Photography Exhibition on view Sept. 3, 2022 ─ Jan. 22, 2023 at the Boca Raton Museum of Art in South Florida
The Boca Raton Museum of Art presents the premiere of Reginald Cunningham: Black Pearls, the first-ever museum exhibition of Cunningham’s work, curated by Kelli Bodle, Assistant Curator.
The Museum has commissioned Cunningham, nationally acclaimed for his brand BePureBlack.com, for this new series of photographs to honor the nearby historically Black neighborhood of Pearl City, celebrated as one of the earliest and longest lasting African American neighborhoods in Florida.
“The Pearl City residents are our Museum’s closest neighbors, located only two blocks away, and we want to celebrate our neighbors with this exhibition,” says Irvin Lippman, the Executive Director of the Boca Raton Museum of Art.
Cunningham is a photographer and influencer whose work focuses on urban style and portraiture. His editorial/activist lens, and his images of concerts, fashion icons, performers and thought leaders, are at the forefront of contemporary photography.
“Through the lens of my photography I’m always trying to create affinity for and uplift Black people and the Black experience in this country,” says Reginald Cunningham.
“Being commissioned by the Boca Raton Museum of Art to photograph the residents and cultural emblems of Pearl City ─ one of the South’s most beloved and enduring Black districts ─ is an amazing experience,” adds the artist.
The Andersons by Reginald Cunningham (2022) from the museum exhibition Black Pearls
During the 2020 history-making marches and protests, Cunningham was selected to photograph the cover of British Vogue’s special issue titled Activism Now: the Faces of Hope.
Featuring a portrait he took of his wife, the prominent activist Brittany Packnett Cunningham, the headline-grabbing magazine cover was heralded as a consequential power-couple move.
The pair first met in 2014 at a Black Lives Matter protest a few blocks from Cunningham’s family home in St. Louis. They are currently based in DC.
