Name Travis Somerville | ||
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Travis somerville
Travis Somerville (born 1963) is an American artist based in San Francisco, California. Known for tackling Southern racial issues, Somerville’s works incorporate collage painting and sculptural elements, as well as site-specific installations.
Contents
- Travis somerville
- Rebirth of a nation travis somerville 1963
- Somervilles work
- Awards
- Public collections
- Solo exhibitions
- References
Somerville was born in Atlanta, Georgia. His parents, both European American, were civil rights activists. His father was an Episcopal preacher and his mother was a schoolteacher. Somerville grew up in various cities and rural towns throughout the Southern United States. He briefly studied at Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD, finally settling in San Francisco in 1984 where he attended the San Francisco Art Institute. Since 2013, Somerville is represented by Guido Maus, beta pictoris gallery / Maus Contemporary in Birmingham, AL.
Rebirth of a nation travis somerville 1963
Somerville’s work
Somerville’s work simultaneously tries to reconcile his personal struggle with his own Southern Christian upbringing and the overt tumultuous racial politics of then with the mixed messaging backlash of now. Using collaged and painted pictorial elements, he summons imagery and words from the history, politics, popular culture, and fine art into juxtapositions that challenge conventional lines of history and social perceptions. For example, his piece, Boy in the Hood, 2000, portrays Malcolm X wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood. In an interview with Nathan Larramendy, Somerville stated, “My southern identity will always play a part in my work because that is who I am... I feel the overall theme [of my work] is oppression and greed. I want the oppressed to be validated and the oppressors to be guilty. I want people to realize that we are all connected in some way and we are responsible for each other.”
Awards
Public collections
The Achenbach Collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, California
di Rosa, Napa, California
Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California
Progressive Art Collection, Mayfield Village, Ohio
San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
Solo exhibitions
American Cracker, Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, California
Peckerwood Nation, Nathan Larramendy Gallery, Ojai, California
Travis Somerville: New Work, University of Houston-Clear Lake, Houston, Texas (catalogue)
Travis Somerville, Show N Tell, San Francisco, California
Travis Somerville, Show N Tell, San Francisco, California