Lisa DuBois
Curator X Gallery, Harlem, NYC
Harlem is known around the world as the Black capitol of the United States. The community of Harlem is steeped in a culturally rich history, which has primarily expressed itself through the influence of African American literature, dance and music.
X Gallery curator, Lisa DuBois recognized the art exposure-void that needed to be filled in Harlem’s burgeoning universe of talented but under-represented local visual artists; she addressed the issue when given the opportunity to launch X Gallery of Harlem with the support and sponsorship of Harlem Arts Festival and the Harlem Properties licensed real estate agency. Lisa DuBois has delivered on her vision by hosting a multitude of gallery exhibitions featuring a mix of both established and promising emerging artists.
Lisa established the X Gallery lifetime achievement awards. The 2018 recipient of the award is Dudley Vaccianna and Ademola Olugebefola in 2019.Lisa has also succeeded in thinking outside of the gallery (box), partnering with
“Save Art Space” a unique nonprofit organization that provides free public art space for talented artists. Legendary Harlem artist Ademola Olugebefola artist joined Lisa as co-curator for Cultural Diversity, a juried art competition. As a result of this coordinated effort between Save art Space and X gallery the awarded winners artwork received enormous exposure on outdoor Bus Stop Ads throughout East Harlem along with a month-long exhibition at X Gallery.
Subsequent art shows at X Gallery include a partnership with Enfoco, A 35-year renowned photography organization. Together X Gallery and Enfoco produced an LBGT exhibition combining photographers from both X and Enfoco. This exhibition was documented with an article and a 30-picture layout in the Advocate, leading publication for LBGTQ news and art.
X Gallery has been recognized as a cultural beacon of fine art in Harlem, with the publication of reviews by art critics including:THE Beacon, Afropunk, Gotham harlem ,Guardian and the New York Times, the Advocate Afropunk’s review of the Cultural Diversity exhibition show stated” This exhibition pays homage to Harlem’s cultural legacy.”
Lisa DuBois has taken a stand to represent and promote the careers of Harlem Centric Artists and the local community as curator of X Gallery. As she aptly described her point-of-view in this Guardian published quote “It’s like were pioneers, people will look back in 20 or 30 years from now and say, “that was the beginning.” We’re part of the evolution of Harlem, it’s constantly going to change.”
