Damali Abrams (born in

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

) is a

Guyanese-American Guyanese Americans are an ethnic group of Americans who can trace their ancestry back to Guyana. As of 2019, there are 231,649 Guyanese Americans currently living in the United States. The majority of Guyanese live in New York City – some 140,00 ...

video-performance artist who lives and works in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. She is known for the ''Self-Help TV'', an ongoing video-performance project using her own body to examine issues of self-improvement, race, class and gender.

Career

Abrams graduated

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

as a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in 2001 and obtained a master's degree in fine arts from

Vermont College of Fine Arts Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) is a private graduate-level art school in Montpelier, Vermont. It offers Master's degrees in low-residency and residential programs. Its faculty includes Pulitzer Prize finalists, National Book Award winners, ...

in 2008. Her work has been exhibited at galleries including The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (MoCADA),

El Museo del Barrio El Museo del Barrio, often known simply as El Museo (the museum), is a museum at 1230 Fifth Avenue in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is located near the northern end of Fifth Avenue's Museum Mile, immediately north of the Museum of the Cit ...

A.I.R. Gallery A.I.R. Gallery (Artists in Residence) is the first all female artists cooperative gallery in the United States. It was founded in 1972 with the objective of providing a professional and permanent exhibition space for women artists during a time i ...

, BRIC Rotunda Gallery and the

Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning The Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning in Jamaica, Queens, New York is a performing and visual arts center that was founded in 1972 in an effort to revitalize the surrounding business district. As of 2012, it serves more than 28,000 people annual ...

Teaching and workshops

Abrams has led classes at

Barbados Community College The Barbados Community College is a tertiary institution located on Eyrie Howells' Road, Saint Michael, Barbados. History Founded in 1968, the Barbados Community College came to be as a result of an Act of Parliament aimed at making post seco ...

, the Grenada National Museum, the

Borough of Manhattan Community College The Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) is a public community college in New York City. Founded in 1963 as part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system, BMCC grants associate degrees in a wide variety of vocational, busines ...

, Hunter College School of Social Work,

SUNY Purchase The State University of New York at Purchase (commonly Purchase College or SUNY Purchase) is a Public college, public Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Purchase, New York. It is one of 13 comprehensive colleges ...

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

’s 601 Tully and at

NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United Sta ...

Awards

* 2009–10: A.I.R. Fellowship Recipient

Residencies

* 2019: Creative-in-Residence at The Brooklyn Public Library * 2016: International Studio Program at

The Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

* July 2014:

Apexart Apexart is a non-profit art space located in Manhattan, New York, that focuses on challenging the gallery system and democratizing the process by which art is curated and exhibited. The organization was founded by Steven Rand in 1994. Exhibit ...

’s Outbound Residency to

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

* 2014: Artist in Residence at

The Center for Book Arts Center for Book Arts (CBA) is a non-profit arts organization, founded in 1974. It is the first organization of its kind in the United States dedicated to contemporary interpretations of the book as an art object while preserving traditional pract ...

* October 2013: Residency with

Groundation Grenada Groundation is an American roots reggae band with jazz and dub influences, from Sonoma County in Northern California. It is named for Rastafarian ceremony of Grounation. History Formed in the fall of 1998 by Harrison Stafford, Marcus U ...

and

Fresh Milk Fresh or FRESH may refer to: People *DJ Fresh (born 1977), UK-based drum and bass artist *DJ Fresh (producer), US-based R&B producer born Marqus Brown Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Fresh'' (1994 film), a crime film * ''Fresh'' (200 ...

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

References

External links

Damali Abram's Website

Living people American video artists American women artists Artists from New York City Guyanese artists Guyanese women artists New York University alumni Vermont College of Fine Arts alumni Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women {{US-artist-stub