Lorenzo Pace
Lorenzo Pace (born September 29, 1943) is an American artist best known for his African Burial Ground Memorial sculpture in New York City, Triumph of the Human Spirit.[1]
Biography
[edit]Pace, who had 12 siblings, was born in Birmingham, Alabama, where his father was a minister in the Church of God in Christ.[1][2] He spent his youth in Chicago, except for a year spent abroad studying in Paris.[1] By the time he returned to Chicago, he was determined to become an artist and soon was inspired by a wood carving of the Last Supper to pursue that specialty.[2]
Pace had his first exhibition at the South Side Community Art Center,[1] where a University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) dean lured him to the UIC art school with a full scholarship.[2] After one year there, he transferred to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), again on a scholarship, where he attained Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees.[2]
He attended the Illinois State University’s (ISU) School of Art in Normal, Illinois after being introduced to chairman Fred Mills by SAIC president Donald Irving.[2] At the outset of his dissertation defense, Pace performed a flute concerto by candlelight.[2] Under thesis advisor Max Rennels,[2] he obtained his doctorate in art education from ISU in 1978.[1] After teaching at UIC, he moved to New York City where he became part of the Harlem arts community.[2] Pace has also taught at Medgar Evers College and served as director of the Montclair State University art galleries, a position he was first appointed to in 1988.[3]
In 2000, his black granite[2] abstract monument, Triumph of the Human Spirit, was dedicated; it had been commissioned eight years earlier and rejected twice along the way.[3] It was funded by New York City's Percent for Art to be the centerpiece of Foley Square in Lower Manhattan and as a memorial to the nearby rediscovered African burial ground located at what is now known as African Burial Ground National Monument.[4] The top-level crown is based on the Chiwara female antelope forms in Bambaran art. The middle-level long form represents the Middle Passage slaves endured in the Atlantic slave trade.[4] At the front, a replica of Pace's forefather Steve Pace's slave lock, a family heirloom, is embedded into the work.[4]
Pace has exhibited at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, as well as galleries in Brazil, China, France, Peru, Senegal, and Suriname.[5]
Pace is also the author of Jalani and the Lock, a children's book which tells the story behind his ancestor's captive restraint which became a familial keepsake.[6]
Pace works at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley as a professor of art.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e "Lorenzo Pace's Biography". The HistoryMakers. December 17, 2000. Retrieved May 19, 2025.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Sealock, Barbara (August 1, 2011). "Artist Lorenzo Pace creates and captivates". News - Illinois State. Retrieved May 19, 2025.
- ^ a b Finn, Robin (September 27, 2000). "PUBLIC LIVES; With Memorial, a Monumental Predicament". The New York Times. Retrieved May 20, 2025.
- ^ a b c "Honoring the African-American Experience: Triumph of the Human Spirit". New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. Retrieved June 8, 2025.
- ^ "Dr. Lorenzo Pace and Phillip Harrison @ 5p". Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center. Archived from the original on June 14, 2024.
- ^ "Jalani and the Lock". publishersweekly.com. January 1, 2001.
- ^ "Jalani and the Lock | Rosen Publishing". rosenpublishing.com.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
- 1943 births
- Living people
- Writers from Birmingham, Alabama
- 20th-century American writers
- 21st-century American writers
- African-American writers
- African-American sculptors
- American male sculptors
- 20th-century American sculptors
- 21st-century American sculptors
- School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni
- Illinois State University alumni
- African-American flautists