The Black Male Artist Professor Series

A 25-Painting Collection by Ligel Lambert

Available as a complete museum collection

Celebrating Legacy. Honoring Influence. Inspiring Futures.

The Black Male Artist Professor Series is a monumental collection of 25 portrait paintings created between fall 2023 and summer 2026, celebrating the lives, practices, intellectual contributions, and pedagogical influence of Black male artists and artist-professors whose work has shaped contemporary art, art education, and visual culture.

Created by artist-professor Ligel Lambert, the series is conceived not simply as a collection of portraits, but as a visual archive of artistic lineage. Each painting considers the individual artist as both a maker and a mentor, a cultural producer and an educator, an artist and an intellectual. Together, the 25 works form a larger narrative about Black artistic achievement, knowledge production, mentorship, representation, and the transmission of creative ideas across generations.

The collection brings together figures whose practices span painting, sculpture, installation, performance, conceptual art, photography, education, and interdisciplinary practice. Placed in conversation with one another, these portraits create a compelling institutional exhibition that examines how Black artists have simultaneously expanded the possibilities of contemporary art and shaped the artists, educators, and communities that follow them.

The Collection

The series includes portraits of:

Ligel Lambert · Sanford Biggers · Dr. James Rolling, Jr. · Kerry James Marshall · Didier William · Jacob Lawrence · William T. Williams · Robert Reed · Derrick Adams · Meleko Mokgosi · Odili Donald Odita · Dr. Sharif Bey · Richard Mayhew · Mark Thomas Gibson · Dr. B. Stephen Carpenter II · Charles White · Stanley Whitney · Imo Nse Imeh · Larry Walker · Nick Cave · Glenn Ligon · David Driskell · Dr. Bernard Young · Joseph Norman · Benjamin Leroy “Ben” Wigfall

Materiality & Process

The physical diversity of the works is integral to the conceptual character of the series. Rather than adhering to a single medium or technique, Lambert employs an expansive material vocabulary that reflects the complexity and diversity of contemporary Black artistic practice.

The 25 paintings include works created on canvas and wooden panel, incorporating combinations of:

• Acrylic paint
• Oil paint
• Watercolor
• Casein
• Paper
• Cardboard
• Wood
• Metal
• Mixed-media collage

Several works combine painting and collage, including acrylic and paper on canvas, oil and paper on canvas, and watercolor on panel, while others incorporate more complex assemblages of acrylic, casein, paper, cardboard, wood, and metal on canvas or panel.

This diversity of materials allows each portrait to function as an individual work while contributing to the visual and conceptual coherence of the larger series.

Monumental Scale

Each painting measures approximately 36 × 48 inches, with works constructed at approximately 3 inches in depth, creating a substantial physical presence appropriate for gallery and museum installation.

At this scale, the portraits move beyond conventional portraiture. They become immersive encounters with the artists represented—works intended to command architectural space while inviting sustained contemplation.

A Collection Designed for Institutional Exhibition

The Black Male Artist Professor Series is offered as a complete body of work to museums, university galleries, cultural institutions, foundations, and collectors interested in acquiring and exhibiting the collection as a unified whole.

Acquiring the complete series would allow an institution to present an exhibition that extends beyond individual biographies and instead foregrounds the interconnected relationships among art, education, mentorship, cultural memory, and Black artistic history.

The collection offers opportunities for accompanying programming, including:

• Artist talks and lectures
• Curatorial and scholarly conversations
• Educational programming
• Panel discussions on Black artists and art education
• Public programs focused on mentorship and artistic lineage
• University and museum collaborations
• Exhibition catalogs and scholarly publications

The series is particularly well-suited to institutions committed to American art, contemporary art, art in education, portraiture, artist pedagogy, cultural history, and interdisciplinary scholarship.

More Than Portraiture

At its core, The Black Male Artist Professor Series asks viewers to consider a fundamental question:

Who teaches the artists who shape our understanding of art?

These paintings honor artists not only for what they have created, but for the knowledge they have generated, transmitted, challenged, and preserved.

By bringing 25 figures into one sustained visual conversation, Lambert creates a portrait of something larger than any individual subject: a living lineage of Black artistic knowledge.

The collection is both an artistic statement and an act of cultural documentation—a record of artists whose practices have influenced generations and whose contributions deserve to be seen together.

Acquisition Inquiry

The complete 25-painting series is currently being offered for acquisition by a museum, university, foundation, cultural institution, or private collection committed to preserving and presenting this significant body of work.

Institutions interested in acquiring or exhibiting The Black Male Artist Professor Series are invited to inquire about pricing for the complete collection, details on individual works, installation specifications, high-resolution images, artist statement, curriculum vitae, exhibition materials, and additional documentation.

For acquisition and exhibition inquiries, please contact a representative from THE ART OF LIGEL, LLC.

The Black Male Artist Professor Series
25 paintings · 36 × 48 inches each · Mixed media · Available only as a complete collection

Celebrating Legacy. Honoring Influence. Inspiring Futures.