History

Solo Exhibitions 

2022 Sense and Sensibility, Fairfield University Fairfield CT
2022 Footsteps, Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York NY
2022 The Eyes See What the Heart Feels, Elmer L. Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis MN
2017 Personal Vision, New Door Creative Gallery, Baltimore, MD
2007 Running Deep, The Phillips Museum, Franklin Marshall College, Lancaster PA
2007 Personal Vision: The Exhibition, Hearne Fine Art, Little Rock, AR
2005 Imagie: The Paintings of Adger Cowans, Hearne Fine Art, Little Rock AR
1994 Illuminations: Paintings and Photographs, Castle Gallery, College of New Rochelle, NY
1992 New Interlude: Recent Paintings, Stiral Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
1987 New Black and Gold Masked Dream Series, Janet Moody Gallery, New York, NY
1986 Rhythmic Visions: The Gallery Show, New York, NY
1986 Suriname, Martinique International Black Arts Festival, Martinique, West Indies
1985 The Djukas of Suriname, Raymond Ker Gallery, New York, NY
1983 Canvas Rhythms, Amherst College, Amherst, MA
1983 Black and White Show for a Black and White Time, New York, NY
1983 New American Artist, Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY
1983 Gallery 62, Urban League, New York, NY
1982 New York’s Most Visionary Artist, Jazzonia Gallery, Detroit MI
1982 Spectrum Tones, Karamu House, Cleveland, OH
1981 Moments, Green Space, New York, NY
1980 Masked Dreams and African Suite, Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI
1979 Cinque Gallery, New York, NY
1977 Jade Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
1976 William Easley Collectors Exhibit, New York NY
1975 Shado Gallery Oregon City, OR
1975 Impressions, Friends Gallery, James Van Der Zee Institute, New York, NY
1974 Omega House Gallery, New York, NY
1973 Omega House Gallery, New York, NY
1972 US Library, Tangiers Morocco
1971 Acts of Art Gallery: Rebuttal to The Whitney, Hunter College Art Galleries
1968 Ketchum, MacLeod and Grove Gallery, New York, NY
1968 United States Information Agency Traveling Exhibit, Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe
1967 Warwick and Legler, New York, NY
1967 Cunningham and Walsh, New York NY
1967 Benton and Bowles, New York, NY
1967 Heliography Gallery, New York, NY
1966 Batten, Barton, Durston and Osborne, New York
1966 Grey Advertising, New York
1966 First World Festival of Negro Arts, Dakar, Senegal 1965 McCann-Ericson, New York, NY
1963 The Heliographers, Heliography Gallery, New York, NY 

