“I strive to show a safe haven for Blackness, and a purity untainted by the world.”
Stylish, candy-hued portraits that celebrate the many incarnations of Black womanhood.
Illustrative paintings and collages by Grace Lynne Haynes portray fashionable African-American women in their day-to-day lives. The portraits are full of sherbet hues and soft, enticing textures which are set against the opaque black forms of female figures. Haynes is influenced by modern and contemporary portraiture, from the photography of Carrie Mae Weems to the quintessential modernism of Henri Matisse. She also draws inspiration from fashion magazines, singer Nina Simone and traditional fabrics collected from Senegal and South Africa. Subtle references in the work contain personal meaning...
Bio
Grace Lynne Haynes was born in California in 1986, and now lives and works in New Jersey, USA.
Publications
Her artworks graced the covers of iconic publication The New Yorker on two occasions in 2020, one of which marked the hundredth anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment.
Did you know?
Haynes finds inspiration people watching in New York City, as well as from the designs of fashion designers like Pier Paolo Piccoli - who made history in 2020 by featuring more than 30 models of colour in Valentino's haute couture show.
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