vanessa german (stylized in all lowercase)[1] (born 1976)[2] is an American sculptor, painter, writer, activist, performer, and poet based inPittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Her sculpture often includes assembled statues of female figures with their faces or heads painted black, and a wide range of attached objects, including fabric, keys,found objects, and toy weapons.[3] german is an activist, addressing problems like gun violence and prostitution.[4]
vanessa german was born inMilwaukee, Wisconsin[12] and raised in theMid-City area of Los Angeles[13] andLoveland, Ohio[5] by her mother, Sandra Keat German (1949–2014), afiber artist,[2]quilter and costume maker.[14] She is the third of five children.[15] She moved toPittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2000 and began to perform and exhibit her work locally.[16] She describes her work as heavily influenced by her childhood in Los Angeles, where her mother encouraged the children to make their own clothes, and she was also impacted by theAIDS epidemic anddrive-by shootings.[17]
A self-taught artist, much of german's artwork is collage and sculpted assemblages.[16] german's sculptural work frequently includes female figures that she calls "power figures" and "tar babies".[18] She creates them by decorating and painting large dolls and figures, then sculpting outward by adding a wide range of materials including objects likecowrie shells, plastic guns, feathers, bottle caps, seashells, toys, and vintage products.[16] She often uses found and donated materials from herHomewood neighborhood.[2] She discovered that her work included elements similar to the central African tradition ofNkisi nkondi, guardian statues pierced with nails and other materials.[19]
Her materials lists for artworks are often poems in themselves. They may include both the physical (e.g. cloth, paint, keys) and non-tangible materials (e.g. "the names of all the dead boys that I know," "tears").[3] Recurring themes addressed in her work include food, birds, violence,injustice, poverty, andBlack Madonna imagery.[20][21] In herartist statement for 2016'sdontsaythatshitoutloud, she describes the impact of finding two men murdered outside her house within a four-month period.[22]
Her work includes the symbolic use of color throughout. Describing beads from one work, she said "If they're red, they're holding rage and love simultaneously. If they're white – they're holding ghosts – the presence of your ancestors ...and they're also holding forgiveness and peace."[23]
In 2023, german was one of six artists commissioned to create a temporary installation for theNational Mall in conjunction withBeyond Granite: Pulling Together, the first curated art exhibition in the Mall's history. Commissioned by the Trust for the National Mall,National Capital Planning Commission, andNational Park Service, german created an assemblage sculpture of African-American singerMarian Anderson for the plaza of theLincoln Memorial. german's sculptureOf Thee We Sing (2023) memorialized Anderson's performance in the plaza from 1939, hosted after Anderson was denied permission to perform in the segregatedDAR Constitution Hall several months prior.[24]
german, like the authorbell hooks, stylizes her name in all lowercase. In 2023, she toldThe Bergen Record that this decision was "a way I level myself without hierarchy."[1]
german also led the ARThouse and Love Front Porch, a community art institution, in theHomewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA.[7] She started the ARThouse when she needed to start creating artworks on her front porch because her basement ceiling was too low: her large sculptural pieces had to be taken apart to be removed from the basement. After she started working on the porch, ARTHouse was born.[25][2] Neighborhood children began gathering to watch her work. This expanded into a dedicated community art space, which moved twice before moving into its permanent location, a house purchased with donations and proceeds from her art sales,[7] dedicated in December 2015.[16] In 2012, Love Front Porch received a $4,000 grant from the Sankofa Fund ofSouthwest Pennsylvania, which highlights empowering grass-roots African-American community projects.[26]
german also ran the Tuesday Night Monologue Project at ARThouse, a weekly event where guest artists and members of the community could write and share works with each other.[27]
Homewood was described as "The Most Dangerous Neighborhood in America" byMSNBC journalist,Rachel Maddow.[28] german has said about Homewood, "...that doesn't happen every day. It doesn't happen every week. Most people aren't shooting each other. Most people are not running drugs. It's a very small percentage of the population who are engaging in really extreme activities."[25]
The ARThouse suffered severe damage from a fire in 2021 and was closed to the public. german fundraised to renovate the space but decided to leave Homewood herself and moved to North Carolina, describing the impact of living in a community with significant violence by saying "It became impossible to work there because I was scared so much of the time."[29]
2016: "i come to do violence to the lie".[35] Solo Exhibit. Matrix new work series. The Amistad Center for Art & Culture,Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Hartford, CT.[36]
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