Anderson’s work blends his interest in mediated images, woven tapestries, and sound to explore images’ material and political histories as they inform identity constructions and racialized labor and performance. Recognizing the relationship between enslaved labor and American cotton, Anderson’s works are woven out of the natural fiber to materialize and conceptualize the historical power colonialism and empire play as a foundational element in the representation of black identity.

BIOGRAPHY

Noel W. Anderson (b. 1981, Louisville, Kentucky) is originally from Louisville, KY, and now thrives in his little NYC enclave in Harlem. He holds an MFA in Printmaking from Indiana University and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University. Anderson recently participated in the 15th Gwangju Biennale. His upcoming exhibition, Black Excellence, will open at the University Art Museum at Albany, in the fall of 2025. In addition, he has exhibited at the Berlin Biennale; the FRAC, Marseille; KMAC, Louisville; Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Austria and the Shirley Fiterman Art Center, New York, among other institutions. He received an NYFA artist fellowship grant, the Jerome Camargo Prize, and the paper-making residency at Dieu Donné. His work is included in the permanent collections of the International Center of Photography, New York; The Studio Museum, Harlem; and the Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN, Hermes collection; A.C. Hudgins Collections, NY; Bernard Lumpkin Collection, NY; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, MI; Mudam Luxembourg; The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, IL, among others. Noel W. Anderson will be part of the group exhibition Legendary Voices: Art for the Next Century at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI in February 2025.