Known for Fiber art Name Sonya Clark | ||
 | ||
Born 1967 Washington, D.C. Nationality American, of Afro-Caribbean heritage Alma mater MFA, Cranbrook Academy of Art; BFA, Art Institute of Chicago; BA, psychology from Amherst College; Sidwell Friends School Awards United States Artists Fellowship, Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Award, and others | ||
Measuring Histories - Sonya Clark | The Art Assignment | PBS Digital Studios
Sonya Clark (born 1967, Washington, D.C.) 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. 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. 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.
Contents
- Measuring Histories Sonya Clark The Art Assignment PBS Digital Studios
- Sonya clark
- Biography
- Education
- Professional academic career
- Art career
- Hair Craft Project
- Exhibition History
- Published works
- References
Sonya clark
Biography
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.
Clark’s personal connection to the comb began like that of nearly every young girl, squirming on a chair while an adult armed with a comb and good intentions attempted to bring order to the disorder on her head.
Education
Clark holds an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and in 2010 was honored with their first Distinguished Mid-Career Alumni Award. 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. She graduated from the Sidwell Friends School in 1985.
Professional academic career
Since 2006, Clark has been chair of the Craft/Material Studies Department in the highly acclaimed School of the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. The department is ranked by U.S. News and 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, where she received tenure with distinction and an H.I. Romnes award. Previously, she was Baldwin-Bascom Professor of Creative Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Art career
Clark's work has been exhibited in over 300 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, Delaware Art Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Memphis Brooks Museum. Her work has been favorably reviewed in journals such as Art in America, The New York Times, Sculpture, Surface Design Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Fiber Arts, and New American Paintings.
Clark has received several awards including an Anonymous Was a Woman Award, a United States Artists Fellowship, Pollock-Krasner Award, a Rockefeller Foundation Residency in Italy, an Art Matters Grant, Red Gate Residency in China, a Wisconsin Arts Board Fellowship, a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Award, a Virginia Commission for the Arts Fellowship, a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship in Italy, an 1858 Award for Contemporary Southern Art from the Gibbes Museum, the 2014 ArtPrize a Juried Grand Prize co-winner and recipient of the Juried award for Best Two-Dimensional work, and a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship.
Hair Craft Project
The project combines
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."
“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.”
Exhibition History
Sonya Clark: Loose Strands, Tight Knots, Walters Art Museum, June 28–Sept. 2, 2008
Loving After Lifetimes of All This, The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design, January 30 - May 23, 2015
Oaths and Epithets: Works by Sonya Clark, Contemporary Craft, April 12 - August 19, 2017