Cinque Gallery Interview Series:
Ray Grist and Nanette Carter in Conversation

In conjunction with our upcoming special exhibit, Creating Community. Cinque Gallery Artists (May 3-July 4, 2021), The Art Students League public programming for spring 2021 presents the Cinque Gallery Interview Series.

Program Curator Nanette Carter interviews several of the artists who exhibited at Cinque gallery and who will also participate in the upcoming exhibition. The artists will share their personal connection to the Cinque gallery through anecdotal stories and experiences, as well as discuss the artwork included in the exhibition. The interviews address the artist’s present work and art practice.

The Cinque Gallery was founded in 1969 by artists and League alumni, Romare Bearden (1911–1988), Ernest Crichlow (1914–2005), and Norman Lewis (1909–1979) to exhibit the work of both new and established African–American artists, and to provide community educational programs. The gallery was named after Joseph Cinqué, the leader of the Amistad slave ship mutiny of the 1830s. For more than three decades, Cinque sponsored more than 300 exhibitions in a number of New York City venues. This ground-breaking exhibition will celebrate a diverse selection of late twentieth century and contemporary artists who participated from 1969 – 2004 in this pioneering artist collaborative enterprise. The Art Students League and The Romare Bearden Foundation have partnered to present this unprecedented tribute.

Ray Grist, Artist

Ray Grist is an artist with an extensive career in film and as a painter and educator. Ray grew up in East Harlem. Upon returning to New York after a two month symposium in Europe in 1969 he had his first solo show with Cinque at the New York Public Theater by Astor Place, in 1970. In the 80’s Grist initiated the Department of the Arts at the Malcolm-King Harlem College Extension, and he has since taught painting, drawing and printmaking at locations all over New York.

Grist has been part of several documentary and movie projects as producer writer and collaborator. Ray was also himself subject of a documentary “Portrait of an  Artist” produced and directed by Veronique Dumbe. You can find a selection of Grist’s video presentations on YouTube

Grist’s works are included in a number of significant institutional collections including:  The Studio Museum in Harlem, Contemporary African Art Gallery, New York; Millennium Art, Washington, DC; Biblioteque Nacional, Paris, France; to name few. His work is also in many private collections around the world.  Website

Nanette Carter, Guest Program Curator

Nanette Carter majored in Studio Art and Art History at Oberlin College in Ohio and received her BA in 1976. During her junior year she studied abroad in Italy and traveled extensively in Europe.

When she returned Nanette studied at Pratt Institute of Art and received her MFA 1978. For the last 19 years she has taught at Pratt and today she is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Art and teaches Drawing/ Mixed Media courses. Over the years she has received many Awards, Grants, Residencies and Fellowships. Her first residency was with Cinque in 1984. Which lead to a sholo show in 1985. Later she was the first woman to be invited to be on the Cinque Artistic Board which consisted of all black artists.

Her works are in many Museums and Corporate Collections across the country. She has had solo shows in Cuba, Japan, Italy, Syria and across the United States and she is currently represented by Skoto Gallery in Chelsea and Ami Kanoko Gallery in Japan. Website


Thank you to our institutional partner The Romare Bearden Foundation for their support.

Thank you to NYC Cultural Affairs for their support.NYC Cultural Affairs Logo

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