Carrie Mae Weems

Carrie Mae Weems
Born (1953-04-20) April 20, 1953 (age 71)
Portland, Oregon, U.S.
EducationCalifornia Institute of the Arts (BA)
University of California, San Diego (MFA)
Known forPhotography
AwardsMacArthur Fellowship (2013), Anonymous Was a Woman Award (2007), Rome Prize Fellowship (2006), Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in Photography (2002), Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society (2019), Hasselblad Award 2023.
Websitewww.carriemaeweems.net

Carrie Mae Weems (born April 20, 1953) is an American artist working in text, fabric, audio, digital images and installation video, and is best known for her photography.[1][2] She achieved prominence through her early 1990s photographic project The Kitchen Table Series. Her photographs, films and videos focus on serious issues facing African Americans today, including racism, sexism, politics and personal identity.

She once said, "Let me say that my primary concern in art, as in politics, is with the status and place of Afro-Americans in the country."[3] More recently, however, she expressed the view that "Black experience is not really the main point; rather, complex, dimensional, human experience and social inclusion ... is the real point."[4] She continues to produce art that provides social commentary on the experiences of people of color, especially black women, in America.[1]

Her talents have been recognized by Harvard University and Wellesley College, with fellowships, artist-in-residence and visiting professor positions. She taught photography at Hampshire College in the late 1980s and shot the "Kitchen Table" series in her home in Western Massachusetts. Weems is one of six artist-curators who made selections for Artistic License: Six Takes on the Guggenheim Collection, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2019/20.[5] She is artist in residence at Syracuse University.[6]

  1. ^ a b Weems, Carrie Mae. "Biography". carriemaeweems.ne. Retrieved November 16, 2013.
  2. ^ Rosenblum, Naomi (1994). A History of Women Photographers. New York: Abbeville Press. p. 325. ISBN 978-1-55859-761-7.
  3. ^ "Carrie Mae Weems". Conjure Women. rebekahfilms.org. Archived from the original on October 6, 2007. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  4. ^ Tidwell, Daniel (August 31, 2012). "Seeing The Unseen Carrie Mae Weems". Nashville Arts Magazine. nashvillearts.com. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved November 12, 2013.
  5. ^ "Artistic License: Six Takes on the Guggenheim Collection". Guggenheim. June 19, 2018. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
  6. ^ Morrow, Kevin (May 26, 2020). "Syracuse University Artist in Residence Carrie Mae Weems Launches Project Addressing the Impact of COVID-19 on Black, Latino and Native Communities". SU News. Syracuse University News. Retrieved May 26, 2020.