ABOUT
Newsum’s career spans some 48 years as a visual artist. He received a MFA degree from Tyler School of Art, Temple University. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Newsum lived in Houston, Texas where he worked as an artist and professor of art at the University of Houston Downtown. He is married to his lovely wife, Janice, and they have two successful professional young adult children.
Newsum has been in more than 103 solo and group exhibitions. His works have been displayed at the Taft Museum in Cincinnati, the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, the Polk Museum, Lakeland Florida, the David C. Driskell Center, Maryland, Museum of Fine Arts Houston and many others across the United States. He has also exhibited at the Califia Gallery, Czech Republic, Horazdovice, and the American Center in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Floyd Newsum’s works are in the permanent collections of museums like the Smithsonian National Museum of African History and Culture, Washington DC, open in September 2016 with one work on display. The Studio Museum of Harlem, Philadelphia Museum of Arts, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland College Park, Museum of Fines Arts Houston and other museums. His works have been published in catalogs, books and magazines. The most recent publication is “Outside the Lines”, published by the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston. This catalog illustrates the abstract art of American artists across the country.
His public art commissions number eight. Although a painter, four of the public art works were sculptures and one was a four-paneled painting. He believes that an artist should work in many mediums. As an artist He has created prints, drawings, and sculptures. He is known for his paintings on paper, some of which are mounted on canvas.
Although his professional career spans more than four decades, his involvement with the creative arts dates back to his early school years. Art is more than a profession; it is his passion.
BOOKS AND EXHIBITION CATALOGUES
Outside the Lines, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
African American Art Since 1950, Perspectives from the David C. Driskell Center
5 Cities, 41 Artists, Artadia 08/09
Studios and Workspaces of Black American Artist
Three Decades of American Printmaking, The Brandywine Workshop Collection
Texas 150 Works from the Museum of Fine Arts
Private Show! A Juried Exhibition in Print, The International Review of African American Art, V. 16 No. 3