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Exhibition
Tameka Norris, "How to Write a Cursive X", 2014 acrylic and oil on fabric, 60" x 100". Image courtesy of the artist and Jane Lombard Gallery, New York.

Tameka Norris exhibition: 'Between Bloodlines and Floodlines'

SCAD presents "Between Bloodlines and Floodlines,” an exhibition by artist Tameka Norris. Norris’s multidisciplinary practice explores issues of race, poverty and social politics, drawing on her own experiences and relationships as an underlying narrative. Through painting, performance, music and film, Norris explores her identity as an artist with roots in the deep American South.

The exhibition features a body of work that explores the artist’s response and experience of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in New Orleans. Experiencing displacement firsthand and observing the impact Katrina had on her community and family deeply affected Norris. These experiences led to “Dun Floated Away,” a painting of her grandmother’s house that was destroyed, and which is a precursor to her “Post-Katrina” series. In this series Norris appropriates textiles (such as bed sheets and tablecloths) from her childhood home, stitching them together as foundations for her paintings or turning them into soft sculptures. The large-scale paintings on exhibition foreground Norris’s aggressive mark-making style, in which she recreates the landscape and familiar areas of her former home. Working from memory and photographs, the works become journal entries of sorts, marked by firsthand accounts and autobiographical narratives.

In her work, as in life, Norris is constantly looking to reinvent herself and break new ground, stating, “just as the city of New Orleans and places on the Gulf Coast struggle with progress and change, so do I as a person.” “Between Bloodlines and Floodlines” tracks Norris’ engagement with personal histories interwoven with a sense of place, translated into a contemplative collection of painting, photography, sculpture and site-specific wall drawings.

This exhibition is curated by Aaron Levi Garvey, SCAD assistant curator of exhibitions.

Reception: Thursday, Sept. 24, 6-7 p.m.

Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.