SHEILA PREE BRIGHT
Lens-Based Artist
As a Photographic Artist, I am interested in the life of those individuals and communities that are often unseen in the world. My objective is to capture images that allow us to experience those who are unheard as they contemplate or voice their reaction to ideas and issues that are shaping their world. In this process, what I shoot creates contemporary stories about social, political and historical context not often seen in the visual communication of traditional media and fine art platforms. My work captures and presents aspects of our culture, and sometimes counterculture, that challenges the typical narratives of Western thought and power structures.
EDUCATION
MFA, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA
BS, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
AUTHOR
#1960Now: Photographs of Civil Rights Activists and Black Lives Matter Protests, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA
SOLO EXHIBITION
2024
Plastic Bodies, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA
2023
The Rebirth of Us, Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
2021
A Beautiful Struggle, Moss Arts Center, Blacksburg, VA
2020- 2021
#1960Now, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA
2018
Radical Lens, Clark Atlanta University Art Museum, Atlanta, GA
#1960Now, Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona State College, Daytona Beach, FL
2017
#1960Now: Heroes, Victories and Triumphs, The Gallatin Galleries, New York, NY
#1960Now, The Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta, GA
2016
#1960Now: Art + Intersections short film, Afrikana Independent Film Festival, Richmond, VA
#1960Now, Click Triangle Photography Festival, Durham, NC
#1960Now, Look3, The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, Charlottesville, VA
#1960Now, Georgia Southwestern State University, Americus, GA
2015
#1960Now, Museum of Contemporary Art, Atlanta, GA
#1960Now, Mason Fine Art Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2014
Young Americans, Burden of Proof: National Identity and the Legacy of War, Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
2011
Young Americans, Sumter County Gallery of Art, Sumter, SC
Girls, Grillz and Dolls: Country Club Projects, Cincinnati, OH
Young Americans, Time Inc, New York, NY
Girls, Grillz and Dolls: Gambling State University, Dunbar Hall Gallery, Gambling, LA
2010
Girls, Grillz and Guns: Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Girls, Grillz and Dolls: Power House Memphis, Memphis, TN
Young Americans, University of California, Irvine, CA
Young Americans, Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, NC
Girls and Dolls: Salem College, Winston-Salem, NC
Young Americans, The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
Young Americans, The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Suburbia, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Cleveland, OH
Suburbia, Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, GA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITION
2024
Posing Beauty in African American Culture traveling show, Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH
2023
America in Crisis, Saatchi Gallery, American Museum & Gardens, Laverton Manor, Bath
Black American Portraits, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
2022
Reckonings and Reconstructions: Southern Photography from the Do Good Fund, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
America In Crisis, Saatchi Gallery, London
Unmasking Masculinity for the 21st Century, Kalamazoo Insitute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI
A Picture Gallery of the Soul, Katherine E. Nash Gallery University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati, OH
2021
Picturing the South: 25 Years, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
Devour the Land: War and Photography since 1970, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience, Washington, DC
The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse, Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, VA
Underexposed: Women Photographers from the Collection, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
SouthBound, Lake City Creative Alliance, Lake City, South Carolina,
Shadow to Substance, Harn Museum of Art, University of Flordia, Gainesville, FL
Framing Moments: Photography from the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, IL
2020
She Is Here, Retrospective Group Show, Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA
Activism Through Photographs: Sheila Pree Bright, Steve Schapiro display Works Side by Side, Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
We Will Walk, Turner Contemporary, London
International Center of Photography, Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop, New York, NY
Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Posing Beauty in African American Culture, Fort Wayne, IN
Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South, The Max, Meridian, MS
2019
The Annenberg Space for Photography, Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop, Los Angeles, CA
F213, Arc Gallery Studios, San Francisco, CA
2018
Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South, The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, Charleston, SC
No Fire That No Water Could Put Out | #1960Now, High Museum of Art, Atlanta GA
2017
More Than a Picture, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, DC
Perpetual Revolution: The Image and Social Change, ICP, International Center of Photography Museum New York, NY
2016
Encounters: Picturing the Campaign for POTUS, NYU Tisch, NY
