Dindga McCannon
Artist Statement
"I have worn many, many, hats, as that of a painter, printmaker, wearable art maker, muralist, writer, illustrator and fiber artist/quilter. Currently I consider myself a multimedia Mixed Media Artist. I use fabrics, paper and other media in the same way traditional artists use paint to embellish a surface. I tend to work in series which brings order to my various styles. I use paint, fabric, photographs, recycled anything, beads, yarns, transparencies, metals, fabric collages and many of the “New Age Materials” to create my work. My favorite themes deal with people of the African diaspora, especially the histories of known and little known African American Women, images of Harlem and landscapes."
Biography
McCannon was born in New York City (1947). She currently lives and works in Philadelphia and New York City.
Dindga McCannon grew up in Harlem and began her career studying under Harlem Renaissance artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Charles Alston, Richard Mayhew, and Al Loving at the Art Students League of New York and the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. She went on to become a pillar of the influential African-American art collective Weusi, and later a co-founder (with Faith Ringgold) of Where We At, a groundbreaking collective affiliated with the Black Arts Movement.
Combining painting, printmaking, sewing, and non-traditional materials – personal objects, photographs, and other ephemera – made McCannon an early influencer of found-object quilting. Her works focus on the stories of women — iconic public figures, unknown heroines, family, and friends who shape her vibrant universe.
McCannon’s work is in the public collections of the National Gallery of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Phillips Collection, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and Michigan State University. Her work has featured in major museum exhibitions, including Inheritance at The Whitney; Afro-Atlantic Histories at the National Gallery of Art; We Wanted A Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-1985 organized by the Brooklyn Museum; and Black Power at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.
Three Girls on the Lower East Side, 1975
Linoleum cut on dyed pink paper, 18" x 17.5"