This partnership is between the Wisconsin Union Directorate Art Committee and the Art Department Visiting Artist Colloquium. The Art Committee is installing and displaying Tyanna Buie’s exhibition in the Main Gallery and hosting a reception that is concurrent with and a continuation of the lecture Tyanna is giving, organized by Colloquium.
Artist Statement:
The foundation of my artistic practice is deeply rooted in my family, serving as both inspiration and motivation for my work. My curiosity about our family dynamics, history, and contemporary condition has been the driving force behind the personal narrative elements embedded in my art. As I explored historical texts filled with kings, queens, and other notable figures, meticulously documented and preserved through images and artifacts, I became acutely aware of the absence of such careful curation for ordinary families like mine. This realization sparked a profound desire to acknowledge, preserve, and honor my family’s own complex and layered history. I see my work as a means of not only capturing these narratives but also fostering dialogue among family members, exploring how our shared past has shaped each of us in different ways. By navigating the intersections of personal memory, collective identity, and historical erasure, my practice becomes an act of reclamation, elevating the significance of our lived experiences and ensuring they are seen, valued, and remembered.
Artist Bio:
A native of Chicago and Milwaukee, Buie earned her BA from Western Illinois University and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has participated in artist residencies at the Joan Mitchell Center (New Orleans, LA), Women’s Studio Workshop (Rosendale, NY), Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT), Project 1612 AIR (Morton, IL), and Hotel Pupik (Schrattenberg, AUT). Buie’s accolades include the 2012 Mary L. Nohl Fellowship, the Love of Humanity Award from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, and the 2015 Joan Mitchell Painters & Sculptors Grant. She was also awarded the 2019 Kresge Artist Fellowship, the 2019/2020 Grant Wood Fellowship in Printmaking (University of Iowa), the 2020 Fellowship.art award through gener8tor, and the 2023 Ruth Arts/Mary L. Nohl Alumni Award.
Buie has presented several solo exhibitions including: Embodiment(s) at the Freeport Art Museum, Freeport, IL, Re/Faced at the South Bend Museum of Art, South Bend, IN, Improvisations, The Alice Wilds, Milwaukee, WI, and Input/Output, Materia Gallery, Detroit, MI, and Revisionist History, cam.contemporarie Gallery in Chicago, IL.
She has also contributed to many group exhibitions including A Contemporary Black Matriarchal Lineage in Printmaking Exhibition at Highpoint Center for Printmaking in Minneapolis, MN, Printmaking in the Twenty-First Century at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI, Homebody at the Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI, The Black Biennial: Sonder at RISD’s Chace Center Gallery, Providence, RI, It’s a Fine Thing, University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA, Screenprint Biennial, Russell Sage College, Albany, NY, and All in the Family at the University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington, KY.
Additionally, Buie has also maintained a connection to the community by hosting printmaking workshops and demonstrations throughout the country. Her works have been acquired by major institutions and private collections both nationally and internationally and has been reviewed on Hyperallergic.com and featured on Essay’d.com and New American Paintings No. 155. Currently, Buie is an Associate Professor in Printmaking/Graduate Program Director at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI.
About The Art Department Visiting Artist Colloquium:
The Art Department Visiting Artist Colloquium is a series supported by the Anonymous Fund and the Brittingham Trust. Visiting Artist lectures are held every Wednesday during the academic year, and are free and open to the public. Discover the latest developments in Fine art, Craft, and Design at our free public lectures by some of the nation’s most prominent artists, critics, and gallery and museum directors.
Get fresh updates from Wisconsin Union and be in the know on upcoming events.
Explore working with a pottery wheel and learn the basics of working with clay. Each class comes with 12.5 lbs. of clay as well as free use of the open-studios during and two weeks after the class!