Nae Howard is a Black American interdisciplinary artist and Brooklyn native. At the moment she is currently bi-coastal working on her MFA at CalARTS. She strives to make engaging imagery that are instances of the American Black experience.
As an interdisciplinary artist, her practice examines constructs of societies views of beauty and politics in regards to the surface tensions of America within media. Her work explores the revitalization and ownership of black culture by black people. She studies colors established by pop-cultural icons in new media, reflexive ideologies in photographic portraiture, and visual disparities as a result of systemic racism, classism and gender binaries. Employing a strong background in printmaking and graphic design, her work critiques the politics of skin. Understanding the power of images, I create paintings, collages, music and animated Gif.s that evoke notions of conscious and unconscious concepts conceived through racist views that allow alternative narratives of blackness. Nae’s work illustrates all factors of the “cool” and societies consumer behavior of blackness. Currently my “Consume Us” series questions the importance of imagery in a social context and the notions of significant images such as “pop icons” in mass culture.
