Do you see AFRICOBRA? Do you hear AFRICOBRA?

Do you know AFRICOBRA?

Wadsworth Jarrell (b. 1929)

In the mid 1960’s, following tumultuous local racial violence, Jarrell became involved in the Organization of Black American Culture, and befriended artist Jeff Donaldson, whom he had met years earlier. Together in 1967, they created The Wall of Respect, a mural depicting African-American heroes. For his part, he focused on rhythm and blues, featuring portrayals of James Brown, B.B. King, Billie Holiday, Muddy Waters, Aretha Franklin, and Dinah Washington.

Around 1967, he and his wife Jae, opened WJ Studio and Gallery, where he hosted regional artists and musicians. His gallery became an important focal point for African-American art in Chicago . Shortly after, he co-founded COBRA (Coalition of Black Revolutionary Artists), whose platform became an integral part of the artistic style Jarrell adopted: their artwork was to act as a visual statement focusing on a central figure, profound and proud; secondly, the artwork must be readily understood, so lettering would be used to extend and clarify the message—and it must be incorporated into the composition; thirdly, the message must identify a problem and offer a solution; and finally, it must educate within a perspective of time (history).

Eventually, the group chose to expand to an international platform, and changed their name to AFRI-COBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists). The group showed extensively, becoming known for sociopolitical themes as subject matter and the use of coolade colors. Jarrell continues to explore the contemporary African-American experience through paintings, sculptures, and prints. His work is found at the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, Washington D.C.; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Studio Museum in Harlem, NYC; Cleveland Museum of Art, OH; Detroit Institute of Arts, MI; Brooklyn Museum, NY; and University of Delaware.

Recent exhibitions of his work include:

Soul of a Nation, Art in the Age of Black Power, (originating) Tate Modern, London, UK (2019)

The Time is Now! Art Worlds of Chicago’s South Side (1960-1980), Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, IL (2018)

AfriCobra, Messages to the People, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL (2018)

Murry DePillars (1938-2008)

Murry DePillars treats the musical subject in his characteristic style using spatial dot patterns and formations of paper doll flat figures with pronounced African features and steatopygia.  DePillars visual ode to the AACM uses lightning designs, contrasting colors, floating African masks, beadwork patterns, which blend like the diverse instruments of the musicians into an improvised composition.  His predominant use of black in either negative or positive space accentuates the brilliance of his colors and heightens the full-field effect. Kai, Nubia. “Murray DePillars.” Africobra: The First Twenty Years, Nexus Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA, 1990, pp. 10–11.

DePillars “builds” his paintings by using transparent layers of geometric designs.  Among black quilt makers, this is known as “playing the fabric,” he says, and by jazz musicians as “shading the count”. He also refers to the music in describing the areas that do not have the overlays as “spacing” or “rests”. DePillars says that fellow art historian Robert Farris Thompson “characterized this form of design patterning and color usage as ‘attach coloration’, ’technicolor staccato’ and ‘off-beat phrasing of geometric accents.' “Africobra Now!” International Review of African American Art, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 10–11.

Defiant Jazz

Murry DePillars was a visionary artist whose work channels the spirit of jazz, characterized by layers of improvisation and a defiantly expressive quality. A key member of AfriCOBRA and an influential voice in the Black Arts Movement, DePillars translated the sonic textures of musicians like Sun Ra and Coltrane into bold visual form. His compositions pulse with rhythm and cultural symbolism, blending figuration, text, and vivid color in bold Africobra style.

Beyond the studio, DePillars was a transformative educator and dean at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he championed Black creative expression in academic and institutional spaces. His work remains a testament to jazz as both an aesthetic and a philosophy, a dynamic blueprint for liberation through art.

