At a glance
■ “Storybooks & Other Narratives: Aminah Robinson and Faith Ringgold” continues through next Sunday at Hammond Harkins Galleries, 641 N. High St. Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays. Author and exhibit collaborator Michael J. Rosen will give a gallery talk at 2 p.m. today. Call 614-238-3000 or visit www.hammond harkins.com. homes decorated for Christmas and for Hanukkah.
Also on display are four colorful works created by Robinson as studies for Rosen’s 1995 book, “A School for Pompey Walker,” about a slave boy in the 1830s who finds a way to be educated.
Additional studies by Robinson became illustrations for Evelyn Coleman’s 1998 picture book, “To Be a Drum,” emphasizing the importance of the drum in African and African-American history, and Mem Fox’s 1989 picture book, “Sophie,” about a child’s love for her grandfather.
In each case, Robinson’s distinctive style is evident, and her work seems well-matched with the story.
Ringgold is perhaps best known for narrative quilts and the children’s book “Tar Beach,” which is not represented in this exhibit.
Several pieces are from Ringgold’s significant body of work, “Coming to Jones Road,” commenting on both racism and the history of the Underground Railroad in regard to a New Jersey neighborhood. “Coming to Jones Road Tanker #2” is a beautiful, large acrylicon-canvas portrait of abolitionist and women’s-rights advocate Sojourner Truth placed against a field of vivid red and green flowers and the words from her “Ain’t I a Woman” speech, delivered in Ohio. Other works from this series are dramatic scenes of slavery-era blacks walking to freedom.
“Henry Ossawa Tanner: His Boyhood Dream Comes True,” from a 2011 book by Ringgold, is a silkscreen scene of Tanner — born about the time of the Civil War and the first AfricanAmerican painter to become internationally acclaimed — working at his easel in a Parisian park.
Many of the books both artists created for their artworks are available to peruse in the gallery, adding to the overall experience.
And as viewers leave the gallery, they shouldn’t miss the mural outside on the building’s north wall: a re-creation of Robinson’s “Passing Through Logtown, Georgia,” part of the Short North Temporary Mural Series.