DIEDRICK BRACKENS: DARLING DIVINED

Diedrick Brackens (b. 1989, Mexia, TX) constructs intricately woven textiles that speak to the complexities of black and queer identity in the United States. Interlacing diverse traditions, including West African weaving, European tapestries, and quilting from the American south, Brackens creates cosmographic abstractions and figurative narratives that lyrically merge lived experience, commemoration, and allegory. He uses both commercial dyes and unconventional colorants such as wine, tea, and bleach, and foregrounds the loaded symbolism of materials like cotton, with its links to the transatlantic slave trade.

This exhibition is curated by Margot Norton, Curator, and Francesca Altamura, Curatorial Assistant.

Diedrick Brackens (b. 1989, Mexia, TX) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Recent solo exhibitions include “hearts, hands, and other members,” Conduit Gallery, Dallas (2015); “a slow reckoning,” Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University (2017); and “unholy ghosts,” Various Small Fires, Los Angeles (2019). Group exhibitions include Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; McColl Center for Art+Innovation, Charlotte; Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco; Dimensions Variable, Miami; Denny Gallery, New York; Biola University, La Mirada; Patterson-Appleton Arts Center, Denton; Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery; Marin Community Foundation, Novato; Work Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; SOMArts, San Francisco; and the 3rd Ghetto Biennale, Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Brackens was in residence at Long Beach Museum of Art in 2017, and at the Joan Michell Center in 2016.