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Noel W Anderson

Born 1981
Louisville, KY

Noel W Anderson explores the relationship between the formation of Black identity as socially constructed through images from American media.

Noel W Anderson
nS, 2021
Bleach, dye, laser-cut basketball leather, photographic object, flower, resin on distressed, stretched cotton tapestry
54 x 47.25 in

Noel W Anderson, now you see me now now you don't, 2023, Dyed and distressed, stretched cotton tapestry in two parts, 24 x 20 in

Noel W Anderson
Through the Looking Glass I, 2021
Dye and metal leaf on distressed, stretched cotton tapestry
20 x 16 inches

Noel W Anderson, Installation View, JDJ the Ice House, Garrison, NY, 2021

Noel W Anderson, Installation View, JDJ the Ice House, Garrison, NY, 2021

His works are often made of cotton, either in the form of woven tapestries, handmade paper objects, or experimental prints.

Noel W Anderson, Untitled, 2018-2019, Distressed Jacquard tapestry, 108 x 156 inches, Collection of the Telfair Museum, Savannah, GA

Noel W Anderson, Black mo'nin', 2023, Distressed and stretched cotton tapestry, sage, rose petals, 16 x 12 in

Anderson heavily manipulates appropriated photographs by digitally and physically altering them in the resulting artworks.

Noel W Anderson
King's Hi-5 (Hands-Up), 2018-2019
Handmade paper object
24 × 18 inches

The works’ slide from clarity into abstraction conceptually mirrors what happens with the subjects from the source images themselves, as stereotypes and archetypes overtake the individuality of the person being photographed.

Noel W Anderson, Die Leitung, 2016-2017, Distressed, stretched Jacquard tapestry, 108 x 156 inches.

Noel W Anderson, I can't seem to get moving, 2023, Picked and distressed stretched cotton tapestry with photo objects and laser-cut basketball leather, 100 x 74 in

Noel W Anderson, I can't seem to get moving (detail), 2023, Picked and distressed stretched cotton tapestry with photo objects and laser-cut basketball leather, 100 x 74 in

Noel W Anderson, Blak Origin Moment, Installation view, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH, 2017

Noel W Anderson,
He's Mean!,
2009-present,
altered Ebony magazine page,
13in x 10in

Installation View,
Promise, Witness, Remembrance
Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, 2021

Anderson’s photographic source materials—from political activists like Martin Luther King, Jr., to a group of prisoners lined up against a prison fence, to sports heroes like basketball player Spud Webb—collectively prompt the viewer to consider their own relationship to the distorted depiction of Black masculinity in American culture.

Noel W Anderson
20 Between Chucks, 2020
Picked, stretched Jacquard tapestry
24 × 18 inches (60.96 × 45.72 cm)

Noel W Anderson
20 Between Chucks, 2020 (detail)

Noel W Anderson
In-flame-d, 2020
Bleach on distressed, stretched Jacquard tapestry 16 × 12 inches (40.64 × 30.48 cm)

Noel W Anderson
In-flame-d, 2020 (detail)

Papers of the Archive, Installation view, JDJ, Garrison, 2020

Noel W Anderson, Help the bear find its way home (detail), 2011-2023, Mixed media on distressed cotton tapestry, 76 x 50 in

 
 

A Guide to: Noel Anderson, Tapestries

 
Noel W Anderson was born in Louisville, KY and lives and works in New York. He has an MFA from Yale University in Sculpture and MFA from Indiana University in Printmaking, and is currently Area Head of Printmaking in New York University’s Steinhardt Department of Art and Art Professions.
Anderson has been awarded the NYFA artist fellowship grant (Interdisciplinary, 2018), the prestigious Jerome Camargo Prize, and the paper making residency at Dieu Donné. Anderson’s most recent institutional solo show, Erasure’s Edge, was on view at KMAC Contemporary Art Museum from November 2022 to January 2023. He also exhibited in the 12th Berlin Biennale. His work is included in the permanent collections of the International Center of Photography, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Hunter Museum of American Art. Anderson’s upcoming solo show with JDJ opens this September concurrent with his solo show at the BMCC Shirley Fiterman Art Center.

