“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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00:54videoCarrie Mae Weems
American artist Carrie Mae Weems changed the game for image-making in contemporary art. Her intimate photos of family, friends and historical events have opened doors for the next generation of artists.
4 min read- interview
In conversation: Larry Ossei-Mensah & Christian Luiten
Ahead of the first launch in our new Inner Visions series, we caught up with the project’s curator Larry Ossei-Mensah on Clubhouse in a conversation hosted by Avant Arte co-founder Christian Luiten.
- interview
Inner Visions 01
In his first collaboration with Avant Arte, critic and curator Larry Ossei-Mensah introduces three artists, Grace Lynne Haynes, Ferrari Sheppard and Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe
4 min read
