Allison Janae Hamilton’s exhibition “Celestine” is currently on view at Marianne Boesky in New York through March 8. It features a body of new work that resulted in her turning her gaze up from the horizon of the landscape to the night sky above.
Raised in Northern Florida, with a strong connection to her family’s farm in Tennessee, Hamilton’s work has always been an investigation of landscape in its relationship to labor, forgotten or erased histories, mysticism, spiritualism, and environmentalism.
Looking skyward, the artist dove deep into new techniques, like astral photography and time lapse, she further explored using bronze with her well-known fencing masks, and she continued collaborations with friends and family on a series of new plaster clasped hands that reach out from the walls of the gallery.
We also see the results of her new foray into painting—a direction she decided to go for after having her child. Everything felt new in her life when becoming a parent, so she reasoned, why not take on new things in the studio, too?
We spoke to Allison from her studio in New York where she works surrounded by photos of her family, totalling seven generations.
Listen to the episode on Apple HERE.
Listen to the episode on Spotify HERE.
Allison Janae Hamilton Notable Insights
“I bring in a lot of storytelling, whether that’s family stories or poetry. I have volumes of Black American nature writing.”
“Sustainability is also a big part of my studio practice. I’m usually using things that are discarded or something that’s coming from a different industry, the feathers are coming from food industries or other places to try to reuse and repurpose things as much as possible.”
“I do a lot of research. I’ve put a lot conceptually into the work, but at the same time, I try to make it so that visually there’s enough that you can get on an emotional level.”
“So I have seven generations of mothers and daughters of my maternal line around me every day when I come to work. I love having all these images around me. It feels like they’re with me in my work day.”
“I bring friends and family into the work a lot in different ways. They’re all Black women in the art world in some way. I love that collaborative energy, working with people I know and admire adds layers of meaning to the work.”
Allison Janae Hamilton Resources
To learn more about the artist, visit HERE.
To learn more about the show at Marianne Boesky, visit HERE.
