A white canvas stretches out in front of Frank\u00a0Frazier. He gives a bottle of shoe polish a shake and begins to draw. Slowly, a crowd of protesters holding up signs begins to take form.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m a Black artist, and I say that strongly because I want my children, who are the future, to know that I exist, and I want other children to know that we Black artists exist here in Dallas,\u201d Frazier, 83, says.<\/p>\n
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Artist Frank Frazier uses shoe polish to create a piece for UNT Dallas College of Law in Dallas, Monday, March 2, 2026. \u201cBack in 20s and 30s, white men used to paint themselves with shoe polish to make fun of us,\u201d Frazier said. \u201cSo I took shoe polish and did something different with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Artist Frank Frazier sits at a folding table in his living room and draws African symbols on a shoe polish piece for UNT Dallas College of Law in Dallas, Monday, March 2, 2026.<\/p>\n
Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Artist Frank Frazier concentrates on creating a shoe polish piece at his home in Dallas, Monday, March 2, 2026.<\/p>\n
Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Artist Frank Frazier uses shoe polish to create a piece for UNT Dallas College of Law in Dallas, Monday, March 2, 2026.<\/p>\n
Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Artist Frank Frazier uses shoe polish and marker to create a piece for UNT Dallas College of Law in Dallas, Monday, March 2, 2026.<\/p>\n
Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Dallas R&B and neo-soul musical artist Erykah Badu, center, flips through an art catalogue featuring artist Lakeem Wilson\u2019s (right) \u201cLife in Black Ink\u201d series in Frank Frazier\u2019s basement in Dallas, Sunday, June 14, 2026. Frazier\u2019s adopted granddaughter and assistant\u00a0Seidah Williams, left, stands in front of her own art work and watches.<\/p>\n
Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Judy Frazier, wife of Frank, speaks with Dallas R&B and neo-soul musical artist Erykah Badu during a combined house art show and birthday party event in Dallas, Sunday, June 14, 2026. Frazier gives credit to his wife\u2019s support for his successful art career. \u201cShe worked for the airline so I can fly the shows, and her support helps me be a big fat show off like I am sometimes, and I enjoy it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Frank Frazier chats with Dallas R&B and neo-soul musical artist Erykah Badu in his home during a house art show in Dallas, Sunday, June 14, 2026. Badu\u2019s mother and the Fraziers were longtime neighbors in Oak Cliff.<\/p>\n
Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Dallas R&B and neo-soul musical artist Erykah Badu visits artist Frank Frazier\u2019s house art show in Dallas, Sunday, June 14, 2026.<\/p>\n
Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
A sculpture by artist Billy Edmond is on display at the Southwest Black Art Show in Fair Park, Dallas, Saturday, April 25, 2026. Edmond is a part of Frazier\u2019s Visions in Black collective.<\/p>\n
Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Frank Frazier speaks with Crew Production Manager, Lonnie Duke, in front of his stall at the Southwest Black Art Show in Fair Park, Dallas, Saturday, April 25, 2026. Frazier founded and organizes the show.<\/p>\n
Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Candace Hurst Rhodes speaks with Austin based artist Rhea Rose at the Southwest Black Art Show in Fair Park, Dallas, Saturday, April 25, 2026. Hurst Rhodes purchased a print from Rose.<\/p>\n
Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Jessica Hayden looks speaks with artist Don O\u2019Bannon while visiting his stall at the Southwest Black Art Show in Fair Park, Dallas, Saturday, April 25, 2026.<\/p>\n
Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Lonnie Duke hugs Marie Tavernier in greeting at the Southwest Black Art Show in Fair Park, Dallas, Saturday, April 25, 2026.<\/p>\n
Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
A gold ring flashes on Fraizer\u2019s ink-stained left hand as he fills in a Sankofa \u2013 an African symbol resembling a bird with its head turned back. The Sankofa represents looking at the past to straighten out your future, Frazier says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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This piece, for UNT Dallas College of Law, is part of Frazier\u2019s \u201cShoe Polish Collection,\u201d which he began around 2010 and features India ink, black shoe polish, marker and fabric on canvas. The black polish holds as much significance as the scenes he creates.<\/p>\n
Multiple pieces in the collection depict upside-down American flags, signifying a country in distress, and law enforcement brutality toward people of color. Frazier\u2019s work is as bold and unapologetic as the man who created it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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A framed shoe polish piece by artist Frank Frazier depicts an upside-down American Flag in Dallas, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. \u201cWhen a ship is at sea and there’s something wrong with it, they put the flag upside down for distress,\u201d Frazier said. \u201cThat’s how I feel about the country right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
