DEANA LAWSON is a photo-based artist whose work examines the body’s ability to channel personal and social histories, addressing themes of family legacy, community, romance, and spirituality. Lawson's oeuvre, developed over the last decade, is a collective portrait, which investigates black aesthetics in the domestic environment, and various settings of ritual or celebration. Careful attention is given to lighting and pose, both formal constructs are used to transform and intensify representations of power and liberation in personal and intimate spaces.
Lawson received her M.F.A. in Photography from RISD in 2004. Her work has been exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, New Photography 2011 at Museum of Modern Art, Greater New York at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, Helene Bailly Gallery in Paris, Studio Museum in Harlem, KIT Museum in Dusseldorf Germany, Artists Space in New York, Print Center in Philadelphia, and Spelman College Museum of Fine Art in Atlanta.
