Carrie Mae Weems

Carrie Mae Weems holds a BFA from the California Institute of the Arts (1981) and an MFA from the University of California at San Diego (1984), and she studied folklore at the University of California at Berkeley from 1984–1987. In her well-studied and celebrated career, Weems has investigated family relationships, cultural identity, sexism, class, political systems, and the consequences of power. Over the past 30 years, she has developed a complex body of art employing photographs, text, textile, audio, digital images, installation, and video.

Weems has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions and retrospectives at major national and international museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Frist Center for the

Visual Arts, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo in Seville, Spain. She is represented in public and private collections around the world. Weems has been represented by Jack Shainman Gallery since 2008.

Weems has received numerous awards, grants, and fellowships. Awards include the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal for African and African American Studies (2015); Lifetime Achievement Award in the Fine Arts, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (2013); MacArthur Fellowship (2013); Anonymous Was a Woman Award (2007); Skowhegan Medal for Photography (2007); Joseph H. Hazen Rome Prize Fellowship, American Academy in Rome (2006); the Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grant in Photography (2002); the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award (1992); among numerous others. Weems holds honorary degrees from Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY (2017); School of Visual Arts, New York, NY (2016); Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME (2012); Smith College, Northampton, MA (2011); Colgate University, Hamilton, NY (2007); and California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA (2001).