Selected exhibitions include:

Africobra, Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, GA; (1988)

Africobra: The First Twenty Years. Nexus Contemporary Art Center. Atlanta, GA; (1990)

Blackness in Color: Visual Expressions of the Black Arts Movement (1960 to present), Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, NY (2000)

Beyond the Fixed Star: The Art of MURRY DEPILLARS, Hampton University, VA (2002) (retrospective)

AfriCOBRA and the Chicago Black Arts Movement, Dittmar Memorial Gallery, Northwestern University (2010)

Nelson Stevens (1938-2022)

Several of the AfriCOBRA artists have been linked to the term “mimesis at midpoint”.  Simply, it’s a synthesis of two concepts, and an artistic approach navigating the liminal space between objective reality and subjective interpretation.  Harvey describes the concept of mimesis at midpoint, and Stevens’ use of it as a structural/compositional tool:  AfriCOBRA aesthetics and philosophical tenets transformed the social realist use of figuration.  Explorations of “mimesis at midpoint” result in iconographic elements mirrored or doubled images and design strategies emphasizing the spiritual, transcendent dimension between two and three-dimensionality.  The strong symbolic African American figure of mid-twentieth century social realism as practiced by Charles White or Elizabeth Catlett takes on a new meaning situating the black body in a space defined by dynamic, rhythmic pattern.  

A dedicated teacher, Stevens spent over three decades at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he mentored a generation of artists and advanced the presence of Black art in academic and public institutions. His commitment to accessibility extended beyond the classroom: in the 1970s, he organized the creation of over 30 public murals in Springfield, Massachusetts, turning the city into a living gallery of Black expression.

His work has been included in several important group exhibitions, including Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power; AfriCOBRA: The First 29 Years; AfriCOBRA and Group Fromaje, Esthetique Universelle, and AfriCOBRA IV.  His work was shown at the Studio Museum in Harlem (1973), the Center for African American Art (1972, Boston), and Carnegie Mellon Institute (1972, Pittsburgh).

Barbara Jones-Hogu (1938-2017)

Recognized for her political, pro-Black images combining figuration with energetic, graphic lettering, Barbara Jones-Hogu is closely identified with a 1969/71 print titled Unite. In recent years, the work has been featured in major group exhibitions that document the contributions and expressions of African American artists during the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power eras, including Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, the seminal show organized by the Tate Modern in London, 2018. In January 2018, Barbara Jones-Hogu: Resist, Relate, Unite 1968-1975, her first-ever solo museum exhibition, opened at the DePaul Art Museum in Chicago.

Jones-Hogu was at the center of the Black Arts scene in 1960s Chicago. As a member of the Visual Artists Workshop of the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC), she helped paint the Wall of Respect on Chicago’s South Side in 1967. Paying tribute to more than 50 African American figures, the project is regarded as the first collective street mural in the United States. It revived the mural movement in neighborhoods across the nation, Black ones in particular. Jones-Hogu later wrote that the Wall of Respect “became a visual symbol of Black nationalism and liberation.”

In 1968, the year after contributing to the legendary mural, Jones-Hogu helped co-found AfriCOBRA. Her prints were visually complex and in terms of subject matter focused on black women in the liberation movement, solidarity in the black community, and preserving the black family. Titles of her works include, Rise and Take Control (1970), Relate to Your Heritage (1970), and Black Men We Need You (circa 1971). The latter print is in the collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem.

William “Bill” Walker (1927-2011)

William “Bill” Walker was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1927 and grew up in Chicago. After serving in World War II and the Korean War, he studied fine arts at the Columbus Gallery of Art in Chicago (now Columbia College Chicago),and became the first African-American man to win the 47th annual group exhibition award.

Walker is widely considered the father of the Chicago Mural Movement. In 1967, Walker learned about OBAC (Organization of Black American Culture—pronounced “Obasi” derived from the Yoruba word for king, “Oba”) from his photographer friend, Billy Abernathy. OBAC was founded by AfriCOBRA artist Jeff Donaldson. Walker suggested to OBAC to create a mural at the intersection of 43rd and Langley Streets on the South Side of Chicago. The mural was designed to pay homage to black leaders and bring an element of visual beauty to the area, and became known as the Wall of Respect. Walker contributed by painting the section of the mural devoted to religious figures. Other significant contributors were Donaldson, Wadsworth Jarrell, and Barbara Jones-Hogu.

Walker also contributed to the Wall of Dignity (Detroit), Wall of Pride and Harriet Tubman Memorial Wall (joint efforts, Detroit), Wall of Truth, and Peace and Salvation Wall of Understanding, Wall of Love (all in Chicago). Walker turned increasingly to studio art in the late 70's. Chicago State University held the exhibition, Images of Conscience: The Art of Bill Walker in 1984. The exhibit consisted of 44 paintings and drawings in three series: For Blacks Only; Red, White, and Blue, I Love You; and Reaganomics. The show was not without controversy as the images presented were not pretty, but dark representations of urban black neighborhoods. The exhibition traveled to the Vaughn Cultural Center, St. Louis and the Paul Robeson Cultural Center, Pennsylvania State University.

