Travis Somerville (born 1963) is an American artist based in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. Known for tackling Southern racial issues, Somerville’s works incorporate collage painting and sculptural elements, as well as site-specific installations.

Early life and education

Somerville was born in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

in 1963. His parents, both European American, were civil rights activists, his father worked as an Episcopal preacher and his mother was a schoolteacher. Somerville grew up in various cities and rural towns throughout the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

. He briefly studied at

Maryland Institute College of Art The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) is a Private university, private art school, art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of t ...

(MICA), Baltimore, Maryland, finally settling in San Francisco in 1984 where he attended the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI).

Work

Somerville’s work simultaneously tries to reconcile his personal struggle with his own Southern Christian upbringing and the overt tumultuous racial politics of then with the mixed messaging backlash of now. Using collaged and painted pictorial elements, he summons imagery and words from the history, politics, popular culture, and fine art into juxtapositions that challenge conventional lines of history and social perceptions. For example, his piece, ''Boy in the Hood'', 2000, portrays

Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of I ...

wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood. In an interview with Nathan Larramendy, Somerville stated, “My southern identity will always play a part in my work because that is who I am... I feel the overall theme f my workis oppression and greed. I want the oppressed to be validated and the oppressors to be guilty. I want people to realize that we are all connected in some way and we are responsible for each other.”

Awards

* 2000 The Art Council Grant * Artist in Residence,

University of Houston–Clear Lake The University of Houston–Clear Lake (UHCL) is a public university in Pasadena and Houston, Texas, with branch campuses in Pearland and Texas Medical Center. It is part of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1971, UHCL had ...

— Houston, Texas (USA) *2010 – Painters & Sculptors Grant recipient,

Joan Mitchell Foundation Joan Mitchell (February 12, 1925 – October 30, 1992) was an American artist who worked primarily in painting and printmaking, and also used pastel and made other works on paper. She was an active participant in the New York School of artis ...

*2018 – Artist in Residence (served in 2018, awarded in 2016),

Public collections

* 21c Museum hotels, Louisville, Kentucky * The Achenbach Collection of the

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. The permanent collection of the ...

(FAMSF), San Francisco, California *

di Rosa di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art is a non-profit art center in Napa, California. di Rosa maintains a collection of approximately 1,600 works of art by Northern California artists including Robert Arneson, Bruce Conner, Jay DeFeo, Tony Labat, ...

, Napa, California *

Laguna Art Museum The Laguna Art Museum (LAM) is a museum located in Laguna Beach, California, on Pacific Coast Highway. LAM exclusively features California art and is the oldest cultural institution in the area. It has been known as the Laguna Beach Art Associati ...

, Laguna Beach, California * Progressive Art Collection, Mayfield Village, Ohio *

San Jose Museum of Art The San José Museum of Art (SJMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum in downtown San Jose, California, United States. Founded in 1969, the museum holds a permanent collection with an emphasis on West Coast artists of the 20th and 21st centur ...

, San Jose, California *

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, to ...

, Minneapolis, Minnesota *

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and wa ...

, San Francisco, California

Select solo exhibitions

*2010 Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, Colorado *2009 ''Dedicated to the Proposition'',

Ben Maltz Gallery The Ben Maltz Gallery at the Otis College of Art and Design is an art space in Los Angeles, California. Overview It presents group and solo exhibitions in a variety of media. The main focus is showcasing contemporary art that pushes the boundari ...

, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, California *2008 ''Authentic Facsimiles of a Nation'', Caren Golden Fine Art Gallery, New York, New York *2007 ''The Great American Let Down'', Overtones Gallery, Los Angeles, California *2006 ''American Cracker Too'', Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Exhibition Gallery, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
''American Cracker'', Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, California
''Peckerwood Nation'', Nathan Larramendy Gallery, Ojai, California *2004 ''More Songs of the South'', Nathan Larramendy Gallery, Ojai, California *2003 ''More Songs of the South'', Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, California (catalogue) *2002 ''Another Song of the South'',

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

, Athens, Georgia *2000 ''Song of the South'', Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, California
''Travis Somerville: New Work'', University of Houston-Clear Lake, Houston, Texas (catalogue) *1998 ''The Land of Cotton'', Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, California *1996 ''I’ve Never Been to Aceldama: New Work (125th San Francisco Art Institute Anniversary Exhibit)'', Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, California *1994 ''Introductions'', Morphos Gallery, San Francisco, California *1993 ''Travis Somerville'', Mace, San Francisco, California *1992 ''Travis Somerville'', Mace, San Francisco, California *1991 ''Travis Somerville'', Mace, San Francisco, California
''Travis Somerville'', Show N Tell, San Francisco, California *1990 ''Travis Somerville'', Mace, San Francisco, California *1989 ''Travis Somerville'', 1078 Gallery, Chico, California
''Travis Somerville,'' Show N Tell, San Francisco, California

Notes

External links

Travis Somerville's page at beta pictoris gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Somerville, Travis American installation artists 1963 births Living people Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area San Francisco Art Institute alumni Maryland Institute College of Art alumni