Nationality United States Occupation Artist | Website clarissasligh.com Name Clarissa Sligh | |
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Born 1939 Washington, DC Books Wrongly Bodied: Documenting Transition from Female to Male, Wrongly bodied two, Reading Dick and Jane with me | ||
photo+craft: Making and Meaning
Clarissa Sligh (born August 30, 1939, Washington DC) is an African-American book artist and photographer based in Asheville, North Carolina. Her work has been exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Jewish Museum in New York City, and at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her work has also been displayed at the National African American Museum Project, at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, the forerunner to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Sligh's photographs and artist books center on politics, family life, questions of identity and personal experience.
Contents
- photocraft Making and Meaning
- It Wasnt Little Rock
- Biography
- Education
- Field of work
- Awards
- Coast to Coast National Women Artists of Color Projects
- Books
- References
It Wasn't Little Rock
Biography
Clarissa Sligh has fought against racism all her life. "Clarissa Sligh was raised in a large working-class family in the 1940s and 1950s and went to segregated schools in a predominantly white Virginia county." In 1955, at the age of 15, she was the lead plaintiff in a school desegregation case in Virginia. Before turning professionally to art, Sligh worked "at NASA in the manned space flight program."
Education
Clarissa Sligh attended the traditionally African-American Hampton Institute, in Hampton, Virginia, where she earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1961. She continued her education in an artistic vein, earning a bachelor's degree in Visual Arts in 1972 from Howard University in Washington DC, and an MBA in 1973 from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Finally, she earned her master's of fine arts degree in Visual Arts from Howard University in 1999.
Field of work
According to Carla Williams, Sligh's work reflects on our perceptions of normality and our roles in different frameworks such as family, society, gender and ethnic groups. As C. Williams says "In school readers from her childhood, Sligh discovered the model from which to confront the realities of her own life. "
Awards
Coast-to-Coast National Women Artists of Color Projects
In 1988, Sligh co-founded the Coast-to-Coast National Women Artists of Color Project with Faith Ringgold. From 1988 to 1996, this organization exhibited the works of African American women across the United States. In 1990, Sligh was one of three organizers of the exhibit "Coast to Coast: A Women of Color National Artists' Book Project" held January 14 – February 2, 1990, at the Flossie Martin Gallery, and later at the Eubie Blake Center and the Artemesia Gallery. Faith Ringgold wrote the catalog introduction titled "History of Coast to Coast." More than 100 Women of Color artists were included. The catalog included brief artist statements and photos of the artist' books, including works by: Emma Amos (painter), Beverly Buchanan, Elizabeth Catlett, Dolores Cruz, Dorothy Holden, Martha Jackson Jarvis, Young-Im Kim, Viola Leak, Howardena Pindell, Faith Ringgold, Adrian Piper, Joyce Scott, Freida High Tesfagiorgis, Denise Ward-Brown, Bisa Washington, and Deborah Willis.