Noel W Anderson


Noel W. Anderson CV

Noel W. Anderson press

Education

2010

M.F.A., Sculpture, Yale University, New Haven, CT

2007

M.F.A., Printmaking, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

2003

M.F.A., Painting and Printmaking, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH

Solo Exhibitions

2023

It Belongs in a Museum, JDJ | Tribeca, New York, NY

Black Exhaustion, Shirley Fiterman Art Center at BMCC, New York, NY

Black Exhaustion, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg

Make Me Come Out Myself Part II, Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery, Dubai

2022

Erasure’s Edge, KMAC Museum, Louisville, KY

Electric Boogie, Help Us Find the Funk, Sotheby’s, Paris

Make Me Come Out Myself, Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery, Luxembourg

2021

Heavy is the Crown, Telfair Museum, Savannah, GA

Reflec/x/tion of a Black Cat Bone, JDJ | The Ice House, Garrison, NY

UTA Artists Space, Los Angeles

Paper Variables Artist Project, Dieu Donné, Brooklyn, NY

Untitled, Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery, Luxembourg

2020

Papers of the Archive, JDJ | The Ice House, Garrison, NY

2019

Blak Origin Moment, Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN

2017

Blak Orgin Moment, Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, OH

Get Lifted, Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery, Luxembourg

Studies for Blak Origin Moment, Miller Gallery, Cincinnati, OH

2015

Postblackdanceathon, Know More Games, Brooklyn, NY

2014

Ch. 93: eat cold eel, think distant thoughts, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN

2013

Ch. 26: He’s a Majik Men, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY

2012

Finding the Rainbow’s Threads, Gallery Zidoun, Luxembourg

Fear of the Black Member, Semantics Gallery, Cincinnati, OH

2011

sour pis lacks repo, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY

2010

You’re Never too Old for Kool-Aid: reverb (performance), Green Gallery, Yale University, New Haven, CT

2009

Blue Velvet (performance), Norfolk School of Art, Norfolk, CT
How to Scare a Lion (performance), Yale University Edgewood Gallery, New Haven,
CT
Mantanence (performance), Yale University Edgewood Building, New Haven, CT

2007

Blak Mournin ’Majik, Fort Grunt, Durham, NC
Kum-sumjutashun, Fuller Project Space, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Blak Mournin ’Majik, SOFA Gallery, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

2005

Conversation Piece, SOFA Gallery, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Turn that Cakewalkin ’Music Off, Fuller Project Space, Indiana University, Bloomington,
IN

Selected Group Exhibitions

2022

Still Present!, 12th Berlin Bienniale, Berlin

2021

Family Business, JDJ | Tribeca, New York, NY

2020

Snapshots, UTA Artists Space, Beverly Hills, CA

Beacon, Weston Art Gallery, Cincinnati, OH

2019

Slavery in the Hands of Harvard, Knafel Concourse, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Paper: Pull, Push Press, Dieu Donné, New York, NY

Present Bodies, BRIC, Brooklyn, NY

Opacity and Radiance, Ben Hunter, London

Transmission, Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery, Luxembourg

2016

Cut, Fold, Recreate, Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, OH

The Art of Now, Hearst Corporation, New York, NY

2015

Repetition (repetition), Meesen De Clercq, Brussels

2014

Speaking of People: Ebony, Jet and Contemporary Art, The Studio Museum Harlem (New York, NY)

2013

Cincinnati Portfolio IV, Clay Street Press Gallery, Cincinnati, OH

2012

Voices of Home, Karen Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA and New York,
NY

2011

Harlem Postcards, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY

Lamp Show, Know More Games Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2010

Else, Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, NY

Ik Mis Mama, Bosch Young Talent Show(BYTS), Kunst Acamedie Den Bosch, Holland

Cusp Performance, part of William Pope L. exhibition, landscape + object + animal, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, NY

2009

Blood Drive, Zach Feuer Gallery, New York, NY

2008

Interrogation Room (performance), Yale School of Art First Year Show, Green Gallery,
Yale University, New Haven, CT
Repressed III, Gallery 5, Richmond, VA

2007

Timelapse, SOFA Gallery, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Pre-Demolition Exhibition, Ladyman’s Building, Bloomington, IN
Prainting and Prinstallation, Green Door Gallery, Kansas City, MO
Voice and Vision: Celebrating Unique Voices of Bloomington, Showers Building, Bloomington, IN
Juried Printmaking Area Show, SOFA Gallery, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

2006

Hip-Hop Congress, McCalla School of Sculpture, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Potenti Impressioni: Stampe d’Arte italiane e americane, Fondazione Bevilaequa La Masa, Venice, Italy
Gossip, Lies, Half-truths, Penrose Gallery, Elkins Park, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia,
PA
I Have a Dream Juried Exhibition, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL
Juried Printmaking Area Show, SOFA Gallery, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

2005

Power in Print, Southern Graphics Council Exhibition, Washington, D.C. and Venice,
Italy

2004

Poetic Fusion (performance), Martin Luther King Arts Center, Columbus, OH

2003

Senior Thesis Show, Ohio Wesleyan University Ross Museum, Delaware, OH
College of Wooster 5 College Juried Exhibition, Wooster Art Museum, Wooster, OH

2002

The Ohio State University Juried Exhibition, Pearl Conrad Gallery Mansfield, OH
Spring Juried Exhibition, Beeghley Library, Ohio Wesleyan University Delaware, OH
Kalb Figure Show, Werner Gallery, Ohio Wesleyan University Delaware, OH

Press

2021

Eckley, Curtis. "Noel W. Anderson | 'Reflec/x/tion of a Black Cat Bone' at JDJ Gallery, Flaunt Magazine, June 24, 2021.

