The Green-Wood Cemetery Selects Rowan Renee For Its 2022 Artist-In-Residence Program

The Green-Wood Cemetery has announced that Rowan Renee has been selected as its artist in residence for 2022. Renee's year-long residency will allow them access to the Cemetery's archives and historical collections, providing the opportunity to craft a body of work focused on themes of ritual care, death, ancestry, and the afterlife.

Renee will begin their residency in January 2022 and create work for public view on Green-Wood's grounds later in the year. Their work interrogates the intersection of Queer identities and the law, investigating the impact of intergenerational trauma, gender-based violence, and the criminal justice system.

Renee was born in West Palm Beach, Florida and currently lives and works in Brooklyn. Their work has been featured at Five Myles and Pioneer Works in Brooklyn as well as at Aperture Foundation in Manhattan and the Anchorage Museum of Art in Alaska. In addition to holding a 2020 artist residency at Red Bull House of Art in Detroit, they have received awards from the Aaron Siskind Foundation and Harpo Foundation. Renee holds an MFA from the University of Michigan, and they earned a BFA with honors from the Parsons School of Design at the New School in New York City.

"We are incredibly excited to welcome an artist of Renee's caliber to Green-Wood. Their moving, boundary-breaking work engages some of the most pressing issues of our day: criminal justice, inherited trauma, and life and death itself. I look forward to seeing how they will engage our audiences in these sensitive, but timely, conversations." said Harry Weil, Green-Wood's Director of Public Programs and Special Projects."

Renee added, "The opportunity to work in concert with Green-Wood is a perfect synergy of the themes and skills that have informed my artistic career. My craft is regularly guided by the source material to which I have access. By delving into Green-Wood's rich archival history and working in collaboration with its historical experts, I will be able to create a site-specific work of art that is in dialogue with the landscape, architecture, and history while representing the central themes of restorative justice and healing that fuel my work."

Renee was chosen from nearly 50 applicants, all nominated by curators, writers, and other art professionals based in New York City. They were ultimately selected after analysis by a panel of three outside judges. As part of their residency, Renee will have access to more than 10,000 artifacts in Green-Wood's historical collections, including photographs, art, books, and sculptures. They will also be granted access to archival records dating back to 1838 and will be able to discuss that history with Green-Wood's historian and directors of horticulture, restoration, and programming. The artist-in-residency program comes with a $7,500 honorarium.

To post a comment, you must register and login.