Tameka Norris | |
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Born | Agana, Guam |
Residence | USA |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | UCLA School of Art and Architecture, Yale School of Art |
Occupation | Artist |
Years active | 2002–present |
Website | www |
Tameka Jenean Norris also known as Meka Jean and mynameisnotshorty is a visual and performing artist born in Agana, Guam. She grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Los Angeles, CA
Through work in performance, video, photography, and installation, her practice critiques the invisibility of blackness in cultural forms built upon the appropriation of black cultural expression and idioms. By inserting herself– a mixed-race woman of color into the dialogue about traditional art practices and works of art, it all but force a critique about the presence of the body in the history of art.
Currently, Norris is a Grant Wood Visiting Assistant Professor at University of Iowa in the Painting and Drawing Department. In 2016 Norris attended Macdowell Artist Residency and is a 2017 recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Grant, with her partnership at Coleman Center for the Arts in York, Alabama.
Norris was listed as one of "24 Artists to Watch in 2013" by Modern Painters Magazine and included in New American Painting Magazine's MFA Annual in 2012. In 2010 she participated in a two-person show for Prospect New Orleans 1.5 and in 2011 in Prospect 2, both curated by Dan Cameron. Norris will premiere her new film, "Meka Jean: How She Got Good," this year at Prospect.3 New Orleans, curated by Franklin Sirmans. Norris attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She graduated from UCLA School of Art and Architecture in 2010 majoring in Art and minoring in African American Studies. In 2012 Norris completed her MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale School of Art.
In 2012, Norris spent three weeks at the Hermitage Artist Retreat in Sarasota, FL. She is represented by Lombard Freid Gallery, New York, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco and Ronchini Gallery, London.
Solo Exhibition
Selected Group Exhibitions