consciousness. African-American art on the screen serves more than just an aesthetic purpose. It’s a way to acknowledge art as a part of the community’s cultural identity and a tool for expressing a character’s essence.
Exhibiting Forgiveness, Really Love, The Photograph, and One of Them Days are a few examples on screen that integrate artwork in their set decor and storylines. In Really Love, Isaiah is portrayed as a painter whose style is directly attributed to the work of Gerald Lovell, a self-taught Afro-Latino artist based in Atlanta; he brings a rawness to his portrait-style oil paintings. Utilizing the impasto technique he invites the viewer to witness his physical presence in each brushstroke — thick layers of paint that rise from the canvas like topography, holding the memory of every movement. You can see where the brush dragged or the palette knife pressed in. Lovell’s approach to painting is an exploration of both form and emotion, where the weight of the paint echoes the depth of his subjects, leaving his imprint and intent.
The film also introduces Arkansas-based mixed media and oil painter Ronald Jackson, who was featured in the Really Love art exhibit scene. Jackson sculpts his subject’s features with reverence and grandeur. The way light caresses their faces is nothing short of mesmerizing. The faces carry a luminous quality, as the skin tones contour as a gradient, like when light touches velvet, creating a depth that feels intimate and otherworldly.
In the film The Photograph, Art Curator Mae’s apartment walls are decorated with paintings by Delita Martin, a Texas-based multimedia artist. Martin intricately blends acrylic, printmaking, charcoal, decorative paper, and stitching to create evocative, layered portraits of Black women. Her work is a tapestry of textures, patterns and stitches—adding depth and dimension to her figures. She employs charcoal to shape her female subjects. Enveloping her figures in a complex visual dialogue. Through this masterful fusion of mediums, Martin crafts portraits and entire worlds.
Titus Kaphar, the visionary behind Exhibiting Forgiveness, is both a filmmaker and painter, with his artistic sensibilities embodied in the character portrayed by Andre Holland. Tarrell is a Black artist struggling with childhood trauma and forgiving his father in the present. The emotional language of Kaphar’s work is personified in a profound story. The cool tones he employs saturate the canvas and cutouts, which serve as metaphors for loss and mirror the melancholy of his portraits of himself and his childhood home.
In One of Them Days, Dreux’s best friend and roommate Alyssa, regrets giving her so-called boyfriend money for rent, only for him never to pay up. This leaves them scrambling around the city, figuring out how to cover the rent. Eventually, when they give up, Dreux—who has always seen Alyssa’s artistic potential—encourages her to host an art show in their neighbourhood to sell her paintings. Otha Davis III, aka Vakseen, is an LA-based painter and collage artist. His work combines abstract styles with pop art elements. Each piece is a lively mix of textures and imagery, capturing the energy of contemporary culture. While painting and other forms of visual art have always been central to cultural expression, they have often been a backdrop which needs attention. As African-American painters find a place in the spotlight on screen, a notable shift occurs in current Black-led television and film, where Black artists and their work increasingly dominate the set. Visibility and recognition will inspire future generations of Black artists to continue painting their paths on and off the screen.