Allison Janae Hamilton | |
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 Hamilton in front of her installation, "The peo-ple cried mer-cy in the storm," at Storm King Art Center in 2018 | |
| Born | 1984 (age 41–42) Lexington, Kentucky |
| Alma mater | Columbia University, New York University, Florida State University |
| Website | allisonjanaehamilton.com |
Allison Janae Hamilton (born 1984) is a film director and contemporary American artist.
Hamilton was born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1984 and raised in Florida, with family rooted in Tennessee and the Carolinas.
Hamilton received her MFA in visual arts from Columbia University, PhD in American studies from New York University, MA in African-American studies from Columbia University and two BS degrees from Florida State University. [1]
Hamilton's relationship with the locations of her upbringing and family roots forms the cornerstone of her artwork, as particularly seen in her engagement with the landscapes of Northern Florida and Western Tennessee. Using layered imagery and complex sounds from the natural world, Hamilton creates immersive artworks and films that often consider the ways that the American landscape contributes to our ideas of "Americana"; and social relationships to space in the face of a changing climate, particularly within the rural American south. [2]
Hamilton is widely known both for her film work and work as an artist. Hamilton refers to landscape as the "central protagonist" in her work, rather than a backdrop, and through the blending of land-centered folklore and personal family narratives, she engages haunting yet epic mythologies that address the social and political concerns of today's changing terrain. [3] [4]
Hamilton has presented solo exhibitions at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and the Joslyn Art Museum, and has also exhibited her work at Storm King Art Center, the Museum of Modern Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and others. Her films and immersive installations have been presented at major museums and film festivals, including the BlackStar Film Festival. Hamilton is the winner of the VIA Art Fund Production Grant supporting her narrative short, Venus of Ossabaw, and premiering at the Telfair Museums in March 2027. In 2021, Hamilton presented an immersive film artwork, Wacissa, on 73 screens in Times Square in New York City. [5] The film was later acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Hamilton is a recipient of the Creative Capital Award [6] and a Rema Hort Mann Foundation grant. [7] She was a 2013-2014 fellow at the Whitney Independent Study Program, sponsored by the Whitney Museum of American Art. [8] She has been awarded artist residencies at the Studio Museum in Harlem (New York), [1] Recess (New York) [9] and Fundación Botín (Santander, Spain). [10] Work by the artist is held in public collections such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Menil Collection, Nasher Museum of Art, Nevada Museum of Art, the Hood Museum of Art and the Speed Art Museum.
Hamilton was accepted into the Sundance Institute's Feature Film Program Development Track for her screenplay, Floridaland, as part of the 2026 Sundance Screenwriters Intensive Fellowship. [11]
Hamilton is represented by Marianne Boesky Gallery (New York and Aspen).
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