Brenna Youngblood: May 1-8, 2024
Brenna Youngblood will be working in Hannaher’s, Inc. Print Studio to create prints and a new edition. During her residency, Youngblood will visit university students, community members, and attend the Spring Gala. She will be available in the afternoons for visits and conversations about her creating process.
BRENNA YOUNGBLOOD (b. Riverside, CA; based in Los Angeles, CA) is often classified as an assemblage artist among the ranks of Noah Purifoy, George Herms, John Outterbridge, and Betye Saar, though Youngblood’s practice defies one specific categorization. Her ability to strip the art-historical canon of assemblage of any ambiguity further bolsters her dedicated practice of collecting society’s discarded fragments to spin them into highly charged cultural critique.
Originally trained as a photographer, Brenna Youngblood borrows photomontage and collage techniques to build the surfaces of her paintings, to address the aesthetics and politics of abstraction. Additionally, Youngblood acknowledges the tradition of assemblage in her use of these objects “to make something new out of something old.” Later pieces show her version of abstraction with a slight nod to reality in painterly, gestural work, grounded by architectural and social cues and referred to her as “landscapes.” Her work at times deals with political subjects and social issues as she explores Black American identity and representation, referencing historical moments in Black history.
Youngblood’s works are held in private and public collections, including the Fundación/Colección Jumex, Mexico City, Mexico; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY.
Generous support for this project provided by Art Bridges.
Artist and Curator Discussion
Thursday, May 2, 6:30-8 PM
Brenna Youngblood (b. Riverside, CA) is one of the featured artists in This is Not Black and White. Her sculpture, M.I.A. (2011), is one of the featured works on loan from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Youngblood will be in residency at Plains Art Museum May 1st – 8th working in Hannaher’s, Inc. Print Studio to create a new edition. During her residency, Youngblood will visit with university students, and community members, and attend the 2024 Spring Gala. She will be available in the afternoons for visits and conversations. On Thursday, May 2nd Drs. Danielle Gravon and Kelvin Monroe will host a panel discussion with Brenna Youngblood about her work, creative process/philosophy, mentor(s), and much more. We invite you to join us in what promises to be a scintillating discussion.
