I returned to the place four generations of my ancestors called home, Cincinnati, Ohio, in January 2020. I was awarded my MFA from the University of California Berkeley in May 2018. My artistic practice emerges in parallel with a focused awareness of the historical and sociological context in which I work. As many of my identities lie mostly inside of the dominant culture, I use my insider status to uncover the cultural markers of whiteness that continue to make themselves known and evade me at the same time. I use the stories of my sprawling, white Midwestern family as research from where to speak and generate the concepts that compose my work.
I work in various media, including photography, performance, entrepreneurship, and installation, to inspire healing on personal and community levels. I appropriate mundane objects and subvert their use to invite reexamining relationships to the everyday violence of oppression. My work references and critiques the past while creating avenues for my audience to collectively envision a new future for their lives and that of their communities. I have shown work at The Oakland Museum of California, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Cittadelarte in Biella Italy, and in the streets of my neighborhood.
Maggie Lawson 