Carrie Mae Weems
National Medal of Arts recipient Carrie Mae Weems with President and First Lady Biden. Photo courtesy of White House
Bio
Carrie Mae Weems, a conceptual artist, unpacks and confronts constructions of race and femininity in the pursuit of new models to live by. Grounded in her lived experience as a Black woman but universal in its explorations of family relationships, cultural identity, power structures, and social hierarchy, her artistic practice is primarily photographic but also incorporates text, fabric, audio, installation, and video. Informed by narrative storytelling, folkloric traditions, and the observational methodologies of the social sciences, her approach to image-making ranges from staged and serialized narrative to appropriation and adaptation of archival and ethnographic imagery. Weems takes aim at the complicity of the photographic medium in propagating dehumanizing tropes and the historical omission of Black women from fine art institutions and canons. Weems lives in Syracuse, New York, with her husband Jeffrey Hoone. She is currently the artist-in-residence at Syracuse University.
White House citation:
For capturing the resilience and dignity of Black America and our deeper humanity. Over three decades at the forefront of American expression, Carrie Mae Weems has honed her craft as a renowned artist whose photography, film, video, and art confront hard truths about power and prejudice, while celebrating the indomitable human spirit.