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Sonya Clark

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Sonya Clark
Born1967 (age 56–57)
Washington, DC
NationalityAmerican
EducationMFA, BFA, BA
Alma materCranbrook Academy of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Amherst College
Notable workHair Craft Project, Flag Project
StyleFibre Arts

Sonya Clark (born 1967, Washington, D.C.)[1] is an American artist of Afro-Caribbean heritage. Clark is a fiber artist known for using a variety of materials including human hair and combs to address race, culture, class, and history.[2] Her beaded headdress assemblages and braided wig series of the late 1990s, which received critical acclaim, evoked African traditions of personal adornment and moved these common forms into the realm of personal and political expression.[3] Although African art and her Caribbean background are important influences, Clark also builds on practices of assemblage and accumulation used by artists such as Betye Saar and David Hammons.[3]

Biography

Clark's father was a psychiatrist from Trinidad while her mother was a nurse from Jamaica.[4] Clark was influenced by the craftspeople in her family, including a grandmother who worked as a tailor, and a grandfather who was a furniture maker.[5]

Education

Clark holds an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and in 2011 was honored with their first Distinguished Mid-Career Alumni Award.[6] She has a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago where she studied under the artist Nick Cave (performance artist) and a BA in psychology from Amherst College in 1989, where she also received an honorary doctorate in 2015.[7] She graduated from the Sidwell Friends School in 1985.

Clark cites professor Rowland O. Abiodun, Amherst College as an early influence in her studies of the connection between her Caribbean culture and Yoruba culture, which was further enhanced by a post-graduation trip to the Ivory Coast, where she learned to weave on a hand loom. Clark also cites Nick Cave as instrumental in furthering her investigations in fiber.[8]

Professional academic career

Clark is a professor of art in the department of Art and the History of Art at Amherst College. Between 2006 and 2017, she was chair of the Craft/Material Studies Department[9] and was honored as a Distinguished Research Fellow. In 2016, she was awarded a university-wide Distinguished Scholars Award[4] at the highly acclaimed School of the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University[10] in Richmond, VA. The department is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top in the nation. Prior to her appointment at VCU, she was Baldwin-Bascom Professor of Creative Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,[11] where she received tenure with distinction and an H.I. Romnes award.[12][13]

Art career

Clark's work has been exhibited in over 450 museums and galleries in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and throughout the Americas. Her work is in the collection of many museums including the Indianapolis Museum of Art,[14] Delaware Art Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, and Memphis Brooks Museum.[15] Her work has been favorably reviewed in journals such as Art in America,[16] The New York Times, Sculpture,[17] Surface Design Journal, The Los Angeles Times,[18] Fiber Arts, New American Paintings,[19] Philadelphia Inquirer, Italian Vogue, Hyperallergic, Mother Jones, and Huffington Post.[4]

Sonya Clark was an artist in residence at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation in 2011.[20] She has received several awards including an Anonymous Was a Woman Award,[21] a United States Artists Fellowship,[22][23] Pollock-Krasner Award,[24] a Rockefeller Foundation Residency[25] in Italy, an Art Matters Grant,[26] Red Gate Residency[27] in China, a Wisconsin Arts Board Fellowship, a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship,[28] a Virginia Commission for the Arts Fellowship,[29] a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship[30] in Italy, an 1858 Award for Contemporary Southern Art from the Gibbes Museum,[31] the 2014 ArtPrize a Juried Grand Prize co-winner and recipient of the Juried award for Best Two-Dimensional work,[32] and a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship.[33] Clark was inducted into the American Craft Council College of Fellows in 2020.[34]

File:Sonya Clark - Hair Craft Project.jpg
Sonya Clark, Hair Craft Project

Her work can be found in many books including Wrapped in Pride, Mami Wata, Hand + Made,[35] The Global Africa Project, Second Lives, Manufractured,[36] Material Girls, Contemporary Black Women Artists,[37]Pricked, African American Art and Artists, Choosing Craft, and Master: bead-weaving[38] Her work, Monumental,, was acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of the Renwick Gallery's 50th Anniversary Campaign.[1][39]

Hair Craft Project

According to Clark, "Hairdressers are my heroes. The poetry and politics of Black hair care specialists are central to my work as an artist and educator. Rooted in a rich legacy, their hands embody an ability to map a head with a comb and manipulate the fiber we grow into a complex form. These artists have mastered a craft impossible for me to take for granted."[40] She claims, "hair is power," and, "as carrier of DNA, hair holds the essence of identity."[41]

"I grew up braiding my hair and my sister's hair, so in one sense, like many black women, I had been preparing to be a textile artist for a very long time."[42]

Clark further considered the hair strand as a tool for communication and worked with graphic designer Boquin Peng to create an alphabet based on the curl pattern of her hair called Twist.[8]

