The Substance of Soul w/ citizen artist Vanessa German

Studio Noize: Black Art Podcast

We are grateful and humbled to have the fantastic Vanessa German on Studio Noize! We lucked up to end the year with one of the best contemporary artists in the world. Vanessa tells us about her mother and all the lessons she taught her about art and making space for art practice. She talks about the power of objects and how she turned from making singular Power Figures to a community of figures. Vanessa gives a great perspective on how she relates to her art, how she sees all the different mediums she uses, and her commitment to making art. The last conversation of the year is guaranteed to take you into the new year with some world-class inspiration.

Vanessa German is a visual and performance artist based in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Homewood. Homewood is the community that is the driving force behind German’s powerful performance work, and whose cast-off relics form the language of her copiously embellished sculptures. As a citizen artist, German explores the power of art and love as a transformative force in the dynamic cultural ecosystem of communities and neighborhoods. She is the founder of Love Front Porch and the ARThouse, a community arts initiative for the children of Homewood. Her work is in private and public collections including Everson Museum of Art, Figge Art Museum, Flint Institute of Arts, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, David C. Driskell Center, Snite Museum of Art, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College. German’s fine art work has been exhibited widely, most recently at the Figge Art Museum, The Union for Contemporary Art, The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia, Flint Institute of Arts, Mattress Factory, Everson Museum of Art, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Studio Museum, Ringling Museum of Art and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Her work has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR’sAll Things Considered and in The Huffington Post, O Magazine and Essence Magazine. She is the recipient of the 2015 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant, the 2017 Jacob Lawrence Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the 2018 United States Artist Grant and most recently the 2018 Don Tyson Prize from Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

See more: http://pavelzoubok.com/artist/vanessa-german/ + @vanessalgerman

Episode Transcript

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