Doreen Garner facts for kids

Doreen Garner (born 1986) is an American artist. She creates sculptures and performance art. Her art explores how history, power, and violence have affected the human body. She often looks at these ideas through beauty or medicine. Garner has shown her work in many famous places. These include the New Museum, the National Museum of African American History, and the Chrysler Museum of Art. She also hosts a monthly podcast called #trashDAY with artist Kenya (Robinson). Doreen Garner lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Early Life and Education

Doreen Garner was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1986. She studied art at Tyler School of Art at Temple University. Later, she earned a master's degree from the Rhode Island School of Design.

Her Art and Projects

Garner moved to New York in 2014 after finishing her studies. She also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Her art often uses materials like braiding hair, silicone, and Vaseline. She creates sculptures that look like parts of the body. These artworks often tell stories about Black women's experiences and history.

The next year, Garner was an artist-in-residence at the Henry Street Settlement. This is a place where artists can live and create art.

Sculptures

In 2016, Garner had two art shows in New York at the same time. At Essex Flowers, her show was called Removing the Veil: Vanity as Material for Incision. She showed sculptures that looked at beauty practices and the body. These works used silicone to look like skin. Some included hair, crystals, and pearls.

At Wave Hill, Garner showed art called Flora: Viscera. These works looked like surgeries that went wrong. Garner's art was also part of a group show. It was put together by artist Derrick Adams at the Volta Art Fair.

In 2017, ARTnews magazine announced Garner as an artist for the Socrates Annual. This is a special show for new artists at Socrates Sculpture Park. That summer, Garner had a solo show called Doctor's Hours at Larrie gallery. It featured sculptures, drawings, and books that inspired her. These books included The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Garner also put together her first New York art show that summer. It was called Stranger Things. This group show explored ideas about closeness, cleanliness, and violence related to race.

In the fall of 2017, Garner had a show with Kenya (Robinson) at Pioneer Works. It was called White Man on A Pedestal. This big show included new sculptures. One was a large 3-D image of J. Marion Sims. He was a doctor known for doing experiments on enslaved women without their consent. The show also had artworks that looked like body parts hanging like meat. The exhibition explored Sims's difficult history.

In 2019, Garner created a show called She is Risen at JTT in New York. It featured several sculptures. One honored Betsy Ross and Betsey, an enslaved woman. This sculpture was shaped like a flag. One side looked like the original flag made by Betsy Ross. The other side looked like body tissue. The 16 stars on the flag represented the beds in J. Marion Sims's lab. Another piece honored Henrietta Lacks. It showed a cervix that had radiation treatment. Henrietta Lacks's cells were taken without her permission.

Garner continued this work in 2020 with a show called The Remains. It was also at JTT. Pieces like "After Her Womb" and "After Her Flag" related to the women who were experimented on while enslaved. "After Her Harvest" referred to Henrietta Lacks. All these pieces showed the impact of these experiments on Black women.

Tattoos

In the winter of 2018, Garner opened a pop-up tattoo parlor. It was called Invisible Man Tattoo. It was in Recess in Brooklyn. People could choose from her designs or create their own. The designs included cotton flowers and images of Martin Luther King Jr.. Anyone who identified as a brown or black person of color could get a free tattoo from a special list. This parlor aimed to make tattoo culture more welcoming for people of color. It also highlighted Black history.

Podcast

#trashDAY is a podcast hosted by Doreen Garner and Kenya (Robinson). Their podcast talks about many different ideas. It offers ways to help oneself and also gives strong opinions. The podcast is on Clocktower Radio. It aims to be a starting point for social discussions, often using humor.

Exhibitions

• Revolted, New Museum, New York, 2022
• The Remains, JTT, New York, NY, 2020
• Doreen Garner, CAPRI, Düsseldorf, DE, 2019
• She is Risen, JTT, New York, NY, 2019
• Doreen Garner: Alternative Modes of Penetration, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY (performance), 2019
• Statements, Art Basel, Basel, CH, 2018
• Doctor's Hours, Larrie, New York, NY, 2017
• Doreen Garner: Full Body, George Mason University, Washington, D.C., 2017
• Ether and Agony, Antenna Gallery, New Orleans, LA, 2016
• Removing The Veil: Vanity as Material for Incision, Essex Flowers, New York, NY, 2016
• Flora: Viscera, Wavehill, Bronx, NY 2016
• Shiny / Red / Pumping, Vox Populi Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2015
• Abjection, Bannister Gallery, Providence, RI, 2014
• White Man on a Pedestal with Kenya (Robinson), Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY, 2017
• Surrogate Skin: The Biology of Objects with Keisha Scarville, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art, Brooklyn, NY, 2016
• The Hela Project, The National Museum of African American History, Washington, D.C., 2017
• Emerging Artist Exhibition, Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY, 2017
• Stranger Things, Outpost Gallery, Queens, NY, 2017
• Something I Can Feel, curated by Derrick Adams, Volta Art Fair, New York, NY 2016
• Subject to Capital, Abrons Art Center, New York, NY 2016
• Young and Loving, S12 Gallery, Bergen, Norway, 2015
• Girl Bye, Rush Arts Gallery, New York, NY, 2014
• It Doesn't Show Signs of Stopping, AS220 Project Gallery, Providence, RI, 2014

Awards and Recognition

Garner has received several awards for her art. These include the Toby Devan Lewis Award (2014) and the Presidential Scholarship Award (2012). She also received research grants like The Wood Institute Fellowship Research Grant (2013) and the Creative Research Fellowship Grant (2010).