Flag Project

Clark's explorations with flags began with her thesis Kente Flag Project in 1995.[8] This work is a mixture of elements from African and Western/American culture.[43] She weaves Kente patterns into the design for strength and endurance, advancement and achievement, and prosperity.[43]

Since 2009, Clark has created serial projects surrounding the Confederate Battle Flag.[43] She has performed Unraveling in June 2015 at the now-defunct Mixed Greens gallery in New York City and then at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, in October 2016.[44] Her more resent presentation of the exhibit in Louisville Kentucky "was the first performance under the current presidential administration and since the country has found itself embroiled in debate over the presence and ramifications of Confederate imagery in the wake of the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, this past summer."[44] "The act is now a part of a larger movement through which state and local governments are dismantling these objects out of a sense of civic duty."[44] During the exhibition, members of the audience are encouraged to join Clark one at a time in the unraveling of a confederate flag while she explains her vision and demonstrates how to pull the strands of the flag apart. According to Goodman, "Clark stands side-by-side by participants, shoulder-to-shoulder as they pull each strand of the flag and confront the reality it represents".[44] In April 2018, Clark returned to her alma mater, Amherst College, to perform "Unravelling" at the Mead Art Museum.[45]

In 2017, Clark created a hand woven linen cloth reproduction of the white dish towel used by a Confederate soldier to surrender at the Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. This piece is known as "Monumental Cloth (sutured)". It is the artist's hope that this flag of truce becomes as well known as the Confederate Battle Flag. Both "Unravelling" and "Monumental Cloth (sutured)" were on display at the Mead Art Museum from April 5, 2018, to July 1, 2018.[46] Clark reproduced the Truce Flag with the intention of drawing attention back to the flag that brokered and to the Civil War, questioning why symbols of white supremacy, such as the Confederate Battle Flag, are memorialized in favor of symbols of peace. A larger immersive outgrowth of the project "Monumental Cloth: the Flag We Should Know" was made in collaboration with and exhibited at The Fabric Workshop and Museum[47]

Exhibition history

  • 2021: Sonya Clark: Tatter, Bristle, and Mend, National Museum of Women in the Arts, March 3 – June 28[48]
  • 2019: Monumental Cloth: the flag we should know, Fabric Workshop and Museum, March 29 – August 4, 2019[49]
  • 2019: Sonya Clark: Hair|Goods, An Homage to Madam CJ Walker, Goya Contemporary Gallery, January 25 - March 30, 2019
  • 2017: Oaths and Epithets: Works by Sonya Clark, Contemporary Craft, April 12 – August 19, 2017[50]
  • 2015: Loving After Lifetimes of All This, The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design, January 30 – May 23, 2015[51]
  • 2008: Sonya Clark: Loose Strands, Tight Knots, Walters Art Museum, June 28 – September 2, 2008[52]

Published works

  • Haystack Monograph Series No. 17, 2004: Craft and Design. "Hand-me-downs: Our Stories held in Objects, Materials and Processes."
  • Surface Design, Fall 2003. "In Review: Nick Sargent."
  • Surface Design, Summer 2000. "Beneath Pattern: Investigating Symmetry."
  • Ornament, Spring 1997. "Sculptural Headdresses."
  • The Hair Craft Project: Sonya Clark, eds. Melissa Anderson, Sonya Clark, Meg Roberts and Leigh Suggs, Exhibition Catalogue, 2015

