Carrie Mae Weems
Carrie Mae Weems (b. 1953) is a widely influential American artist whose work gives voice to people whose stories have been silenced or ignored. Investigating history, identity, and power, she finds connections between personal experience and the larger structures and institutions that shape our lives. Throughout her career, Weems has made several bodies of work that highlight serious issues facing African Americans today including racism,
sexism, politics and personal identity. Her most prominent monograph, The Kitchen Table Series (1989-1990), is known to set a precedent and create a space for other black female artists to create art. Other photographic projects of hers includes Family Pictures and Stories (1983), Ain’t Jokin’ (1988), American Icons (1989), Louisiana Project (2003), Roaming (2006), Museums (2006), Constructing History (2008), African Jewels (2009), Mandingo (2010), Slow Fade to Black (2010), Equivalents (2012), Blue Notes (2014–2015), and Grace Notes: Reflections for Now (2016).
Weems has been the recipient of many prestigious awards and fellowships, the most notable of which include the Rome Prize Fellowship (2006); Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award (2013); BET Visual Arts Award (2014); ICP Spotlights Award from the International Center of Photography (2015); W. E. B. Du Bois Medal from Harvard University (2015); Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society, Bristol (2019); Induction into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum (2020); National Medal of Arts (2022); and the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography (2023). In 2014, she became the first Black woman to have a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.