Most recently, Walker's work was presented in the exhibition Bill Walker: Urban Griot, held at the Hyde Park Art Center, November 2017 - April 2018.

Kevin Cole (b. 1960)

When Cole turned 18, his grandfather stressed the importance of voting by taking him to a tree where he was told that black men were lynched by their neckties on their way to vote.  “Since 1992, my work has evolved from the use of the necktie as an icon, motif, and symbol of power,” he says. 

Kevin Cole studied at University of Arkansas Pine Bluff (BS), University of Illinois (MA) and Northern Illinois University (MFA). His work has been included in numerous significant exhibitions, including at the Dallas African American Art Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art.

In 2003, Cole became a member of AfriCOBRA, and exhibited with the group in 2018 in the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in Little Rock, Arkansas.

In 2020, Cole received the Brenda and Larry Thompson Award from the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia. This award is given to an African American Artist who has made significant but often lesser-known contributions to the visual arts tradition and has roots or major connections to Georgia. Cole’s work is prominently featured at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington D.C.

Napoleon Jones-Henderson (b. 1943)

Napoleon Jones-Henderson was born in 1943 in Chicago, Illinois. Jones-Henderson attended the Sorbonne Student Continuum-Student and Artists Center in Paris, France in 1963 where he was immersed in an independent study program in French Art History and Figure Drawing. Upon returning to the United States, he enrolled in the Art Institute of Chicago receiving his B.F.A. degree in 1971. Jones-Henderson went on to earn credits in advanced graduate studies in Fine Arts at Northern Illinois University and earned his M.F.A. degree in Interdisciplinary Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2005.

In 1968, during the apogee of the Chicago Black Arts Movement, Jones-Henderson became a member of the Chicago-based artists’ collective called COBRA (Coalition of Black Revolutionary Artists). The collective changed its name in 1969 to AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists). During the formative years of AfriCOBRA, Jones-Henderson created large pictorial woven tapestries that were included in the group’s important series of exhibitions.  In the early 1970s, exhibitions were mounted at the newly founded Studio Museum in Harlem and the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He has been an active member of AfriCOBRA since 1969. Jones-Henderson is one of the longest continual active members. In 2011, the documentary AfriCOBRA: Art for the People was produced by the TV Land Network. The documentary chronicles the history and celebrates the contributions of AfriCOBRA to the 1960s Black Arts Movement.

Over the course of his career, Jones-Henderson has served in various academic positions at Malcolm X College in Chicago, Massachusetts College of Art, Emerson College in Boston, Roxbury Community College, and Vermont College of Norwich University in Montpelier. In 2005, Jones-Henderson was appointed associate professor of art at Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina. In addition, Jones-Henderson served as artist-in-residence at Towson University, Syracuse University, and the McDonough School. Jones-Henderson has been honored with Artist Residencies, Lecture in Residencies, Visiting Artist, Juror, and Curator of numerous exhibitions and panels.

Jones-Henderson is Executive Director of the Research Institute of African and African Diaspora Arts, Inc. and BENNU ARTS, LLC., in Roxbury, Massachusetts.  He has received awards, both for his artwork, and in recognition of his community in-reach, and curatorial efforts championing Black Art internationally. He was honored by the National Conference of Artists with the Award of Excellence and the Massachusetts State Senate, “Omical Citation for Cultural Excellence.”  Among others, Jones-Henderson has received the Boston Foundation’s “Brother Thomas Fellowship”, the Merit of Honor Award from the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, and the Award for Outstanding Recognition from the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. 

His artwork is in the collections of the DuSable Museum of African American History, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Southside Community Art Center, Hampton University Museum, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Museum of National Center of Afro-American Artists and Studio Museum in Harlem. In addition, his artwork is in distinguished private collections and numerous public art commissions.

-text from “Biography: Napoleon Jones-Henderson - Napoleon Jones.” Henderson, www.napoleonjoneshenderson.com/contact. Accessed 4 June 2025.