Alumna Alayna N. Pernell (BA 2019) has an exhibition opening in the Griffin Museum of Photography’s Virtual Gallery. Our Mothers’ Gardens, an online exhibit in which Pernell re-imagines photographs of Black women, opens February 15 and will run through April 18.
Pernell writes, “My practice is currently revolving around two questions. What can visual art tell us about the depiction of Black women throughout visual art history? How have those negative depictions of Black women led to their lack of mental and physical care?” She researched the collections of images of Black women from the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Photography for the sources of her work in this exhibition. She writes, “I have re-photographed, re-captioned and re-contextualized the original works I have researched. This is my way of protecting the Black women’s bodies and their humanity.”
Pernell is an MFA candidate in photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). In 2019, she graduated from The University of Alabama summa cum laude with a BA in studio art with a focus in photography and a minor in African American studies. Among her recent exhibitions are Come Together, Right Now, at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia; This is a Movement, Not a Moment, in the ARTivism Initiative, Worcester, Mass.; and Too Tired for 2020, part of the Too Tired Project, based in Vermont.
For more information about The University of Alabama’s programs in art history and studio art, visit our Degree Programs page.