STUMP, (#1960Now), Candela Books + Gallery, Richmond, VA
Eastern Illinois University Tarble Arts Center, A Dark Matter, Charleston IL
Framing Beauty, Grunwald Gallery of Art, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
#1960Now, The Afrikana Independent Film Festival, Richmond, VA
A Dark Matter, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL
Black Girl Movement Conference, Picturing Black Girlhood, New York, NY
2014
Posing Beauty in African American Culture traveling exhibition:
Evansville Museum, Evansville, IN
Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, VA
2012
20th Anniversary Celebration of the Nerman Museum's Oppenheimer Collection, Overland, KS
Posing Beauty in African American Culture, Spelman College Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
2010
Posing Beauty in African American Culture traveling show, The Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
SELECTED LECTURES
2023
CECA Visiting Artist Speaker Series, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN
2021
British Columbia Social Studies Teachers Association Conference 2021, UnMasked: #1960Now Sheila Pree Bright and The Black
Lives Matter Movement, British Columbia, Canada
2019
What Do Pictures Want: The Photographs of Sheila Pree Bright | Keynote Speaker, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, CA
#UNAPOLOGETIC, Public Memory in the New South Symposium | Keynote Speaker, The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art,
Charleston, SC
2018
AIPAD, #1960Now: In conversation with Alesia Garza (Co-founder of #BlackLivesMatter global network) New York, NY
Art, Atlanta & Activism, Emory University, Atlanta, GA | Keynote Speaker
Lets March On: Lee Friedlander, Boston University, Boston MA
SPE 55th Annual Conference | Society for Photographic Education, #1960Now Love Movement, Philadelphia, PA
Imagemaker Award Presenter
Forward the Past: Art, Identity, and the American South, Mississippi Museum of Art and Tougaloo College Jackson, MI
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Freedom Celebration, #1960Now: Social Justice Movements, Past and Present
Saint Louis Art Museum Sanit Louis, MO | Keynote Speaker
No Fire No Water Could Put Out, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
2017
Imperial Origins of Radicalized Lives: From Enslavement to Black Lives Matter, Brown University, Providence, RI | Presenter
#1960Now AIPAD 2O17, The Photography Show, New York, NY
In Conversation with Sheila Pree Bright, ICP, International Center of Photography Museum, New York, NY
#1960Now, Heroes, Victories, & Triumphs, NYU Gallatin Gallatin Gallery, New York, NY
#1960Now, The Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta, GA
2016
#1960Now, Project Row Houses, Houston, TX
#1960Now, Democratization of the Image, panel discussion Sheila Pree Bright, Ed Kashi, Danny Wilcox Frazier and Fred Ritchie, ICP, International Center of Photography, New York, NY
#1960Now, The Creative Time Summit 2016, Under Siege Washington, DC | Presenter
#1960Now, Click Triangle Photography Festival, Durham, NC
#1960Now, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
American Civil Rights Then and Now, FotoFocus Biennial, Cincinnati, OH
#1960Now, LOOK3, Charlottesville, VA
Black Lives Matter Teach-In, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY | Keynote Speaker
Aperture at the New School: Photography and the Politics of Representation, NY
Race Racism, Xenophobia In A Global Context A Campus ‘Teach-In,’ NYU, Florence
(JUST) #SAYHERNAME; Race and Gender in Social Practice, NYU Tish, New York, NY
Bridging The Gap: #1960Now, AUC Woodruff Library, Atlanta, GA
16th Annual UT Martin Civil Rights Conference Unfinished Business, Martin, TN
COMMISSIONS/AWARDS/FELLOWSHIPS/RESIDENCES
2022 The Aftermath Project, Finalist, The Land of Blood and Dirt, Los Angeles, CA
2021 Emergence Magazine, Commission, Behold the Land, Inverness, CA
2021 Moss Arts Center, Commission, Blacksburg, VA
2020 Picturing The South, Commission, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
2020 Boston University, Commission, Boston, MD
2020 HBO Commission, New York, NY
2019 Hammonds House Honoree, Artistic Excellence Award, Atlanta, GA
2019 PNC Bank & WCLK Honor Atlanta's African American Artistic Community, Atlanta, GA
2018 SPE Imagemaker Award, Cleveland, OH
2016 Creative Time, Commission, New York, NY
2016 Campaign for Black Male Achievement Organization, Instagram campaign New York, NY
2016 GM Chevrolet Malibu Commercial, Discover the Unexpected
2015 Proclamation, Atlanta City Council, Atlanta, GA
2015 FluxNightDream2015, Commission, Atlanta, GA
2014 Museum of Contemporary Art; Working Artist Grant, Atlanta, GA
2014 Artist Residency, Reginald F Lewis Museum, Baltimore, MD
2013 Recipient of Elevate 2013 A Public Art Experience Grant, Atlanta, GA
2012 Recipient of Idea Capital Grant - Project 1960 Atlanta, GA
2012 Delta Sigma Theta Celebration of Women Torch Award, Atlanta, GA
2010 Save The Art Awards, Greensboro, NC
2009 The Loridans Arts Encouragement Award, Atlanta, GA
2008 Artist-in-Residency: The Mozley Park Project, Atlanta, GA
2008 Aetna Foundation Grant: Artscool, Young Americans Project: Mayor Youth Atlanta, GA
PUBLIC ART
2022 New Georgia Project commission; Black Belt Mural Project, Brunswick, GA
2020 Re-Birth, Beyond Walls, Lynn, MA
2019 Mothers March On Mural, Off The Wall Project, Atlanta, GA
2015 #1960Now, FluxNightDreams2015, Atlanta, GA
2014 For Whom It Stands, Reginald F. Lewis Museum | City Springs Elementary School, Baltimore, MD
2013 1960 Who, Public Art series, ELEVATE Atlanta, Atlanta, GA
2013 Young Americans, David T. Howard School, Atlanta GA
