Nona Faustine — À propos — Slash Paris

Nona Faustine (Simmons), born in 1977, is a photographer and artist. Her work addresses various themes that connect issues of identity and representation with an extensive history of power dynamics within communities, aiming to bring forth a sensitive and critical interpretation of the past and the ongoing biases of perception in the present. Exploring self-representations and idealized images of America, Nona Faustine blurs the lines to highlight the gaps that, far from covering reality, encourage the viewer to read it differently, to readjust their focus to perceive the different layers that compose it.

Considering herself “a conduit traveling through space and time, in solidarity with people whose names and memories have been lost but are embedded in the land,” she urges us to critically reflect on the hidden and often traumatic histories of the places we call home.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, she graduated from the School of Visual Arts and pursued a Master of Fine Arts program at the International Center of Photography at Bard College. Her works have been featured in publications such as the New York Times, The Guardian, the New Yorker Magazine, and the Los Angeles Times. Nominated for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the National Portrait Gallery, she is also a recipient of the Colene Brown Art Prize. Her artworks are part of numerous collections and have been exhibited at institutions including the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Schomburg Center for Black Research in Harlem, and the International Center of Photography.

In 2024, she’s having her first major museum exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum with “Nona Faustine: White Shoes.”