Bio
Diamond Gray (b. 1991) is a multimedia artist from Jacksonville, FL. Gray intermixes drawing, printmaking, and audio to embody deep connections between the working class, Southern, and spiritual Black women in her family and upbringing.
She participated in the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art Assets 4 Artists residency and the Studio Museum in Harlem's Museum Education Practicum amongst many other art and educational endeavors. As an artist and museum educator, both roles inform her art and pedagogical practices. She is passionate about BIPOC and LGBTQIA+youth and encourages her students to focus on process, research, and experimentation to produce works that reflect their lives.
Artist Statement
I utilize art as storytelling, healing, and reclaiming practice. As a Black queer woman who grew up working class, art is an avenue I use to document, archive, and tell my family's history. I come from a long line of matriarchs that cultivate community, care, and devotion; my art is an homage to the erasure of the voices and presences of Black women and femmes in history. Specifically through clothing, hair, India ink, paper, collage, drawing, video, and sculpture. I continue the tradition of maintaining their existences through various forms of art.
Art is my salve to heal the various traumas in my life connected to my body, Blackness, gender, and spirituality. The therapeutic process of drawing, collaging, and printmaking is my outlet to cope with this. Essentially, I use my art practice to mend wounds, celebrate my ancestors, and recognize the thriving community I hail from.