The Blog

Artist Spotlight: Tameka Norris

October 5, 2016

Tameka Jenean Norris, with herself and her communities as a subject, uses painting, video, photography, music, performance, installation, project-based art, context art, confession, the internet, and institutional critique to explore the internal drives and external influences that shape identity. Her practice critiques the invisibility of blackness in cultural forms built upon the appropriation of popular and sacred black expressions and idioms. Norris (b. 1979) received her undergraduate degree from UCLA and then received her MFA from Yale University School of Art in 2012. Her Purple Painting (2011), a single-channel video with sound, is featured in the Arthur Ross Gallery’s current exhibition, Darkwater Revival: After Terry Adkins. In a discussion about Terry she explained his influence in her artistic practice: “I have always admired and strive to switch between mediums as swiftly and gracefully as Terry did in his work.  Adkins was always willing to change things up and even improvise in live performance and object installation spaces. Our collaborations together constantly pushed me out of my comfort zone and kept me on my toes.”