The Space welcomes artist Lehna Huie as an artist fellow.

Presentation_

Lehna Huie

Lehna Huie is a multi-disciplinary artist, educator and cultural worker of Jamaican heritage b. NYC 1988, whose practice is in painting, installation and video. Her work celebrates Black identity and personal family histories concentrating on narratives of the soul, migration, non-linear time and remembrance. Varying in scale, medium and surface, she draws together clusters of accumulated art pieces, personal and found objects by using non-traditional approaches to representational portraiture. Comprising woven fabric, video projections, textile scraps and everyday objects, these mixed media compositions integrate cultural symbols, treasured stories, and family photographs.

I Have Never Felt Sorrow Without Reason

This project is a digital and handheld zine - guide that is a collection of visual stories on life as a Black woman artist, mother and student finding her voice in the time of COVID. It is centered on narratives of family, motherhood, intergenerational trauma and healing from grief. It features portraits in my collage portrait based series I Have Never Felt Sorrow Without Reason accompanied by collaborative soundscapes and poetry featuring Professor Unique Robinson. The collages explore psychological relationships between interior and exterior spaces in the home, the mind, the body and in larger geographies finding grounding in the midst of the loss and disorientation of these times. The series reflects on the experiences I have felt while recovering aspects of my cultural identity. It addresses the act of rejecting limiting definitions of Blackness in art, addressing displacement, distortion and power in these stories.

The project includes a resource segment for Black and Brown students navigating art school and art institutions. It will share some of the tools that have helped me to thrive at MICA and beyond - including key points shared by myself and Professor Abigail DeVille highlighting notes from our Independent Study on Black Contemporary Art at MICA. The guide names tips on working with a mentor, research strategies, professional development, documentation and best studio practices.