Group Exhibitions 

2022 5 + 1 Revisited, Paul W Zuccaire Gallery, Stonybrook University, Stonybrook NY
2022 A Picture Gallery of the Soul, Katherine E Nash Gallery, Uuniversity of MN, Minneapolis, MN
2020 Kamoinge: The First Twenty Years, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Whitney Museum, New York, NY
2020 Soul of a Nation, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston TX
2019 The Art of Rebellion, Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI
2019 Soul of a Nation, San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts
2019 Contact High: A Visual History of Hip Hop, Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Africobra, Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2018 Soul of a Nation, Tate Modern, London, UK, Crystal Bridges, AR, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn NY, The Broad, Los Angeles, CA
2018 People, Places and Things, Stanek Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2018 Africobra, Galarie Myrtis, Baltimore, MD
2018 Africobra, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York NY
2016 Never Done, City Lights Gallery, Bridgeport, CT
2016 Walton Gallery, Frame X Frame, St Petersburg, FL
2016 New Works, Hearne Fine Arts Gallery, Little Rock, AR
2016 New Photography, Merton Simpson Gallery, New York, NY
2015 Like Then and Now: Looking Through the Lens of Three Leading African-American Artists, Merton Simpson Gallery, New York, NY
2015 Timeless: The Photographs of Kamoinge, Kenkelaba Gallery, NY
2011 Audiodacity: Music as Muse, Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2011 Elements of Soul, Chashama Gallery, New York, NY
2010 Mahogany Due II: American Artist in South Hampton, South Hampton Historical, South Hampton, NY
2009 Beyond Perception, Dell Pryor Gallery, Detroit, MI
2009 Sound, Print, Record: African American Legacies, University of Delaware, Wilmington, DE
2008 Visual Essence, Dell Pryor Gallery, Detroit, MI
2008 Collaborations: Two Decades of Excellences, Hearne Fine Art Gallery, Little Rock, AR
2008 Cowans Phillips Harris, International Art Gallery, Washington, DC.
2008 Apart Together, HP Garcia Gallery, New York, NY
2007 Not Where, But When, HP Garcia Gallery, New York, NY
2007 Lyrical Art Form, Hip Hop, A Global Notice, Dell Pryor Gallery, Detroit, MI
2007 Star Struck, Tullia Booth Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
2007 Current: Contemporary Photographs by Former Heliographers, HP Garcia Gallery, New York, NY
2007 Africobra, Hampton University Museum, Jamestown, VA
2006 Kamoinge, Columbia College, Chicago, IL
2005 Chemistry of Color, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, PA
2003 Water, Tullia Booth Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
2002 Different Directions, New Jersey School of Architecture Gallery
2001 Biennale Internazional dell’arte Contemporanea Firenze, Italy 
2001 Reflections In Black, Smithsonian African America Photography, Detroit, MI
2001 Committed to the Image: Contemporary Black Photographers, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
2001 Call and Response: Curated by Adger Cowans, Dell Pryor Gallery Detroit, MI
2001 Time Lapse, Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2000 Blackness In Color, Herbert Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
1999 Gallery M, New York, NY
1999 Locating the Spirit: Religion and Spirituality in African American Art, Smithsonian Anacostia Museum, Washington, DC
1999 World Famous Artist International Show and Korean – American Artists, Cho Hyung Gallery, Seoul, Korea
1998 Black NY Artist of the 20th Century, Schomburg Center, New York, NY
1998 Seeing Jazz, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC
1998 Sweeps and Views: Clark and Cowans, Rush Art Gallery, New York, NY
1997 Group Show, Cathedral of St John the Divine. New York, NY
1996 Captured Moments: Cowans, Dubasky, Thompson, June Kelly Gallery, New York, NY
1996 Just Jazz, Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1995 Two Contemporary Photographers, Emily Lowe Gallery at Hofstra Museum, Hamsted N.Y.
1993 I Sight: Adger Cowans and Toni Parks, Gordon Parks Gallery at The School of New Resources, Bronx, NY
1993 Three New Perspectives: Cowans, Walker, Pontiflet, Cinque Gallery, New York, NY
1993 Contemporary African American Artist, College of Fine Arts, Palermo, Italy
1992 Photography Show, Cinque Gallery, New York, NY
1991 In The Full Effect, Riffe Gallery, Columbus, OH
1990 Selected Photographs: The Paul Jones Collection, Spellman College, Atlanta, GA
1989 Contemporary African American Print Makers, Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT
1987 Abstract, Triangle Fine Arts International, New York, NY
1986 Two Schools: NY and Chicago, Kenkeleba House and Jamaica Arts Center, Queens, NY
1984 Morning of the Blue Queen, Public Arts Piece, First Women’s Bank, New York, NY
1983 New American Arts, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, New York NY
1983 Contemporary African American Photographers, Featherstone Art Museum, Atlanta, GA, Chicago, IL,
Greensboro, NC, Los Angeles, CA, Oberlin, OH
1981 Moments, Green Space Gallery, New York NY
1979 SoWeTo, African – American Heritage Studies Conference Exhibition, United Nations Building, New York, NY
1979 Africobra – Farafandugu, Center D’Art, Port Au Prince, Haiti
1979 Self Portraits Exhibit, Black Enterprise Magazine, Black Photographers Annual Exhibit, US Tour
1978 Roosevelt Public Gallery, Roosevelt City, NY
1977 2nd World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (SESPAC), Lagos, Nigeria 
1977 CBO: Color Images, Seagram Building, New York, NY
1976 Just Above: David Hammond, Adger Cowans, John Pinderhughes, Al Fennar, Midtown Gallery, New York, NY
1976 Photography in the Fine Arts (Curated by Ivan Dmitri), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
1975 Kamoinge Group Show, Harvard University, Boston, MA
1975 Kamoinge Workshop Group Show, International Center of Photography, New York, NY
1974 Kamoinge Group Show, Chicago School of Design, Chicago, Il
1973 Kamoinge Group Show, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
1972 Kamoinge Group Show, Studio Museum, Harlem, NY
1970 Kamoinge Group Show, Chicago School of Design, Chicago, IL
1970 Kamoinge Group Show, 141st Street Gallery, New York, NY
1968 New trends in Photography, DeCordova Museum, University of New Hampshire, Lincoln, MA and Durham, NH.
1967 Photography in the Fine Arts, Curated by Ivan Dmitri, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (Tour for 29 major art museums in the United States)
1967 The Heliographers, Lever House Gallery
1966 First World Festival of Negro Arts, Dakar Senegal
1963 International Group Show, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
1963 Yolo International Show, Yolo, CA 

