Vanessa German
So many many dead black bodies, or, the why niggas always gotta be shootin' when they get mad, or take your beef outside, or, the trauma stays and stays and stays, or once again, the derivative makes a mockable, public spectacle of her grief, 2015. Mixed media assemblage, 120 x 48 x 30 inches
Love Front Porch/ARThouse, 2013-present. Social practice based in artist-owned house in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
BIOGRAPHY
Born: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1976
Resides: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Education: Self-taught
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2016
"i come to do a violence to the lie," Matrix Gallery, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut (June 9-September 4).
2015
"The Ordinary Sacred," Concept Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
2014
"Citizen Artist," Concept Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
"Bitter Root," Montana Museum of Art and Culture, Missoula.
2013
"Homewood," Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York.
2012
"Emerging Artist of the Year," Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pennsylvania.
2011
"Are You a Good Woman?," GalleriE CHIZ, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
"HOME: HOMEWOOD Artist Residency," Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2015
"Black: Color, Material, Concept," Studio Museum in Harlem, New York.
"Re:Purposed," Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida.
"Performing Blackness :: Performing Whiteness," Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania.
2014
"State of the Art," Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas.
"Pittsburgh Biennial," Pittsburgh Glass Center, Pennsylvania.
"Afrotechtopia," Samek Art Museum, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
2012
"The Art of Storytelling: Lies, Enchantment, Humor & Truth," American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland.
"Ill Perceived," Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland.
"African American Art 1950-Present," Smithsonian Institution and David C. Driskell Center, College Park, Maryland.
2011
"Material Witness," Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York.
2010
"Art of the State: Pennsylvania 2010," State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg.
"Art for Life," Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
"Beyond Swastika and Jim Crow," I.P. Stanback Museum, Orangeburg, South Carolina.
Selected Performances
2014
"Creative Summit," Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas.
"B.U.S. 9," Bricolage Theater, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
2013
"Homewood," Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York.
2011
"Pittsburgh Biennial Gertrude's/LOT," Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
"Too Shallow for Diving: The 21st Century Is Treading Water," American Jewish Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
"Material Witness," Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York.
2010
TEDxMIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
"Reading on Mars: American Shorts Reading Series," Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Selected Bibliography
2015
Donaldson, Zoe. "A Sculptor Creates a Bright Spot in a Struggling Community," O, The Oprah Magazine (September).
2014
Rosenberg, Karen. "In Blue-Chip Precincts, a Shout-Out for the Undersung," The New York Times (March 6).
2013
Wolff, Rachel. "The New Collage," ARTnews (December).
"Black Artists: 30 Contemporary Art Makers Under 40 You Should Know," Huffington Post (February 26).
2012
Micchelli, Thomas. "City of Women," Hyperallergic (October 12).
Amy, Michael. "Vanessa German," Sculpture Magazine (June).