Hannah Black


Hannah Black is a visual artist and writer. Her work spans video, text and performance and draws on Communism, feminist, and Afro-pessimist theory, autobiographical fragments and pop music.

Early life

Black was born in 1981 in Manchester, England. She is currently based in New York City, though she has previously been based in Berlin and London.

Career

In 2013, Black received a Masters of Fine Arts in art writing from Goldsmiths College, University of London. From 2013 to 2014, she lived in New York City where she was a studio participant in the Whitney Independent Study Program. According to Hatty Nestor in Art in America, "Hannah Black's practice deals primarily with issues of global capitalism, feminist theory, the body and sociopolitical spaces of control." She is represented by the London gallery . During her time in New York, Black was a contributing editor to the New York-based magazine, The New Inquiry. Two years later, her first collection of writing titled Dark Pool Party was published. The book consists of seven texts "that blur the lines of fiction, nonfiction, cultural criticism, critique, and poetry."
In March 2017, Black posted an open letter on her Facebook page to the curators of the Whitney Biennial in response to the painting Open Casket by American artist Dana Schutz. Black's letter advocated the removal of the painting with the additional "urgent recommendation" that it be destroyed. Black's letter became the focus of an ensuing debate around race, representation and notions of free speech that "split the art world". The controversy received international attention in both mainstream and art media.

Partial exhibition history

Hannah Black has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions around the world including shows at Centre D’Art Contemporain in Geneva, Performance Space New York, Real Fine Arts, Bodega and the New Museum Theaterin New York, Chisenhale Gallery and David Roberts Art Foundation, in London, mumok in Vienna, Arcadia Missa in Paris, Celaya Brothers Gallery in Mexico City, Sala Luis Miro Quesada Garland in Lima, Peru, Yarat Contemporary Art Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan, Chateau Shatto in Los Angeles and Transmission and David Dale Gallery in Glasgow. Black has had performances, screenings of her art and participated in talks at museums like MoMA PS1, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Swiss Institute Contemporary Art, New York and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London