On what would otherwise have been a typical Friday evening in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood, the Jenkins Johnson Gallery was anything but quiet. Laughter and conversation filled the room for the opening night of “David C. Driskell: Wake Up Everybody,” the culmination of a six-year effort by gallerist and curator Karen Jenkins-Johnson.
Hailing from the American South, David C. Driskell was an artist, curator, collector and accomplished academic. Dedicating his life to championing Black art, Driskell is best known for notably curating the 1976 exhibition “Two Centuries of Black American Art” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the first comprehensive display of African American art to be shown at a major American art institution. With the expanse of Driskell’s career in academia and curation, his art practice tends to be forgotten; however, Driskell himself once noted, “Art for me is a way of life. It is as much a vital part of my lifestyle as all of the other experiences that have helped to make me a particular individual.”
