Point Comfort Art Fair & Show

Point Comfort Art Fair & Show during Miami Art Week / Art Basel / Soul Basel POINT COMFORT ART FAIR & SHOW 2026THE BLACK ATLANTIC Where Black Art History Meets Its Future. December 2–6, 2026 | Miami Art Week Historic Overtown | Miami, Florida Presented by Hampton Art Lovers OFFICIAL FAIR STATEMENTPoint Comfort Art Fair & Show returns to Miami's Historic Overtown during Miami Art Week 2026 with The Black Atlantic, an exploration of the artistic, intellectual, and cultural connections that unite Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the Americas. The 2026 edition examines how people of African descent have transformed the Atlantic from a geography of displacement into a dynamic space of cultural exchange, resistance, creativity, and collective identity. Through historic and contemporary art, photography, literature, music, artist conversations, and institutional dialogue, Point Comfort celebrates the cultural achievements that have connected Black communities across continents and generations. At the center of this year's fair is Loïs Mailou Jones: Across the Black Atlantic, a featured exhibition presenting 20 works and accompanying ephemera illuminating the extraordinary career of one of the twentieth century's most influential African American artists. Over nearly seven decades, Jones developed an artistic language connecting African American cultural traditions, European modernism, Haitian visual culture, and West African heritage. Complementing the Jones exhibition is Safe Harbors: Mapping Freedom Across the Black Atlantic, a mezzanine installation featuring contemporary artist Brandon Clarke. The installation explores the histories and geographies of Black refuge, mobility, and self-determination, connecting communities of resistance in Brazil and Florida with the networks of hospitality that sustained African American travelers during segregation. Together, the exhibitions explore two interconnected dimensions of the Black Atlantic: the movement of artistic ideas and cultural identities across borders, and the creation of places and networks that made survival, freedom, and cultural expression possible. The fair's signature Indaba Lounge Series extends these conversations through artist dialogues, book presentations, music, and institutional exchanges. Featured programming includes a collaboration with the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, the BPM: Beats, Pics, & Masters book release and artist conversation, and Legacy in Color, a celebration of Hampton University's global artistic influence. Music is an essential part of this year's exploration. Saturday evening's Jazz Under a Simple Tree — Point Comfort Edition features JT6 Orchestra performing Jazz from the Black Atlantic, a program of traditional American jazz and Afro-Cuban jazz that illuminates the shared African musical foundations and creative exchanges connecting the United States and the Caribbean. Set in Historic Overtown, one of Miami's most significant centers of Black commerce, hospitality, music, and cultural life, Point Comfort connects the neighborhood's history with contemporary Africana artistic expression. “If the Atlantic was the space that separated African peoples, art became the language that reunited them. The Black Atlantic speaks many languages, but art is its most enduring voice.” — Christopher M. Norwood, Founder, Hampton Art Lovers Point Comfort 2026 celebrates the Black Atlantic as a living cultural network—one that connects history to the present, artistic heritage to innovation, and communities across the African diaspora. FEATURED EXHIBITIONSLOÏS MAILOU JONES: ACROSS THE BLACK ATLANTIC Featured Exhibition | 20 Works and Ephemera December 2–6, 2026 Main Gallery | Historic Ward Rooming House Gallery & Gardens Loïs Mailou Jones: Across the Black Atlantic presents 20 works and accompanying ephemera by and relating to Loïs Mailou Jones (1905–1998), tracing the extraordinary career of an artist whose creative journey connected the United States, Europe, the Caribbean, and Africa. Over nearly seven decades, Jones established herself as a pioneering painter, designer, educator, and cultural ambassador whose work helped expand the possibilities of African American art and its place within the international artistic community. A Pioneering American Artist Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Jones came of age during the Harlem Renaissance, a period of extraordinary intellectual and artistic achievement that encouraged African American artists to explore their cultural heritage while asserting their place within modern American society. She studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and began her professional career as a textile designer. Although her early designs achieved commercial success, racial and gender discrimination limited opportunities for recognition as a fine artist. Determined to establish herself as a painter, Jones pursued a career that would ultimately cross continents, artistic movements, and cultural traditions. In 1928, Jones joined the faculty of Palmer Memorial Institute in North Carolina, the influential school founded by educator Charlotte Hawkins Brown. Two years later, she began teaching at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she would remain an influential member of the art faculty for nearly half a century. At Howard, Jones became part of an extraordinary intellectual and creative community committed to advancing African American cultural expression. Her career developed alongside the work of major figures such as Alain Locke and James A. Porter, whose scholarship and advocacy helped shape the study and interpretation of African American art. Jones's teaching and mentorship influenced generations of artists, while her own artistic practice demonstrated that Black identity could be expressed through a sophisticated engagement with African cultural traditions and international modernism. Paris: Artistic Freedom and Modernism A transformative moment came in 1937, when Jones received a fellowship to study in Paris at the Académie Julian. In France, she encountered an artistic environment that offered freedoms and professional recognition often denied to African American artists in the United States. Paris expanded her engagement with European painting traditions and strengthened her commitment to portraying Black subjects with dignity, beauty, and psychological depth. Her celebrated painting Les Fétiches (1938), inspired by African masks and modernist experimentation, became an important expression of the relationship between African visual traditions and European modernism. The work exemplified Jones's ability to transform diverse artistic influences into an original language rooted in her cultural identity. Paris also established an enduring international dimension to her career, demonstrating that an African American woman artist could participate fully in the artistic conversations shaping twentieth-century modernism. Haiti: The Black Republic Jones's relationship with Haiti became another defining chapter of her career. Following her marriage to Haitian graphic artist Louis Vergniaud Pierre-Noël in 1953, she developed a profound engagement with the nation's people, history, landscapes, spiritual traditions, and artistic culture. Her travels and research in Haiti introduced new colors, rhythms, symbols, and compositional approaches into her work. For Jones, Haiti represented more than artistic inspiration.