Krista Franklin

1970 / Xenia, United States
Afro-Surrealism CollagePoetryMixed mediaHandmade paperInstallationPerformanceAltered bookmakingSculpture

About

Krista Franklin is an interdisciplinary artist, poet, performer, and visual artist based in Chicago, originally from Dayton or Xenia, Ohio. Her practice spans poetry, mixed-media collages, handmade paper, installations, altered bookmaking, performances, and sculptures, exploring Afro-Surrealist and Afro-Futurist themes. Influenced by African Diaspora folklore, mythmaking, Toni Morrison's Beloved, Octavia E. Butler, Romare Bearden, and the AfroSurreal Manifesto by D. Scot Miller, her work delves into the speculative, mystical, horror, grotesque, dream spaces, Black popular culture, and histories of the African Diaspora, centering Black women's experiences, gender, sexuality, and surreal realities.

Afro-Surrealist and Afro-Futurist, blending poetics, pop culture, mysticism, metaphysics, and Black signification

Selected Exhibitions

  • Poetry Foundation
  • Konsthall C
  • Rootwork Gallery
  • Museum of Contemporary Photography
  • Studio Museum in Harlem
  • Chicago Cultural Center
  • National Museum of Mexican Art
  • Western Exhibitions
  • DePaul Art Museum
  • University of Chicago Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture

Awards

  • Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant 2018
  • Helen and Tim Meier Foundation for the Arts Achievement Award
  • Cave Canem fellow
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