Black Earth Rising

   May 18–September 21, 2025
   Baltimore Museum of Art

Air Kid (Boy), Yinka Shonibare, 2020. Fiberglass mannequin, Dutch wax, printed cotton textile, globe, brass, steel baseplate, umbrella. Photo by Phoebe d'Huerle, © Yinka Shonibare, courtesy of the artist and James Cohan Gallery.

Artists Included:
Yinka Shonibare

See nature’s beauty and power through the eyes of today’s leading artists.

Organized by guest curator and renowned author Ekow Eshun, this exhibition explores today’s climate crisis from a new perspective and celebrates our shared connections to the natural world.

Among the artists featured are:

  • Firelei Báez
  • Alejandro Piñeiro Bello
  • Frank Bowling
  • Teresita Fernández
  • Todd Gray
  • Sky Hopinka
  • Tyler Mitchell
  • Jamal R. Moore 
  • Wangechi Mutu
  • Otobong Nkanga
  • Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
  • Yinka Shonibare
  • Alberta Whittle

The show takes its title from terra preta, Portuguese for “black earth,” which refers to a type of fertile soil created by ancient Indigenous civilizations in the Amazon basin thousands of years ago. Recently rediscovered by scientists, it remains more fertile than ordinary land.