vanessa german

vanessa german (stylized in all lowercase) (born 1976) is an American sculptor, painter, writer, activist, performer, and poet based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Her sculpture often includes assembled statues of female figures with their faces or heads painted black, and a wide range of attached objects, including fabric, keys, found objects, and toy weapons. german is an activist, addressing problems like gun violence and prostitution.

Her work is held in numerous permanent collections, including the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; and has been reviewed by Sculpture O, The Oprah Magazine, and on NPR's All Things Considered. Her art has been featured in a wide range of galleries, museums and traveling exhibits, including the 2012 "African American Art 1950–present" touring exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution. She was a 2015 recipient of the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Grant. She was the winner of the 2018 Don Tyson Prize, a biannual $200,000 award from the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

Early life vanessa german was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and raised in the Mid-City area of Los Angeles and Loveland, Ohio by her mother, Sandra Keat German (1949–2014), a fiber artist, She is the third of five children. She moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2000 and began to perform and exhibit her work locally.

Artistic career A self-taught artist, much of german's artwork is collage and sculpted assemblages. She creates them by decorating and painting large dolls and figures, then sculpting outward by adding a wide range of materials including objects like cowrie shells, plastic guns, feathers, bottle caps, seashells, toys, and vintage products.

Her materials lists for artworks are often poems in themselves. They may include both the physical (e.g. cloth, paint, keys) and non-tangible materials (e.g. "the names of all the dead boys that I know," "tears"). In her artist statement for 2016's dontsaythatshitoutloud, she describes the impact of finding two men murdered outside her house within a four-month period.

Her work includes the symbolic use of color throughout. Describing beads from one work, she said "If they're red, they're holding rage and love simultaneously. If they're white – they're holding ghosts – the presence of your ancestors ...and they're also holding forgiveness and peace."

In 2023, german was one of six artists commissioned to create a temporary installation for the National Mall in conjunction with Beyond Granite: Pulling Together, the first curated art exhibition in the Mall's history. Commissioned by the Trust for the National Mall, National Capital Planning Commission, and National Park Service, german created an assemblage sculpture of African-American singer Marian Anderson for the plaza of the Lincoln Memorial. german's sculpture Of Thee We Sing (2023) memorialized Anderson's performance in the plaza from 1939, hosted after Anderson was denied permission to perform in the segregated DAR Constitution Hall several months prior.

german, like the author bell hooks, stylizes her name in all lowercase. In 2023, she told The Bergen Record that this decision was "a way I level myself without hierarchy." In 2012, Love Front Porch received a $4,000 grant from the Sankofa Fund of Southwest Pennsylvania, which highlights empowering grass-roots African-American community projects.

german also ran the Tuesday Night Monologue Project at ARThouse, a weekly event where guest artists and members of the community could write and share works with each other.

Homewood was described as "The Most Dangerous Neighborhood in America" by MSNBC journalist, Rachel Maddow. german has said about Homewood, "...that doesn't happen every day. It doesn't happen every week. Most people aren't shooting each other. Most people are not running drugs. It's a very small percentage of the population who are engaging in really extreme activities."

Collections german's work is held in the following permanent collections: Art Museum of West Virginia University Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, AR.

Notable exhibitions 2012: African American Art 1950–present, Smithsonian Institution and David C. Driskell Center, College Park, MD 2014: Pittsburgh Biennial. Pittsburgh, PA. 2015: "Re: Purposed". The Ringling Museum. Sarasota, FL. 2016: "Africa Forecast: Fashioning Contemporary Life". Spelman College Museum of Fine Art. Atlanta, GA. 2016: "i am armed. i am an army." Pavel Zoubok Gallery. New York, NY. 2016: "i come to do violence to the lie". Solo Exhibit. Matrix new work series. The Amistad Center for Art & Culture, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Hartford, CT. 2016: "Introspective". August Wilson Center for African American Culture. Pittsburgh, PA. 2017: "de.structive dis.tallation" Everson Museum of Art. Syracuse, NY. 2017: State of The Art: Discovering American Art Now, touring exhibit developed by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Arkansas. 2017: "sometimes. we. cannot. be. with. our. bodies." Mattress Factory. Pittsburgh, PA. 2019: "Vanessa German: Miracles And Glory Abound" Flint Institute of Arts. Flint, MI. 2021: "Reckoning: Grief and Light." The Frick Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, PA. 2022–2023: vanessa german—THE RAREST BLACK WOMAN ON THE PLANET EARTH, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, MA.

Documentary "Tar Baby Jane". Filmmaker Gregory Scott Williams, Jr., 2010.

Selected reviews "Vanessa German." Sculpture magazine. July/ August 2012.

"Exhibition Review: Unloaded." afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism. May 22, 2015.

"i take my soul with me everywhere i go". The Georgia Review, September 13, 2016.

Notable appearances "The City is Ours Today" (poem). Inauguration of Pittsburgh mayor, Bill Peduto. January 2014. Performance poem. Fashion Africana (2004), Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh Music Hall.

Awards 27th Annual Heinz Award for the Arts, 2022 Jacob Lawrence Award, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2017. Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Grant, 2015. Emerging Artist of the Year, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 2012.