Deana Lawson

Deana Lawson (born 1979) is an American artist, educator, and photographer based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work is primarily concerned with intimacy, family, spirituality, sexuality, and Black aesthetics.

Lawson has been praised for her ability to communicate the nuances of African American experience: "Lawson's oeuvre explores intimacy, affinity, sexuality and relationships. She has work held in the International Center of Photography collections. Her photographs have been exhibited in a number of museums and galleries including the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

A solo exhibition of her work, The Hugo Boss Prize 2020: Deana Lawson, Centropy is on view May 7-October 11, 2021 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Early life and education Lawson was born in 1979 in Rochester, New York. She grew up in a large family and her father, Cornelius, was considered the family's photographer. Deanna has an identical twin sister, Dana, that she has often cited as an inspiration.

She received her B.F.A. in 2001 in photography from Pennsylvania State University, and her M.F.A. in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 2004. Regarding her second year at Penn State, Lawson said, "I reached an early crossroads—either I was going to continue with a business degree or I was going to jump off that moving train and become an artist. I jumped and never looked back."

In 2008, Lawson worked at the International Center of Photography in an administrative position which allowed her to take free classes at the Center. There, she developed her technical abilities for her photography practice.

Teaching Lawson was an assistant professor of Photography at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey beginning in 2012. In 2021, she was named the inaugural Dorothy Krauklis '78 Professor of Visual Arts in Princeton University's Lewis Center for the Arts. She has also taught at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), International Center of Photography, California College of the Arts (CCA), and Rhode Island School of Design. While referring to her subjects as "family", her models are more often than not strangers she meets randomly in public spaces.

In 2011, The New Yorker Jessie Wender described Lawson's portraits as "intimate and unexpected". In Wender's interview with Lawson, the photographer discussed her inspirations, including "vintage nudes, Sun Ra, Nostrand Ave., sexy mothers, juke joints, cousins, leather bound family albums, gnarled wigs, Dana Lawson [her sister], the color purple, The Grizzly Man, M.J., oval portraits, Arthur Jafa, thrift shops, Breakfast at Tiffany's, acrylic nails, weaves on pavement, Aaron Gilbert [her former husband], the A train, Tell My Horse, typewriters, Notorious B.I.G., fried fish, and lace curtains". She has expressed the hope that through travel, her work can reflect the ways in which black culture is not confined by physical boundaries. Steven Nelson, Dean of the Center for Advanced Study in the Arts at the National Gallery of Art, observes that although the photographs document the aftermath rather than the massacre itself, her journalistic photographs for Time nonetheless "dovetail with images that have depicted violence against black people." The photograph is set in Lawson's bedroom and depicts young love, with an emphasis on the female figure—"the female gaze, and her space, and her love", in Lawson's words. (2016) was featured in the 2017 Whitney Biennial. The movie Queen & Slim (2019) was inspired by Lawson's photography, in capturing an intimate portrayal of black experience and the stylized home interiors. In 2019, Lawson photographed Melina Matsoukas, the director of the film. Lawson was included in the 2019 traveling exhibition Young, Gifted, and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art. Lawson's first full-scale museum survey was organized in 2021 by the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston and traveled to MoMA PS1. The show included assemblages created by the artist with crystals in addition to photographs.

Personal life Lawson has two children with her former husband, artist Aaron Gilbert.

Publications Deana Lawson. Edited by Peter Eleey & Eva Respini. London: Mack, 2021. . Includes essays by Eva Respini and Peter Eleey, Kimberly Juanita Brown, Tina Campt, Alexander Nemerov, Greg Tate, and a conversation between Lawson and Deborah Willis. Accompanies an exhibition at ICA/Boston, 2021/22; MoMA PS1, 2022; and High Museum of Art, 2022/23.

Awards

2008–2009: Aaron Siskind Foundation, Individual Photographer's Fellowship grant 2013: Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for her work in photography 2022: Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2022, the Photographers' Gallery, London

Exhibitions Solo exhibitions 2014 Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, Deana Lawson: Mother Tongue 2017 Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, Deana Lawson 2018 Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, New Work 2018 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Forum 80: Deana Lawson 2018–2019 The Underground Museum, Los Angeles, Deana Lawson: Planes 2020 Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland, Deana Lawson: Centropy 2021 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Hugo Boss Prize 2020: Deana Lawson, Centropy 2017 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, United States, The 2017 Whitney Biennial 2018 Gordon Parks Foundation, New York, American Family: Derrick Adams and Deana Lawson 2018 Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, Rhode Island, The Phantom of Liberty