Kharis Kennedy approaches objects and the body as sites of knowledge and repositories of awareness that can be resourced in the service of personal discovery. Her paintings, videos, and performances are psychologically revealing and always deeply personal. Following her 2011 relocation to the Caribbean, tendencies towards animism became more pronounced in her work. She identifies with the region’s enduring traditions of exorcising painful personal and collective histories through ritual and enactment, using costuming to subvert authority, and visually evoking the tensions inherent in blending the often contradictory beliefs of Christian and African Diaspora religious dialogues. Kennedy’s overall practice centers around themes of gender, race, power, and control as constructs of identity. Solo exhibitions and screenings of her work have appeared across the country, including New York, Seattle, Miami and the U.S. Virgin Islands. She most recently exhibited her artwork in spring of 2017 in a two women exhibition with Judy Pfaff entitled “Hearts and Bones” under the curatorial direction of Michelle Loh at Art100 New York. She lives and works on the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. —Courtesy of The Watermill Center
Signature: Signed
About Kharis Kennedy
b. 1976, California, United States
