About the Artist
I was born and raised in Nashville Tennessee, within the same square 50 miles as the 4 (recorded) generations before me. From drawing on church programs and collaging old newspaper clippings, I’ve always been led to making my mark on the materials around me. I found the northeast extremely jarring and wholly different from my experience living in Tennessee; the environment made me feel small and insignificant in the face of so many people who had experienced so much and yet knew nothing about the places or people from which I came. This sparked the exploration of collective cultural history in my work as a multi disciplinary artist.
Much of my practice revolves around re-inventing nostalgia for myself, particularly in response to the isolation and uncertainty that came with the pandemic. An example being, my most recent installation, I Loves U the Mostest, by aggrandizing my memories of Black Southern life through a hyper-realistic and niche lense, I am creating a hotshot of home that serves to proverbially sedate any homesickness or longing for the simple pleasures of growing up a little Black kid in the South. I am following in the tradition of Southern folk artists, such as Romare Bearden and Nellie Mae Rowe as well as more contemporary, broadly Black American artists, like Renee Stout and Betye Saar. They all incorporate a realistic fantasy in their work in which they reimagine the African American mundane and seemingly insignificant as bright colorful worlds meant to be appreciated and paid attention to, down to the smallest detail.
In some ways, I feel like the work I produce has been a means of rebelling against American historical precedents and their modern reverberations. However, researching, planning, and physically articulating my vision for my work has shown me an alternative mode of thinking that de-centers the white supremacist hegemony and focuses on the love I have for my people. In her book of essays, Art On My Mind, bell hooks remarks “There can be a sacred place in everyone's life where beauty can be laid bare, where our spirits can be moved and lifted up by the creation and presence of a beautiful object”. My work has represented that sacred place for me.
Ry Watkins
(they/them)
(they/them)