Mary Lovelace O`Neal, Kuhlmann Emily A., Gilbert Erin Jenoa

From her earliest days in Jackson, Mississippi, Lovelace ONeal was brought up with an inherent dedication to the arts that intersected with social justice activism. Raised around Tougaloo College (where her father was choral director) and educated at Howard University, both historically black institutions, her artistic call and activist efforts were developed hand-in-hand under the guidance of such pioneering Black artist-teachers as David C. Driskell, Loпs Mailou Jones, and James A. Porter. The years that followed saw Lovelace ONeal further explore and contribute to the discourse of both art and activism, earning her graduate degree from Columbia University, traveling throughout the United States and abroad, and finally establishing tenure at the University of California, Berkeley. The sum of that experience is an oeuvre that continuously subverts the expectations imposed on Black artists, as well as defines the cultural power of minimalism and abstract expressionism.