The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, has announced the three latest participants in its prestigious artist-in-residence program. Filmmaker Cameron Granger, painter Jacob Mason-Macklin, and textile artist Qualeasha Wood will enter the program, which is noted for having elevated the careers of a number of African and Afro-Latinx artists, including Candida Alvarez, Jordan Casteel, Kerry James Marshall, Wangechi Mutu, and Mickalene Thomas.
Wood, who was born and raised in Long Branch, also investigates Black stereotypes, simultaneously embracing them and pushing them away. “I spent most of my early art practice and young adult life trying to escape from the inherited social constraints of Blackness,” they told the Provincetown Independentearlier this summer. “My perception of what it meant to be Black was always skewed by the notions and stereotypes of what Blackness is supposed to look like and be.” Wood explores these ideas through tufting works—in which yarn is inserted into fabric—that employ often cheerful colors and simple shapes to depict complex situations, such as a recalled near-drowning.
“After five decades of providing institutional support for working artists, developing leading scholarship around their practices, and presenting their work to new audiences, we are able to reflect on and take great pride in how the program has consistently upheld the careers of so many artists of African descent,” said Studio Museum director Thelma Golden.
