Tameka Norris

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T.J. Dedeaux-Norris
Born
Hagåtña, Guam[1]
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUCLA School of the Arts and Architecture (2010)
Yale School of Art (2012)
OccupationArtist
Years active2002–present
Websitemekajean.com

Tameka Norris, also known as T.J. Dedeaux-Norris and Meka Jean,[2] is an American visual and performing artist. Norris uses painting, sculpture, and performance art to create work about racial identity and the simultaneous visibility and invisibility of blackness through cultural appropriation in modern society.[3] Her work critiques the presence of the Black body in the history of painting and fine art.[4]

Early life and education[edit]

Born in Guam, Norris grew up in Gulfport, Mississippi.[5][6] Following high school, in 1995, she moved to Los Angeles, where her biological father resided, initially to pursue a rap career.[5] [7]

She spent time working as a phone sex operator and music video extra before enrolling at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California.[8] Norris was one of few Black students in the art program, where she studied for five years.[8] In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck, impacting Norris's family back in Mississippi and also shaping her artwork.[8] The images that she created during this period were included in the portfolio that she submitted to the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture where she transferred in 2007.[8] [9] While at UCLA, she worked under the guidance of several influential faculty, including: Andrea Fraser, Mary Kelly, Barbara Kruger, Rodney McMillian, Cathy Opie, and Lari Pittman.[9]

Norris went on to receive her Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking and painting from Yale School of Art in 2012.[1] [6]

Work and career[edit]

Norris is a tenure-track Associate Professor at the University of Iowa.[10] She has studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2009)[11] and has participated in many artist residencies, including the MacDowell Colony (2016)[12] and The Fountainhead Residency.[13] Norris was a Fellow at the Grant Wood Art Colony from 2016–2017, and in 2017, she received a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment of the Arts.[14] [6]

Norris was listed as one of "24 Artists to Watch in 2013" by Modern Painters magazine.[1]

Performance art[edit]

In 2013 Norris was a part of a group exhibition and performance titled "Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art"[15][16] This exhibition, held at The Studio Museum in Harlem, was a view of performance art by Black Visual Artists over the past five decades, and featured over a dozen live performances over a six-month period.[17] For this exhibition, Norris performed her 2012 work Untitled (2012). In this work, Norris paints a wall using her body as both the paint and the paintbrush. Norris runs a knife through a lemon, then cuts her tongue and while pressing her body against the wall uses the trail of blood and saliva to create a minimalist landscape on the gallery walls. The resulting effect is to disrupt the notions of a pristine white-cube gallery space, bringing up ideas of the body, violence, and pain.[18][19] This exhibition was documented in Hyperallergic and the New York Times[20][21]

Visual art[edit]

Norris's solo exhibitions include "Family Values" at the Contemporary Art Center in New Orleans in 2013,[22] "Tameka Norris: Too Good For You (Introducing Meka Jean)" at the Lombard Fried Gallery in 2014,[23] "Almost Acquaintances" at the Ronchini Gallery in 2014,[24] and "Not Acquiescing" at the 1708 Gallery in 2015.[25]

In 2012 her work was included in the "MFA Annual" edition of New American Painting magazine, an anthology of MFA graduate work from more than a hundred colleges in the United States.[26]

Her exhibition Between Bloodlines and Floodlines was shown at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta, Georgia in 2015.[27]

Film[edit]

Her feature length-film Meka Jean: How She Got Good, is an internal investigation of identity and culture, starring the artist as herself in a search for identity, home, and what it means to be from New Orleans. This film was debuted during the international exhibition Prospect.3 New Orleans, and was presented as a multi-chambered installation at May Gallery, a nonprofit art space in New Orleans.[28]

In 2011, Norris created a work of video art re-performing Bruce Nauman's 1967-68 work Walking in an Exaggerated Manor Around the Perimeter of a Square.[29][30] This piece was shown in her 2013 "Family Values" exhibition at the Contemporary Art Center in New Orleans.[31]

Music[edit]

In 2016 Norris released a conceptual rap album titled "Ivy League Ratchet" in conjunction with a four-person exhibition at the SVA Chelsea Gallery titled "The Beat Goes On". This album spoke about issues such as being a woman of color and attending an Ivy League school.[32][33]

Personal[edit]

