Best known for his figurative works that dealt with issues of social justice, Reginald Gammon was born in Philadelphia in 1921. After graduating from high school, he served in the Navy in WWII, and when he returned, he attended the Philadelphia School of Industrial Arts (1941, 1946-1949) and the Tyler School of Fine Art at Temple University (1950-1951)

He moved to New York City in 1951 and quickly became a part of the thriving arts scene in Harlem. Richard Mayhew invited him to join the Spiral Group alongside such artists as Norman Lewis, Romare Bearden, Charles Alston, and William Majors. Gammon participated in their first and only exhibition of works in black and white, with his painting, titled Freedom Now, which translates the rallying cry of the Civil Rights Movement into stark visual form. After the group disbanded, Gammon helped found the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition, with artists Benny Andrews and Cliff Joseph, protesting the exclusion of Black artists from major institutions like the Met and Whitney.

While in New York, Gammon taught in the city’s public schools and ran Saturday art programs. Later, he became a lecturer at Western Michigan University, ultimately spending over two decades there. He retired as Professor Emeritus of Fine Arts and Humanities in 1991.

After retirement, he moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and became immersed in the local arts community. He co-founded the New Grounds Printmaking Workshop and Gallery in 1996 with printmaker Monika Graf. New Grounds was one of the first studios in the United States devoted to non-toxic printmaking. Modeled in spirit on Robert Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop in New York, it combined professional facilities, classes, and an exhibition program to foster collaboration across generations of artists. For Gammon, New Grounds became both a community hub and a creative laboratory, where he produced a celebrated cycle of more than one hundred prints devoted to jazz, gospel, and African diasporic themes. The workshop, still active today, remains a testament to Gammon’s lifelong commitment to cooperative, accessible, and socially engaged artmaking.

Selected Exhibitions

Black and White (Spiral), Christopher Street Gallery, NY, 1965

30 Contemporary Black Artists, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, MN, 1968

Afro-American Artists Since 1950, Brooklyn College Art Gallery, NY, 1969

Afro-American Artists, 1800-1969, School District and Museum of the Philadelphia Civic Center, PA, 1969

Afro-American Artists: New York and Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, 1970

Rebuttal to Whitney Museum Exhibition: Black Artists in Rebuttal at Acts of Art Gallery, Acts of Art, Inc., NY, 1971

Blacks: USA: 1973, New York Cultural Center, NY, 1973

REGINALD GAMMON: The Gammon File, Acts of Art, Inc., NY, 1973

Tradition and Conflict: Images of a Turbulent Decade 1963-1973, Studio Museum in Harlem, NY, 1985

In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI, 2002 (traveling)

From Challenge to Triumph: African American Prints & Printmaking, 1867-2002, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art, Brooklyn, NY, 2003

In Search of Missing Masters: The Lewis Tanner Moore Collection of African American Art, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA, 2009

Spiral: Perspectives on an African-American Art Collective, Birmingham Museum of Art, AL, 2011 (also at the Studio Museum in Harlem)

Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, Tate Modern, London, UK, 2017 (traveled to Brooklyn Museum, The Broad, de Young, Museum of Fine Arts Houston)

Self Portrait, 1960, oil on canvas, 36 x 24 inches