There are major conversations about race, culture and class taking place all across the country. They’re not on C-SPAN, The Huffington Post or on BlackAmericaWeb.com. Just step into an art museum in New York, Ohio or South Carolina – and join what always proves to be a very interesting conversation! Pattern ID, on view at the Akron Art Museum through May, calls attention to the fact that cultural identity is not so clear-cut. The premise is that we all have a Pattern ID, whether we know it or not. It is revealed in the clothing we wear and the interiors with which we surround ourselves. Damask silk, Indian brocade and Burberry plaid, each carry specific cultural associations. The aesthetic choices we make every day communicate subtle and not so subtle messages about who we are and where we’ve come from - our cultural identities. Forty works and 17 artists including, Mark Bradford, Willie Cole and Kehinde Wiley comprise Pattern ID.

iona rozeal brown: all falls down, now on view at MOCA Cleveland until May, is a cultural sampling of African American hip hop culture and Japanese art history. It was at the San Francisco Art Institute, during the 1970’s when brown first learned about the ganguro - fashion-conscious Japanese teenagers who want to look cool, black and American, much like heir hip-hop idols. These teenagers dress in funky clothes, dye and braid their hair in cornrows and darken their skin at tanning salons or with makeup. Ganguro, literally ''black face,'' has its roots in the mid-1990's and grew parallel with the popularity of hip-hop in Japan. When brown traveled to Japan, she met members of the ganguro tribe in person. The experience inspired a new body of work. iona rozeal brown: all falls down received the 2009 Joyce Award in Visual Art, which supports new commissions for artists of color. As part of the award, MOCA commissioned brown to create new paintings, based in part, on Japanese Ukiyo-e prints from the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, as well as to complete a residency with Cleveland-area high school students. The exhibition features 15 visually stunning and conceptually rich figurative paintings.

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