Meet the Artist: Stephanie J. Woods

May 2023—Stephanie J. Woods is a multimedia artist from Charlotte, North Carolina, currently based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. An Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Art at the University of New Mexico and 2021 winner of the 1858 Prize of Contemporary Southern Art, Woods’ artistic practice fuses a relationship between photography, textiles, video, and sculpture. 

In her first solo museum exhibition Stephanie J. Woods: my papa used to play checkers at Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design, Woods presents new multidisciplinary works with themes focusing on transatlantic cultural continuity and memories. Titled after her eponymous photograph (2022), Woods presents a body of her recent work created after her life-changing artist residency at Black Rock Senegal in Dakar, Senegal in 2021. 

During her sojourn, Woods witnessed firsthand how much of African culture and tradition has survived, continuing to thrive in Black American communities. The same game of draughts (known as checkers in American English) Senegalese play was for her a familiar childhood pastime; the colorful, patterned textiles sold by street vendors were also mesmerizing and relatable.

Inspired by such indelible traces of transatlantic cultural continuity and memories of play and creativity, Woods has created several multimedia works reflecting those themes. Woods’ visual creations are accompanied by poems written by frequent collaborator and poet, Laura Neal, in response to her work. Original scores composed by Johannes Barfield, another regular collaborator, further enrich this exhibition, in which all of the elements are conceived as part of a single, immersive installation.

Woods’ works are brooding and meditative yet simultaneously joyful reflections on the complicated history and ongoing lived experiences of Black Americans, highlighting resiliency and ingenuity. 

“Stephanie J. Woods: my papa used to play checkers” is on view at Sarasota Art Museum May 28 – September 17, 2023.