Nelson Stevens

Nelson Stevens (1938–July 22, 2022) was an artist known for his involvement with Chicago-based Black art collective AfriCOBRA. Stevens' works are held by institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Tate.

Early life and education Stevens was born Nelson Lowell Stevens Jr in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York City. He began attending weekend classes at the Museum of Modern Art after winning a spot in the fourth grade; his winning piece was inspired by Picasso's Guernica.

In 1962 he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ohio University, and in 1969 he earned his Master of Fine Arts in studio art and art history from Kent State University.

Art career In 1956 Stevens began painting murals at jazz nightclubs in Utica, New York; in return, the businesses provided Stevens with free meals.

Stevens joined AfriCOBRA in 1969 after meeting co-founder Jeff Donaldson at the College Art Association Conference in Boston.

In 1971, Stevens designed posters for a project at Northern Illinois University called Color Rappers, which aimed to raise scholarship money for Black students through selling art.

In 1992 Stevens began the Art in the Service of the Lord project, which commissioned African-American artists to create biblical art featuring Black individuals. The project was inspired by an experience in which a Black-owned funeral home approached Stevens and asked to commission him for a painting to replace their work of a blonde and blue-eyed Mary and Jesus. The calendars were sold for four years, with about 15,000 calendars sold each year. His art featured "bold", "Kool-Aid" colors and "unexpected lines", and often included lettering or text. His works frequently focused on pan-Africanism and positive portrayals of both historical and contemporary Black subjects.

Murals In 1973, Stevens began a program to create public murals in Springfield, Massachusetts, with the aid of his students from University of Massachusetts Amherst. Over the following four years Stevens and his team created 36 murals. In 1973, Stevens also created a mural in Boston, entitled Work to Unify African People, which was intended to parallel Dana Chandler's mural, Knowledge is power so Stay in School.

In 1980, Stevens created a mural, entitled Centennial Vision, for the Tuskegee University to celebrate their 100th anniversary. It was unveiled in July of that year. In 1989 Stevens and five Job Corps students collaborated on a mural to commemorate the program's 25th anniversary. The mural was installed in the U.S. Department of Labor's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Exhibitions Stevens' work has appeared in exhibitions showcasing art from various AfriCOBRA members. His work has also been displayed among other Black artists, including at UMass Amherst and Springfield Technical Community College in February 1992 (the latter of which Stevens also curated), at the Jamaica Plain Art Center in 1994, and at the Northampton Center for the Arts in 1995. Stevens also curated a 1991 exhibition of African American art entitled "Rhythming".

A one-man show of Stevens' work was shown at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1973, and at the Afro-American Cultural Center of American International College in January and February 1978. In 2009 a collection of Stevens' work was shown at UMass Amherst.

Teaching career After earning his bachelors degree, Stevens became a middle school art teacher in Cleveland, Ohio. At the time he also taught at the Karamu House. The Cleveland Board of Education later placed him at the Cleveland Museum of Art. During his tenure he also functioned as faculty advisor to DRUM, a student literary and cultural magazine. After his retirement in 2003, Stevens moved to Owings Mills, Maryland.

He and Marciana G. Sealey, had one daughter, Nadya Stevens in 1983.