Cummings is considered to be one of the nation’s leading African American male quilters. He grew up in L.A. and attended Los Angeles City College before moving to New York City in 1970. He earned a BA in art history from SUNY-Empire State College; he also attended the New School for Social Research .
He started his career as a collage artist and painter in 1972. Soon after, he taught himself how to quilt and began working in fabric. He had his first solo exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1976. He also exhibited at the Akron Art Museum, Bates College, and the International Quilt Festival in Japan. His work was included in an exhibition titled, Emerging Artists: Figurative Abstraction , at the California Afro-American Museum in Los Angeles, California (1988-1989).
Cummings’ quilts are in the collections of notable institutions and private collections, including: William H. And Camille O. Cosby, Whoopi Goldberg, Alonzo Mourning, Renwick Gallery (Smithsonian Institution), Brooklyn Museum, Getty Center for Education in the Arts, and the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture.
REF: Black Art an International Quarterly, Vol 3, Number 1 (1978), “Profile of Michael A. Cummings, p. 26-27.
