Danny dunson

Curator, Art Historian

Danny Dunson is the founder of Legacy Brothers, an artist development consultancy that prepares emerging and underrepresented artists to transition within the contemporary art market. In 2020, Legacy Brothers initiated a global arts residency; an intensive incubation program that mentors emerging talents. The Lab grants critical mentorship and self-funded financial endowments to the developing practices of artists in Brazil, Nigeria, Ghana, and the United States. Responding to economic needs of Black arts community members that escalated during the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic, Dunson started the Legacy Brothers Book Fund, providing brand new art books for marginalized community members. As a trained art historian, art advisor, curator and writer, Dunson has dedicated his life to bringing the contributions of artists of color to the fore. Dunson’s primary is to shine a light on a multitude of diverse voices in the world of art, especially those typically unheard. Dunson graduated from The University of Illinois at Chicago, earning a B.A. in art history from the School of Art & Art History. He is a 2016 Fulbright Grant recipient and Gilman Scholarship fellow. His research as an art historian has been primarily focused on figurative representations within African and African Diasporic Art. Dunson’s academic writing is situated within an interdisciplinary dialogue, engaging with intersections of critical and social theory, colonial and post-colonial studies, gender and women's studies, and queer studies. His writing has been published in exhibition catalogues, magazines and online journals. In June, 2017-18, Dunson presented, “In Memoriam: Portraits of the Middle Passage, in Situ,” a large scaled exhibition in the dungeons of Ghana’s Cape Coast Castle Museum, featuring art of the Ancestor Project, a visual art collective with Ghanaian artist, Kwame Akoto-Bamfo at the helm. Dunson is currently conducting research that interrogates portraiture and figurative compositions aligned with space, place, memory, and the Middle Passage.