Museum Collections 

The National Museum of African-American History and Culture, Washington D.C, Mott Museum Collection, Flint MI, Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit MI, St Louis Fine Art Museum, St, Louis, MO, Whitney Museum, New York, NY, Reginald L Lewis Museum, Baltimore, MD, Mosaic Templar Cultural Center, Little Rock, AR, Howard University, Washington D.C., Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, University of Delaware, Wilmington, DE, Museum of The National Center of Afro-Ameri- can Arts, Boston, MA 

Awards and Special Recognition 

2022 Gordon Parks Choice of Weapon’s Award; 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award, Howard University; 2010 Color: Special Issues/Merit Award; 2007 Limited Edition: Portfolio of Photo- graphs for Photo-Lens Project by NCA; 2002 Delivered a lecture and slide presentation of D’jukas at the University of Paris, Paris France; 2001 Recipient of The Lorenzo II Magnifico Alla Carriera Award in recognition of a distinguished career in Florence, Italy; 2001 Recipient of Gordon Parks Legendary Award Given by The Exposure Group, Washington D.C.; 1999 Scholarly Paper delivered to the University of The Antilles, on the relationship between jazz and painting, Martinique, French West Indies; 1992 Inducted Into Columbus Public Schools Hall Of Fame, Columbus Ohio; 1987 Martin Luther King, Jr., Caesar Chavez, Rosa Parks Visiting Scholar, Wayne State University, Detroit MI; 1987 Exhibitor, The Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting’s Movie Week Gracie Mansion, New York, NY; 1986 Photography Portfolio and People, DRUM Magazine, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA; 1985 Visiting Artists, Printmaking Workshop, New York, NY; 1985 1st Prize for So We To (etching), Atlanta Life International Arts Competition, Atlanta, GA; 1984 Morning of the Blue Queen (Dedicated to Wilfredo Lam) commissioned by Tony Goldman for Public Arts Piece, SoHo Kitchen and Bar, New York, NY; 1983 Consultant, The Afro – American Historical and Cultural Museum of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA; 1978 - ‘79 Consultant, LD Group International, New York, NY; 1976 - ‘77 Bi-Centennial Exhibition, Afro – America Historical Cultural Museum, Philadelphia, PA; 1967 Exhibitor and Lecturer, World Con- ference on Photography, Coral Gables, FL; 1963 1st Prize for Sun and Trees (Black and White Photo), Yolo International Exhibition, Yolo, CA; 1958 - ‘60 Winner of American Spirit Award, awarded by The US Armed Forces