From illustrations of doo-wap musicians to African ancestors to slave ships, Frazier\u2019s art highlights the wide range of Black history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been displayed in homes, museums and galleries across the country and recently a show in Puerto Rico. Notable locations include fine art shows hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington D.C., the Stella Jones Art Gallery in New Orleans, an exhibition in the African American Museum of Dallas and in TV and in films including Eddie Murphy\u2019s Coming to America.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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But creating and showcasing this work has been a challenge for Fraizer. He was uninvited from an art show in Cottonwood, Texas, after other artists were offended by his work in the late 2000s.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said, \u2018You got a Black president. Why are you doing all this mean radical stuff?\u2019 And I just looked at them, and I said, \u2018Because I can,\u2019\u201d Frazier says with tears in his eyes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Originally from Harlem, New York, Frazier moved to Dallas in 1978 after serving in the Vietnam War, he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He worked for the city’s sanitation department, digging up broken sewer lines, and eventually became an art teacher at Paul Quinn College in Oak Cliff.<\/p>\n
He held his first art show at RedBird Mall more than 20 years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Now, his annual Southwest Black Art Show, which is usually held in the African American Museum at Fair Park, features more than 20 fine art exhibitors.<\/p>\n
In the late \u201870s through the \u201890s, he and his wife, Judy, opened several art galleries in Dallas, including one called Visions in Black. That gallery closed after rent became too expensive.
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Frazier still operates a small gallery from his home, but has repurposed Visions in Black for an artist collective. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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FIRST PHOTO: Lonnie Duke, Frank Frazier\u2019s crew production manager, talks about a hallway leading to Frazier\u2019s basement in Dallas, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. The walls of the hallway feature artwork by the Dallas artist and the handprints of his family. SECOND PHOTO: Lonnie Duke holds up a mixed media piece labeled Dakar in Frazier\u2019s basement. Mixed media pieces featured textiles and other items from Africa.<\/p>\n
The collective allows artists under Fraizer\u2019s tutelage to pool their resources and showcase their work around the country. It\u2019s one of the ways Frazier empowers young artists by teaching them the business side of art.<\/p>\n
African American Museum of Dallas curator and artist, Lakeem Wilson, 34, is a part of the collective.<\/p>\n
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Wilson says Frazier teaches artists to \u201ctake control of their own destinies\u201d by selling directly to buyers instead of having to use gallery space or do business through an art dealer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cVisions in Black is Frank Frazier’s lineage,\u201d Wilson says. \u201cHe’s never looking for us to pay him back. He just wants us to pay it forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson carries on his mentor\u2019s legacy through his work at the museum.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over the summer, he taught high school and college students how to handle archive artwork. In February, the museum will host a national art competition for established and emerging artists called the Carroll Harris Simms National Black Art Competition and Exhibition.<\/p>\n
Frazier also opened doors for Seidah Williams, who began as his assistant about 20 years ago and Mark Crow, who credits Frazier for steering him away from gangs.<\/p>\n
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After catching her doodling on a box filled with his unframed artwork at an art show, Frazier encouraged Williams, 42, to create six pieces on canvas and display them at their next show. She now sells her work next to his.<\/p>\n
Frazier took Crow under his wing when he was 16 years old. He showed the now 59-year-old how to be a positive role model in his community. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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Friends, family and artists Frank Frazier\u2019s Visions in Black collective gather in his basement to view art during a house show in Dallas, Sunday, June 14, 2026. Dallas R&B and neo-soul musical artist Erykah Badu speaks with the collective\u2019s artists.<\/p>\n
Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Crow, Wilson and Williams are three of more than 10 artists in Visions in Black. However, Williams says Frazier has drawn countless other artists into his sphere over the years.<\/p>\n
In June, collective artists sold work from temporary walls set up throughout the first, second and basement levels of Frazier\u2019s home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Art collectors, other artists, family members and neighbors packed into his purple house in Oak Cliff. Dallas R&B and neo-soul singer Erykah Badu was a surprise visitor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Towards the end of the evening, a large crowd gathered on the first floor around Frazier, who has restricted mobility, to swap stories with the man who brought them together and enjoy cake for Judy and Williams\u2019 combined birthday celebration.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have been in his life or have been around him \u2026 or heard anything from him, then you’re blessed,\u201d Crow says. \u201cPeople like that don’t come around that often.\u201d<\/p>\n
This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A white canvas stretches out in front of Frank\u00a0Frazier. He gives a bottle of shoe polish a shake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-421769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}