Rooney, Alison. "Strings Attached", The Highlands Current, June 13, 2021.

Harlan, Brianna. Confronting Erasure: “Promise, Witness, Remembrance” At The Speed Art Museum. Art News, June 1, 2021.

Anderson, Noel W. "Beyond This Point Promise is DEMANDED!" Burnaway, May 11, 2021.

Cotter, Holland. "Breonna Taylor Show Puts Art Museums on a Faster Track" New York Times, Critic's Notebook, April 11, 2021.

Wolf, Stephanie. "'Filled With Her Spirit,' A Louisville Art Exhibition Honors Breonna Taylor" NPR, April 11, 2021.

Shane, Robert R. "Noel W. Anderson with Robert R. Shane" Brooklyn Rail, In Conversation, June, 2021.

2020

Armstrong, Annie. "Portrait Of A Year On Fire: JDJ Gallery's NADA Heats Up." Garage, December 4, 2020.

Boucher, Brian. “Searching for the Magic: Noel W. Anderson’s Ragged Tapestries Reveal a
Physical Quest.” Medium, January 18, 2020.

2019

Anderson, Noel W, LeRonn P. Brooks, PhD, and Steven Matijicio. Blak Origin Moment.
Cincinnati, Oh. and Chattanooga, Tn.: Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati and
Hunter Museum of American Art, 2019. (exhibition catalogue)

Cascone, Sarah. “Editors’ Picks: 15 Things Not to Miss in New York’s Art World This
Week.” artnet News, December 2, 2019.

Long, Monique, and Noel W Anderson. “Tuning the Rabbit Ears.” Ubikwist, no. No. 8
(2019): 212–19.

Fuller, Daniel. “Critics’ Pick: Noel W. Anderson at Hunter Museum of American Art.”
Artforum, December 20, 2019.

Lockner, Logan. “Glitch Tapestries: Noel W. Anderson at the Hunter Museum.” Burnaway,
December 20, 2019.

Moeller, Robert. “Harvard’s Complicit History with Slavery.” Hyperallergic, February 26, 2019.

Whyte, Murray. “A History of Slavery, Vividly Alive in the Present at Harvard.” The Boston
Globe, March 13, 2019.

2017

Seda-Reeder, Maria. “Two New Contemporary Arts Center Exhibitions Confront Politically
Charged Topics.” CityBeat Cincinnati, February 22, 2017.

2014

Frank, Priscilla. “Artists Explore The Many Influences Of Ebony And Jet Magazines.”
Culture & Arts. HuffPost, December 15, 2014.

Haynes, Lauren, Siobhan Carter-David, Romi Crawford, Elizabeth Alexander, and Hank
Willis Thomas. Speaking of People: Ebony, Jet and Contemporary Art. New York: The
Studio Museum in Harlem, 2014. (exhibition catalogue)

Heller, Steven. "African American Media." Print. F + W, 1 Dec. 2014.

Mahany, Alexander. “The Power of the Press: Artists Celebrate Ebony and Jet at The Studio Museum in Harlem.” ART News, November 11, 2014.

Valentine, Victoria. “Culture Talk: Lauren Haynes on ‘Speaking of People: Ebony, Jet and
Contemporary Art.’” Culture Talk, November 21, 2014.

2013

“100 Best Fall Shows.” Modern Painters, September 2013.

“Reviews in Brief: Noel Anderson.” Modern Painters, September 2013.

2010

Cotter, Holland. “‘Else.’” The New York Times, September 24, 2010, sec. Arts.

2006

Malewski, Nick. “Prainting and Prinstallation.” Review Magazine. June

AUTHORED PUBLICATIONS
Anderson, Noel W. “Schien Schein Negro Sun: Black Radical Radiance.” Effects Journal, no. 2
(2019): 28–37.

Anderson, Noel W, and Andrew Weiner. “Confederacies, Tensilities, Fugitivities: Those
Eyes.” October, A Questionnaire on Monuments, no. 165 (Summer 2018): 7–11.

Anderson, Noel W. “Echoes from the Hole: Doubling Darkness Is Most Dark.” E-Flux
Journal, no. #99 (April 2019).

“Im/Possible Resistance: Eternally Rotating Revaluation of Values.” Still They
Persist, 2017.

