Artist Statement
My creative process involves using research that pertains to museum studies, cartography, colonialism and lived experiences to dissect, interrupt and reconstruct narratives of power. I am fascinated by the black female body as a site for projections and notions of the exotic. I am interested in how this body is contextualized depending on who is looking at it and how it is contextualized by social factors of the geographies in which it travels. Interrupting historical photo documentations of the black female body as colonial expressions of power fuel my investigations and inspire the usage of my body within my work. I am interested in how the body is policed, charted and constructed historically and presently. I utilize private endurance performance and drawing on top of colonial era photography of West African women and I create figurative abstract drawings that are inspired by historical fiction.
Currently I am working on a project about a contested geography called Kentifrica. The project collapses my interests in social sculpture, museum studies, anthropology, and the problematics of ethnography into one. I created the project as an opportunity to embrace the idea of what I do not know about my ancestral origins instead of being defined by a story of trauma and loss. I began to invite people to give their own interpretations of Kentifrican culture through panel discussions and collaborations to re-create artifacts and food. Through these invitations Kentifrica has morphed into a physical and theoretical place in which a living archive is developing.
2015-16
US Fulbright Fellowship to Lagos, Nigeria.
2012
MFA Art & Critical Studies/Creative Writing, California Institute of the Arts.
2009
BFA Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art.
2008-2009
AICAD New York Studio Program, Brooklyn, NY.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2015
Who Among Us…The Art of Kenyatta A. C. Hinkle, Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA.
Looking Where it Ain’t, University of New Hampshire Museum of Art, Durham, NH.
Navigating The Historical Present: Kentifrican Interventions, Clark Humanities Museum, Claremont, CA.
Kenyatta A. C. Hinkle, Volta Art Fair Solo Project, New York
2014
Say it isn’t so…., Jenkins Johnson Gallery, New York, NY .
2012
Kentifrica Is or Kentifrica Ain’t?, The Bindery Projects, St. Paul, Minnesota.
The Knee Grow in the New World, Gallery D301, California Institute of the Arts.
2010
The Nowannago and Other Kentifrican Narratives, L-Shape Gallery, California Institute
of the Arts.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2015
Role Play, Sun Valley Center for The Arts, Sun Valley, ID.
Performing Blackness: Performing Whiteness, Allgeheny College, PA.
Biomythography: Secret Poetry & Hidden Angers, Curated by Jessica Wimbley & Chris Cal Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, CA.
2014
Biomythography: Secret Poetry & Hidden Angers, Curated by Jessica Wimbley & Chris Christian, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA.
2013
Seven Sister, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
Connection Reflection curated by Nikki Pressely, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
2012
Fore, Studio Museum in Harlem, Harlem, NY.
Balia con Dunde, Watts Tower Art Center, Los Angeles, CA.
Authenticity?, Untitled Art Projects, Los Angeles, CA.
Made in LA 2012 Biennial, LAXART, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery Los Angeles, CA.
Venice Beach Biennial, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA.
2011
Intimacies: MFA 2011 GradShow, Farley Building, Los Angeles, CA.
MFA Mid-Residency Group Show, CalArts, Valencia, CA.
2009
Colorblind/Colorsight, Katzen Art Center Gallery- American University.
Our Common Bond: Mother Daughter Sister Self, Galerie Mrytis, Baltimore, MD.
Six in the Mix: Selections by Renee Stout, Hillyer Art Space, Washington .D.C.
2008
Fun Home, New York Studio Program Exhibition, DUMBO, NY.
Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye, Gateway Gallery MICA, Baltimore, MD.
Performances
2014
Call & Response A Symposium of Black Women in Performance, Curated and organized by Gabrielle Civil, Antioch College, Yellow Springs, OH.
2012
The Uninvited: Uncharting the Charted, Studio Museum in Harlem, NY.
Kentifrica Is: An Ethnomusicology Concert, Made in LA 2012 Biennial, LAXART &.
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA.
Venice Beach Biennial, LAXART & Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA.
Perform Chinatown 4th Annual Performance Festival, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Baila Con Dunde, Watts Tower Art Center, Los Angeles CA.
Awards, Fellowships & Grants
2015-16
US Fulbright Student Award to Lagos, Nigeria.
2014
Center for Cultural Innovation Investing in Artists Grant, Social Practice in Art Grant from SPArt LA.
2013
ARC Grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation.
2012
Artadia Fund for Dialogue & Art- Finalist.
2011
Interdisciplinary Grant, California Institute of the Arts.
2009
Jacob K. Javits Graduate Full Fellowship.
Bibliography/ Selected Press
2015
Artforum, Kenyatta A. C. Hinkle 500 Words by Monica Westin, online November 19.
artltd, The Gender Gap: Are Female Artists Still Under Valued? George Melrod, May/June Issue.
2014
ArtBound Southern California Cultural Journalism KCET Haunted Geographies: The Living Work of Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, Nikki Darling, Posted online March 12.
Artvoices Magazine 25 Artist to Collect & Watch, Terrance Sanders, Fall Issue.
2013
Black Artists: 30 Contemporary Art Makers Under 40 You Should Know Huffington Post Arts & Culture, Posted online: February 26, 8:18 am EST.
2012
New York Times, Art & Design, Racial Redefinition in Progress ‘Fore’ at Studio Museum in Harlem by Holland Cotter, November 29.
New York Times online, The Week Ahead Nov. 4-10, November 2.
ArtForum, Made in L.A. 2012 Hammer Museum, LAXART, Los Angeles Municipal Art.
Gallery by Michael Ned Holte, October issue.
LA Weekly, Art+Books LA Weekly, Hammer Museum’s Made in L.A’: Three Artists’ Journey to L.A.’s New Biennial by Catherine Wagley, May 31.
Los Angeles Times blog, Hammer Announces $100,000 prize for new biennial; 60 artists chosen by Jori Finkel, March 14.
The Washington Post, Group Show at Hillyer by Jessica Dawson, Aug. 1.