ARTIST STATEMENT
My practice oscillates between figuration and abstraction, and across painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, and installation. Each mixed-media expression parallels my fragmented existence living between my home in Kingston, Jamaica, and the United States.
I create images of Black life that reject the distortion, misrepresentation, and erasure of Black history typically centered on degradation and suffering. I embrace light, color, and non-traditional materials to create opportunities for witnessing, not occupying, scenes of Black life in its splendor and ordinariness. Rooted in my Monolith assemblages of post-consumption waste, my latest works depict metallic-skinned subjects in scenes from family albums, archives, and social media.
As I consider the Black body as both vessel and substance, each intimate yet quasi-anonymous metallic portrait complicates the concept of identity and skin color-as-race. They embody bling, shine, and glow to highlight the conspicuous consumption of Black bodies, resist erasure, and illuminate the duality of being coveted and discarded. In my world, Black skin is durable, weatherproof, conductive, magnetic, flexible, percussive, and indestructible. These lustrous figures offer unusual interactions with images of Blackness and invoke metaphors of the Black body that position skin as much more than an indicator of race.
ARTIST CV
EDUCATION
2018-2020 Stanford University, Stanford, CA - MFA Art Practice
2016-2018 University of Pennsylvania, PA - MSEd Independent School Teaching Residency
2011-2015 Davidson College, Davidson, NC - BA Studio Art
EXHIBITIONS
Current
A SUH WI DWEET, Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA
Upcoming
Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2022, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC
2021
Weave, Bundle, Cut and Layer: Artists with Material Instincts, Root Division, San Francisco, CA
24 Views: WHAT THEY CALL US, a web-based curatorial project by Tiffany Lin
Tarsal by Metatarsal, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
MFA Revisited, Root Division, San Francisco, CA
2020
Freeform, Stanford Art Gallery, Stanford, CA
Unbound: MFA Highlights, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
2019
San Francisco Foundation Art Awards Exhibition, SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA
Extra Ordinary, Embark Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Easy To Love: Annual First Year MFA Exhibition, Coulter Art Gallery, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
2018
Annual Faculty Exhibition, Hutchins Gallery, Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, NJ
2015
“WHY FI DAT?!” , Edward M. Smith Gallery, Davidson, NC
2014
The 2014 Jamaica Biennial , The National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica
AWARDS, GRANTS & RESIDENCIES
2022
Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2022 Finalist and Prizewinner, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC
2021
Artist-In-Residence, The Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, NJ
Kala Art Institute Fellowship: Honorary Artist In Residence, Berkeley, CA
2020
Headlands Center for the Arts Graduate Fellowship Residency, Sausalito, CA
Anita Squires Fowler Memorial Award in Photography, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Headlands Center for the Arts Tournesol Award Finalist, Sausalito, CA
TOSA Studio Award Nominee, Minnesota Street Projects, CA
2019
Pauline Brown Fund for Advanced Research in American Art in New York City, NY, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
The Gordon F. Hampton Fellowship, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Edwin Anthony & Adelaine Boudreaux Cadogan Scholarship, The San Francisco Foundation, San Francisco, CA
Pauline Brown Fund for Advanced Research in American Art in Venice, Italy, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
2018
The Gordon F. Hampton Fellowship, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Honorary Member of the Class of 2018, The Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, NJ
2014
Friends of the Arts SPIKE! Grant, Davidson College, Davidson, NC
Dean Rusk International Studies Travel Grant in Prague, Czech Republic, Davidson College
Douglas Houchens Studio Art Award, Davidson College, Davidson, NC
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2021
Visual Arts Faculty, The Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, NJ
Lead Instructor: Drawing From Life, Stanford University - Stanford, CA
2020
Visiting Artist: Painting, Urban School of San Francisco - San Francisco, CA
Guest Lecturer: ITALIC Academic Program, Stanford University - Stanford, CA
Selection Panelist: Holding the Moment, The City of San José Public Art Program, San Jose, CA
Instructor of Record, Mixed Media Drawing: Art & Aesthetics of Social Media, Stanford University Department of Art & Art History, Stanford, CA
Teaching Assistant, Stanford University, Department of Art & Art History, Stanford, CA
Graduate Student Mentor to Undergraduate Art Honors Majors, Stanford University Department of Art & Art History, CA
2019
Teaching Assistant, Stanford University, Department of Art & Art History, Stanford, CA
Art Handler: Bryant Street Gallery, Palo Alto, CA
2018
Teaching Assistant, Stanford University, Department of Art & Art History, Stanford, CA
2016-18
Visual Arts Teaching Fellow, The Lawrenceville School - Lawrenceville, NJ
2017
Visual Art Instructor, Lawrenceville School Summer Scholars - Lawrenceville, NJ
2015-16
Scenic Artist, Children’s Theater of Charlotte - Charlotte, NC
2015
Scenic Artist, Duke Family Performance Hall - Davidson College, NC
2012-2015
Graphic Designer, Dean Rusk International Studies Program, Davidson College, Davidson NC
2012
London 2012 Olympics Graphic Designer, Digicel Sportsmax Ltd., Kingston, JA