Jennifer Mack-Watkins: Children of the Sun
18 March - 13 June 2021
Brattleboro Museum & Art Center
Downtown Brattleboro, Vermont
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PRESS RELEASE
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS INTERACTIVE, VIRTUAL WALK-THROUGH
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS DROPBOX FOLDER OF HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGES
See included checklist for captions. Please use website contact form to request additional studio / process shots.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW CHECKLIST OF WORKS ON VIEW
Examining complex histories of positive cultural representation of African Americans, New York-based printmaker Jennifer Mack-Watkins (b. 1979, South Carolina; MFA Pratt 2009), will mount her first solo museum show, comprising a new body of work inspired by the W.E.B. Du Bois-edited Brownie’s Book: A Monthly Magazine for Children of the Sun. The 1920-1921 periodical was the pioneering effort to bring positive, contemporary content to Black kids at the time, who were inundated with media and toys that depicted their culture as less-than.
The 12 works on view are also informed by the artist’s struggle -- first as a Black child in the South, and now as a parent -- to find toys that offer positive Black representation. After hearing a story about how an African American schoolgirl in 1891 Vermont was instructed for a pageant to recite a white-written poem while holding a caricatured Black doll (and rebelled onstage at the last minute with her own extemporaneous poem), Mack-Watkins chose to use doll imagery as a narrative framework to explore the exhibition’s themes.
More information is in the above-linked press release, and a preview of works on view, as well as a selection of studio shots, is below. See the Dropbox folder linked above to download high-resolution image files. Image reuse must be with credit to the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, unless otherwise noted in the file title.