References

  1. ^ a b Savig, Mary; Atkinson, Nora; Montiel, Anya (2022). This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World. Washington, DC: Smithsonian American Art Museum. pp. 228–238. ISBN 9781913875268.
  2. ^ "VCU department chair themes art around hair". The Washington Times. Retrieved April 1, 2017.
  3. ^ a b Sims, Lowery Stokes (2009). "Sonya Clark: The Currency of Craft". Fiberarts.com. Sept/Oct.
  4. ^ a b c O'Neill, development-Mark Luetke | design-Lauren. "Sonya Clark". sonyaclark.com. Retrieved March 3, 2018.
  5. ^ Reginald F. Lewis (2011). Material Girls: Contemporary Black Women Artists (1st ed.). Baltimore, Md: Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture. ISBN 9780615436142.
  6. ^ "Alumni News | March 2011". hosted.verticalresponse.com.
  7. ^ "Sonya Clark '89". Amherst Magazine, Amherst College. No. Fall. 2010. Retrieved February 1, 2014.
  8. ^ a b c Wahi, Jasmine (August 10, 2020). "The Artist Unraveling American History". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
  9. ^ "VCUarts Craft / Material Studies". Vcu.edu. October 4, 2012. Retrieved February 1, 2014.
  10. ^ "VCUarts Homepage". Vcu.edu. Retrieved February 1, 2014.
  11. ^ "Sonya Clark". Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art. Archived from the original on October 5, 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  12. ^ "Romnes early-career awards go to seven faculty". news.wisc.edu.
  13. ^ "Sonya Clark – The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art". halsey.cofc.edu. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  14. ^ "Indianapolis Museum of Art".
  15. ^ "Sonya Clark's Woven Combs Will Live Permanently at the Brooks!". August 19, 2012.
  16. ^ Weaver, A.M. (January 30, 2012). "Sonya Clark". Art in America – Reviews. Retrieved February 1, 2014.
  17. ^ "Reviews – Indianapolis". Sculpture.org. 21 (10). December 2002. Retrieved February 1, 2014.
  18. ^ Ollman, Leah (July 5, 2013). "Review: Physical, metaphorical fuse in work of Sonya Clark at CAFAM". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 1, 2014.
  19. ^ "New American Paintings".
  20. ^ Unraveling: An Artist's Take On The Confederate Flag WFAE charlotte, June 22, 2015
  21. ^ "Anonymous Was a Woman Award - Supporting Women Artists over 40". Archived from the original on March 6, 2017. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
  22. ^ "VCU School of the Arts professor named USA Fellow". www.news.vcu.edu.
  23. ^ "Meet the USA Fellows. - USA Fellows".
  24. ^ "Page Not Found". www.pkf-imagecollection.org. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  25. ^ "Rockefeller Foundation Residency".
  26. ^ "Art Matters Grant".
  27. ^ "Red Gate Residency".
  28. ^ "Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship".
  29. ^ "Virginia Commission for the Arts Fellowship".
  30. ^ "Civitella Ranieri Fellowship". Archived from the original on April 14, 2013.
  31. ^ "1858 Prize".
  32. ^ "ArtPrize Announces Winners of Sixth Annual Event". www.artprize.org.
  33. ^ "Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (SARF) | Smithsonian Fellowships and Internships". www.smithsonianofi.com. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  34. ^ "Annabeth Rosen and Sonya Clark Named to American Craft Council College of Fellows". Cranbrook Academy of Art. February 12, 2020. Retrieved March 21, 2020.
  35. ^ Hand + Made The Performative Impulse in Art and Craft ARTBOOK | D.A.P. 2010 Catalog 9781933619262. Retrieved March 3, 2018. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  36. ^ Holt, Steven Skov; Skov, Mara Holt (October 1, 2008). Manufractured: The Conspicuous Transformation of Everyday Objects (1st ed.). San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN 9780811865098.
  37. ^ Material girls : contemporary Black women artists. Wilkinson, Michelle., Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture. Baltimore, Md.: Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture. 2011. ISBN 978-0-615-43614-2. OCLC 753956575.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  38. ^ O'Neill, development-Mark Luetke | design-Lauren. "Sonya Clark". sonyaclark.com. Retrieved March 3, 2018.
  39. ^ "Sonya Clark's "Monumental" Achievements". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  40. ^ Clark, Sonya (2015). The Hair Craft Project: Sonya Clark. Richmond, VA: Sonya Clark. pp. ix. ISBN 978-0-692-47410-5.
  41. ^ O'Neill, development-Mark Luetke | design-Lauren. "Sonya Clark". sonyaclark.com. Retrieved March 3, 2018.
  42. ^ "Cultivated Hair :: IRAAA". iraaa.museum.hamptonu.edu. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  43. ^ a b c O'Neill, development-Mark Luetke | design-Lauren. "Sonya Clark". sonyaclark.com. Retrieved March 3, 2018.
  44. ^ a b c d "Unraveling the Complicated Confederate Legacy, One Strand at a Time". Hyperallergic. October 22, 2017. Retrieved March 3, 2018.
  45. ^ Flynn, Anne-Gerard (April 3, 2018). "Confederate flag to be unraveled as part of Amherst performance art". Mass Live. Retrieved June 23, 2018.
  46. ^ Rogol, Rachel. "Unraveling with Sonya Clark '89". Retrieved June 23, 2018.
  47. ^ "Sonya Clark". The Fabric Workshop and Museum. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
  48. ^ "Sonya Clark: Tatter, Bristle, and Mend | Exhibition".
  49. ^ "Sonya Clark: Monumental Cloth, The Flag We Should Know".
  50. ^ Craft, Contemporary. "Oaths and Epithets: Works by Sonya Clark on Contemporary Craft". Contemporary Craft. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  51. ^ "Loving After Lifetimes of All This – The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design". craftcreativitydesign.org. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
  52. ^ "Contemporary Artist Sonya Clark Explores Notions of Beauty in Summer Exhibition at The Walters". Retrieved March 4, 2016.
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