“Off The Wall: The Stories Behind The Art.” Herald Times, April 15, 2007.

Awards & Residencies

2020
Hermitage Artist Residency, Hermitage Artist Retreat (Sarasota County, FL)

2019
Paper Variable Artist, Dieu Donné (New York, NY)
Tamarind Press Visiting Artist Edition, Tamarind Press (Albuquerque, NM)
Jerome Camargo Residency (Cassis, France)

2018
Dieu Donné Workspace Artist in Residence, Dieu Donné (New York, NY)
New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship for Interdisciplinary (New York, NY)
American Academy of Arts and Letters Award (nominee) (New York, NY)

2017
Jerome Travel Grant (New York, NY)
Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award Nominee (New York, NY)
Dieu Donné Benefit Auction Artist 2017 auction artist for the benefit celebrating the
41st anniversary of Dieu Donné (New York, NY)

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL LECTURES

2020
Artist Talk, Telfair Museums (Savannah, GA)
Beacon Panel Discussion, Weston Art Gallery (Cincinnati, OH)
Visiting Artist, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University (Philadelphia,
PA)

2019
“Coffee & Conversation: Present Bodies," in conversation with Tricia Wright, and
Oasa Duverney, BRIC (Brooklyn, NY)
“Noel W. Anderson Dialogue With Art Professor Althea Murphy-Price,” Hunter
Museum of American Art (Chattanooga, TN)
“Blak Origin Moment: Conversation with Noel W Anderson and Monique Long,”
Radical Library, Eaton House (Washington, D.C.)
“Exhibition Walkthrough with Conversation,” in conjunction with the exhibition
Modernisms: Iranian, Turkish, and Indian Highlights from NYU's Abby Weed Grey Collection,
Grey Art Gallery (New York, NY)
“Slipping into the Performative Darkness,” College Art Association 2019 Conference,
(New York, NY)

2018
“The Lady’s Knife,” The Hothouse Archives School of Visual Art (New York, NY)
“Conversation Three Point Stance: Embodying the Politics and Pleasures of Football
and Basketball,” Grey Art Gallery (New York, NY)
“Gallery Conversation, in conjunction with the exhibition NeoRealismo: The New Image in
Italy, 1932–1960, Grey Art Gallery (New York, NY)
Visiting Artist Lecture, University of Vermont (Burlington, VT)

2017
University of Tennessee Visiting Artist, University of Tennessee (Knoxville, TN)
Gallery Conversation, in conjunction with the exhibition Partners in Design: Alfred H.
Barr Jr. and Philip Johnson, Grey Art Gallery (New York, NY)
Gallery Conversation, in conjunction with the exhibition Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run
Galleries in New York City, 1952–1965, Grey Art Gallery (New York, NY)
“Resistant Objects,” Southern Graphics Council International 2017 Conference
(Atlanta, GA)
Sculpture Guest Lecture: Road Island and the Re-memory of Slavery Road Island
School of Design (Providence, RI)
Michigan Fine Arts Competition Lecture Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center
(Birmingham, MI)
Artist Lecture for the Opening of Blak Origin Moment, Contemporary Arts Center
(Cincinnati, OH)
Artist Lecture for the Studies of Blak Origin Moment, Miller Gallery (Cincinnati, OH)

2016
Black Portraiture (s): Reinventions: Strains of Histories and Cultures (Johannesburg,
South Africa)
Gallery Conversation: Art for Every Home, in conjunction with the exhibition Art for
Every Home: Associated American Artists, 1934–2000, Grey Art Gallery (New York, NY)
“Testing the Test: Radical Pedagogy of William Pope L.,” Mid-American College Art
Association conference, University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH)
Visiting Artist Lecture Fishers Island, Fishers Island Artist Residency (Fishers Island,
NY)
Suspended Animation: A Panel Discussion & Screening (Panel Moderator), School of
Visual Art (New York, NY)
Visiting Artist Lecture, Cranbrook Academy of Art (Bloomfield Hills, MI)

2015
Atomizing Black Subjectivities in Print-media, The Global Center for Advanced
Studies (Berlin)
Trans-Atlantic Discourses in Contemporary Print-media, Ecole nationale superieure
des arts decoratifs (Paris)
This is not a lecture! (performance), University of Kentucky (Lexington, KY)
“Printing Beyond the Blackness Principle: The Necessity of Multiple Subjectivities
within Black Masculine Discourse” (Panel Chair) (Knoxville, TN)

2012
“Art Department Visiting Artist – Noel Anderson,” School of Education, University
of Wisconsin (Madison, WI)

2011
Visiting Lecturer Art Department, Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN)

Public Collections

Hunter Museum of American Art
International Center of Photography
The Studio Museum in Harlem