Pages from Correspondence (Maria Editions), by artist and SVA faculty member Sophia Dawson (BFA 2010 Fine Arts).
Artist, activist and SVA faculty member Sophia Dawson (BFA 2010 Fine Arts) has long focused her practice on addressing real-life injustices. Her paintings and murals are often dedicated to political prisoners and victims of state violence, and she regularly works with nonprofits and disinvested communities as a creative collaborator, arts administrator and mentor. Tomorrow, February 27, she will discuss her work—and mark the launch of her new book, Correspondence—in a talk and panel discussion at the Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center in Queens, where her art is currently on view.
Correspondence is published by Maria Editions, an independent imprint co-founded by artist and SVA faculty member Marysia Gacek (BFA 2009 Fine Arts). It debuted this week, in connection with the Printed Matter Virtual Art Book Fair, and comprises letters, photos and ephemera from Dawson’s exchanges with political prisoners of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Movement. These communications have informed, inspired and even been incorporated into “To Be Free,” her series of portraits of incarcerated activists. Sales of the paintings have helped fund advocacy efforts on behalf of their subjects; to date, 11 activists affiliated with the movements have been freed. (Proceeds from Correspondence will be donated to the Black Panther Party Commemoration Committee and the Jericho Movement.)
Artist and SVA faculty member Sophia Dawson (BFA 2010 Fine Arts) at the Black Lives Matter mural in Foley Square, in Manhattan. Dawson was one of three artists who designed the permanent mural, which was installed in the summer of 2020.
Last summer, Dawson participated in two high-profile projects in support of Black lives. In July, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Black Lives Matter of Greater New York unveiled a permanent Black Lives Matter mural, in Manhattan’s Foley Square, by Dawson and fellow artists Patrice Payne and Tijay Mohammed. Each contributor designed one word each; graffiti art group Tats Cru and children studying with Thrive Collective, an art education nonprofit, painted the work. (Also involved: BFA 1993 Fine Arts graduate and SVA Continuing Education faculty member Kendal Henry, director of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs’ Percent for Art program, which curated the project.) Dawson’s word, “Lives,” used each letter to pay different, if related, tributes: to mothers whose children have died at the hands of police, to the Black Panther Party and its incarcerated members, to the African diaspora, to the Bible.
In August, the United States Tennis Association opened its first spectator-less U.S. Open tennis tournament in Flushing, Queens, with “Black Lives to the Front,” an installation in stadium seats featuring work by 18 African American artists, including Dawson and fellow alumnus Delano Dunn (MFA 2016 Fine Arts). Dawson’s contribution, Young Eric Garner … Isaiah 54:13, depicted Eric Garner, who in 2014 was killed by police in Staten Island, as a radiant infant in his father’s arms.
That same month, Dawson was named one of four Public Artists in Residence (PAIR) with New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs. As a PAIR, she will work with the Office of Neighborhood Safety to create a community art project in Mott Haven, a long-disadvantaged Bronx neighborhood, with families whose lives have been directly affected by gun violence.
Sophia Dawson,Young Eric Garner … Isaiah 54:13, 2020. Dawson contributed the work to the USTA’s “Black Lives to the Front” installation, which was held at the 2020 U.S. Open.
Sophia Dawson will discuss her art and activism—and participate in a panel discussion with former political prisoners Sekou Odinga, Herman Bell and Zolo Azania, as well as members of the MOVE organization—tomorrow, February 27, at 2pm ET. To register for the event, click here.
A version of this article appears in the fall/winter 2020 edition of the Visual Arts Journal.