T.J. is alternately known as Meka Jean, a name given to her during childhood.[34]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c [s.n.] (December 28, 2012). 24 Artists to Watch in 2013: Part 2 of 2. Modern Painters. Archived January 2, 2013.
  2. ^ "Tameka Norris on Meka Jean: How She Got Good". Fresh Art International. 2015-03-19. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  3. ^ "T.J. Dedeaux-Norris | Grant Wood Colony". grantwood.uiowa.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  4. ^ "Tameka Norris | Radical Presence NY". Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  5. ^ a b "Tameka Jenean Norris". LANDMARKS. 2016-08-09. Retrieved 2023-12-22.
  6. ^ a b c Benway, Natalie (2020-08-11). "How artist T.J. Dedeaux-Norris turns exploitation on its head". Little Village. Retrieved 2023-12-22.
  7. ^ "A Conversation with Tameka Norris a.k.a Meka Jean". Temporary Art Review. 2015-05-26. Retrieved 2023-12-23.
  8. ^ a b c d Guigayoma, John. "A fresh and candid voice". UCLA The Daily Bruin. Retrieved February 24, 2008.
  9. ^ a b Editorial, Artsy (2014-01-22). ""Listen to Nothing, but Listen to Everything": A Conversation with Tameka Norris". Artsy. Retrieved 2023-12-23.
  10. ^ "T.J. Dedeaux-Norris, M.F.A. | African American Studies - The University of Iowa". africanamericanstudies.uiowa.edu. Retrieved 2023-12-23.
  11. ^ "Alumni & Faculty Database". Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  12. ^ "MacDowell, winter 2016". Issuu. 30 March 2017. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  13. ^ "Tameka Norris". The Fountainhead. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  14. ^ "T.J. Dedeaux-Norris | Grant Wood Colony". grantwood.uiowa.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  15. ^ "Tameka Norris | Radical Presence NY". Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  16. ^ "PRESS RELEASERadical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art". Grey Gallery. 2016-05-18. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  17. ^ "PRESS RELEASERadical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art". Grey Gallery. 2016-05-18. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  18. ^ "Tameka Norris | Radical Presence NY". Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  19. ^ Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (2015-08-05), Tameka Norris: Untitled | Radical Presence | YBCA, retrieved 2019-03-24
  20. ^ "Animating the Archive: Black Performance Art's Radical Presence". Hyperallergic. 2013-10-10. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  21. ^ Johnson, Ken (2013-09-19). "Riffs on Race, Role and Identity". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  22. ^ Bomb, Pelican (27 August 2013). "Review: Tameka Norris at the Contemporary Arts Center". Pelican Bomb. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  23. ^ "Lombard Freid Gallery: Tameka Norris: Too Good For You (Introducing Meka Jean) | Jane Lombard Gallery | Artsy". www.artsy.net. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  24. ^ "Tameka Norris - Almost Acquaintances, Ronchini Gallery". Ronchini. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  25. ^ "Tameka Norris: Not Acquiescing | 1708 Gallery | A Nonprofit Space for New Art | Richmond, VA". www.1708gallery.org. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  26. ^ Ruiz, Alma. "New American Paintings MFA Annual (#99) Sneak Peek". New American Paintings. Retrieved April 18, 2012.
  27. ^ Tameka Norris exhibition: 'Between Bloodlines and Floodlines'. Savannah College of Art and Design. Accessed October 23, 2017.
  28. ^ "Tameka Norris on Meka Jean: How She Got Good". Fresh Art International. 2015-03-19. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  29. ^ "On Becoming". Art21 Magazine. October 2013. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  30. ^ Walking in an Exaggerated Manner, study (Norris 2010-11)(Nauman 1967-68), retrieved 2020-02-25
  31. ^ Bomb, Pelican (27 August 2013). "Review: Tameka Norris at the Contemporary Arts Center". Pelican Bomb. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  32. ^ Gotthardt, Alexxa (2016-08-22). "In a New Show in Chelsea, Four Artists Blur the Lines between Art and Music". Artsy. Retrieved 2019-03-24.
  33. ^ "Meka Jean: Schooling Us All with Ivy League Ratchet By Rebecca Goyette". Retrieved 2019-03-24.
  34. ^ freshart (2015-03-19). "Tameka Norris on Channeling Personal History". Fresh Art International. Retrieved 2023-12-23.
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