2012 Young Americans, Art Basel, Coconut Grove Neighborhood, Miami, FL
DOCUMENTARY FILMS
2018 Beyond Black and White, John Lewis and Danny Lyons, High Museum of Art, Atlanta
2016 Election Day: Lens Across America
2014 Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographer and the Emergence of a People
NOMINATIONS
2017 ICP Infinity Awards, New York, NY
2017 Ted Prize, $1 million
2017 Magnum Foundation Fund, New York, NY
2017 Anonymous Was A Woman
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY/BOOKS/CATALOGUES
2022
Free As they want to Be: Artists Committed to Memory, FotoFocus Biennial: World Record, Cincinnati, OH
Reckonings and Reconstructions, Southern Photography from the Do Good Fund, University of Georgia Press, Athen, GA
Lesly Deschler Canossi and Zoraida Lopez-Diago, Black Matrilineage, Photography and Representation: Another Way of Knowing, Leuven University Press, Belgium
Vikki Tobak, Ice Cold: A Hip-Hop Jewelry History, Taschen, Germany
Behold The Land, Emergence Magazine, Inverness, CA
2021
Charlotte Jansen, Photography Now: Fifty Pioneers Defining Photography for the Twenty-First Century, Octopus Publishing Group LTD, London
Emma Lewis, Photography: A Feminist History, Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, United Kingdom
Makeda Best, Devour the Land: War and American Landscape Photography since 1970, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA
Valerie Cassel Oliver, The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse, Virginia Museum of Fine Art,
Richmond, VA
2020
Kate Bubacz, An Intimate Look At The Activists Involved In The Black Lives Matter Movement, buzzfeednews.com
2019
Carved In Stone: Invisible Empire, The Washington Post Magazine, DC
Sheila Pree Bright's Human Rights History Lesson, PDN Online, New York, NY
2018
Vikki Tobar, Contact High: A Visual History of Hip Hop Culture, Clarkson Potter Publishers, New York, NY
Fayemi Shakur, From The Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter, New York Times, New York, NY
Maurice Berger, Capturing the Struggle for Racial Equality, Past and Present, New York Times, New York, NY
Decades of The Fight for Equality Ignite A New Generation of Civil Rights Activists, The Daily Beast, New York, NY
Honoring Those Who Give Their Lives to Fight the Power, in Photos, FeatureShoot.com
2017
MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora, Eye & I Inc, New York, NY
PETRIe Magazine, PETRIe Inventory LTD, Hammersmith, London
Katy Donoghue, #1960Now Sheila Pree Bright Asks, What Has Changed? whitewall. art Magazine, New York, NY
Holland Cotter, ‘Perpetual Revolution’ Shows Artists Shaping Their Times' The New York Times, New York, NY
Rachel Leah, ‘ Photographer Sheila Pree Bright demonstrates how little has changed in Exhibit #1960Now,’ salon.com, New York, NY
2016
Naima J. Keith, Vision and Justice online, Sheila Pree Bright in Conversation with Naima J. Keith, Aperture, New York, NY
Kanitra Fletcher, 'No Body's Perfect Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art, Special Issue: Black Portraiture [s] The Black Body in the West
Number 38-39, November, Duke University Press, Durham, NC
Transition: The Magazine of Africa and the Diaspora, Vol. 121, Harvard University
For Whom It Stands: The Flag and the American People, Reginald F Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, Baltimore, MD
2015
Sheila Pree Bright, #1960Now, The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta, GA
2012
Oppenheimer Collection, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS
2010
Wolf, Sylvia, ‘The Digital Eye: Photographic Art in the Electronic Age,’ Prestel USA
2009
Willis, Deborah, Posing Beauty African-American Images from the 1890s to the Present,’ W.W. Norton, New York, NY
2008
‘Young Americans, Photographs by Sheila Pree Bright,’ The Amistad Center for Art & Culture Inc at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
‘Sheila Pree Bright’s Young American,’ Art in America vol.10, November, p 198
2004
Willis, Deborah, ‘Black, A Celebration of a Culture,’ Hylas Publish, New York, NY
2001
Willis, Deborah, ‘Reflections in Black, A History of Black Photographer 1841 to the Present,’ W.W. Norton, New York, NY
‘Preaching Souls,’Nueva Luz Photographic Journal, Volume 6, No 2, New York, NY
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History, Washington, DC
Library of Congress, Washington DC
Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA
High Museum of Art, Atlanta GA
Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, IL
David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA
Do Good Fund, Columbus, GA
Oppenheimer Collection: Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland, KS
Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI
de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA
Foto Focus Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
Spelman Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
University of Georgia, Athen, GA
The Amistad Center for Art & Culture at The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford CT
Oppenheimer Collection: Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland, KS
Museum of Contemporary Art, Atlanta, GA
Clark Atlanta University Galleries, Atlanta, GA
BET Collection, New York, NY
Sprint PCS Art Collection, Sprint Corporation, Overland, KS
Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, NC
The Paul Jones Collection, Birmingham, AL
Pyramid Peak Foundation, Memphis, TN
Atlanta, Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs, Atlanta GA
National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta, GA
Telfair Museum, Savannah, GA