DEANA LAWSON (b. 1979, Rochester, New York) works with photography to examine the body’s ability to channel personal and social histories, addressing themes of familial 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 used to transform and intensify representations of power and liberation in personal and intimate spaces. Lawson received her MFA from RISD in 2004 and a BFA from Pennsylvania State University in 2001. Her work has been exhibited at the Underground Museum, Los Angeles; the Art Institute of Chicago; MoMa PS1, New York; the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; and this coming March Lawson will be featured in the 2017 Whitney Biennial.
