New York’s Studio Museum in Harlem has revealed the three artists set to take part in the 2021–22 cycle of its closely watched artists-in-residence program, which has boosted an array of artists of African and Afro-Latinx descent to worldwide recognition. Those artists are Cameron Granger, Jacob Mason-Macklin, and Qualeasha Wood, all of whom are younger than 30.
Granger, Mason-Macklin, and Wood will go through a program that also includes artists like Candida Alvarez, Jordan Casteel, Kerry James Marshall, Wangechi Mutu, and Mickalene Thomas among its alumni. None of those artists were well-known prior to doing residencies at the Studio Museum.
Granger produces films and videos focused on memory as it relates to representation. Past projects have paid homage to his mother and considered Blackness with respect to much-loved cartoons.
Mason-Macklin’s boldly hued figurative paintings take as their reference point the stylish aesthetics of the ’60s and ’70s. These works often draw on images from Blaxplotiation films and R&B albums, and feature figures entwining and dancing.
Wood, whose work was featured on the cover of Art in America‘s May/June “New Talent” issue, meditates on representations of queer Black women, often via tapestries that feature bodies whose forms are edited by digital means. They recently designed a trunk for Louis Vuitton.
Thelma Golden, the director of the Studio Museum, said in a statement, “After five decades of providing institutional support for working artists, developing leading scholarship around their practices, and presenting their work to new audiences, we are able to reflect on and take great pride in how the program has consistently upheld the careers of so many artists of African descent.”