Carrie Mae Weems was born in Portland, Oregon in 1953.
Considered one of the most influential contemporary American artists, Weems has investigated family relationships, cultural identity, sexism, class, political systems, and the consequences of power. Determined as ever to enter the picture - both literally and metaphorically - Weems has sustained an ongoing dialogue within contemporary discourse for over thirty years. During this time, Weems has developed a complex body of art employing photographs, text, fabric, audio, digital images, installation, and video. In a New York Times review of her retrospective, Holland Cotter wrote, “Ms. Weems is what she has always been, a superb image maker and a moral force, focused and irrepressible."
Weems has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions at major national and international museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Frist Center for Visual Art, Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo in Seville, Spain. She is represented in public and private collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Museum of Modern Art, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and The Tate Modern, London.
Weems has received numerous awards, grants, and fellowships, including the prestigious Prix de Roma, The National Endowment of the Arts, The Alpert, The Anonymous was a Woman, and The Tiffany Awards. In 2012, Weems was presented with one of the first US Department of State’s Medals of Arts in recognition for her commitment to the State Department’s Art in Embassies program. In 2013 Weems received the MacArthur “Genius” grant as well as the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She has also received the BET Honors Visual Artist award, the Lucie Award for Fine Art photography, was one of four artists honored at the Guggenheim’s 2014 International Gala, a recipient of the ICP Spotlights Award from the International Center of Photography, The WEB Dubois Award from Harvard University, as well as Honorary Degrees from: California College of the Arts, Colgate University, Bowdoin College, the School of Visual Arts and Syracuse University.
Weems lives in Syracuse, New York.
Selected solo exhibitions
2017
- ...And the people. Maruani Mercier, Knokke, Augustus 8 – September 9
2016
- Carrie Mae Weems: I once knew a girl..., Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, September 20, 2016 – January 7, 2017.
- Carrie Mae Weems, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, October 29 – December 10, 2016
- Mirror, Mirror, Sharon Arts Center, Peterborough, New Hampshire, May 11 – July 3, 2016.
- Carrie Mae Weems: Considered, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, February 16 – June 12, 2016.
- Grace Notes: Reflections for Now, directed by Carrie Mae Weems, curated by Sarah Lewis, Spoleto Festival USA, College of Charleston, Sottile Theatre, Charleston, South Carolina, June 2016.
2014
- Carrie Mae Weems: The Museum Series, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, January 30–June 29, 2014.
- Carrie Mae Weems, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, March 19 – April 19, 2014
- Carrie Mae Weems: Color: Real and Imagined, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London, October 10 – November 15, 2014
Public Collections
- 21c Museum, Louisville, KY
- Akron Art Museum,OH
- Albright Knox Museum, Buffalo, NY
- The Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art for Rollins College, Winter Park, FL
- The Art Institute of Chicago, IL
- Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC
- The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
- Birmingham Museum of Art
- Alabama Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
- Bronx Museum, NY
- Brooklyn Museum, NY
- Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, CA
- Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo, Sevilla, Spain
- Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk
- Virginia Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
- Currier Museum of Art, Manchester
- NH Exit Art, New York City, NY
- The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA
- Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland
- George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
- The Harn Museum, Gainsville, FL
- Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, West Virginia
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art - LACMA, Los Angeles, CA
- Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
- Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL
- MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA
- MOCA Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA
- MCA Chicago, IL
- The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL
- The Museum of Modern Art, New York, N
- National Academy Museum, New York, NY
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
- National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
- The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
- Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA
- The RISD Museum, Providence, RI
- The Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
- Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
- Seattle Art Museum, Washington
- Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE
- Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
- Spellman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
- Spencer Art Museum, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
- Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, NY
- Tate Modern, London, England
- Whitney Museum, New York, NY
- Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA
- The University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
- Virginia Museum of Art, Richmond, VA
