Embracing Identity w/ artist Malene Barnett

Today we shine the light on our Caribbean brothers and sisters with Malene Barnett and her amazing book Crafted Kinship: Inside the Creative Practices of Contemporary Black Caribbean Makers. Melene talks about her heritage and how this incredible book came together. More than 60 artists are featured included some Studio Noize Alumni like April Bey. Malene talks about the connections between Caribbean artists in the diaspora, experimenting with materials, and what it means to be rooted to a place. It’s more of that good art talk that we love right here on the Noize! Listen, subscribe, and share!

Episode 197 topics include:

Crafted Kinship: Inside the Creative Practices of Contemporary Black Caribbean Makers

highlighting Caribbean artists in the diaspora

growing up with parents from the Caribbean

experimental materials

land, climate and sustainability as a theme

pride in your homeland

social constructs around artistic disciplines

ceramics in the Caribbean

Malene Djenaba Barnett is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, textile surface designer, and community builder. She earned her MFA in ceramics from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture and undergraduate degrees in fashion illustration and textile surface design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Malene received a Fulbright Award to travel to Jamaica in 2022–23 as the visiting artist at Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston.

Malene’s art reflects her African Caribbean heritage, building on her ancestral legacy of mark-making as a visual identity, and has been exhibited at galleries and museums throughout the United States, including the Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling in New York City, the African American Museum of Dallas, and Temple Contemporary in Philadelphia. Malene’s art and design work has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Galerie, Elle Decor, Architectural Digest, Departures, and Interior Design. In addition, Malene hosts lectures on advocating for African Caribbean ceramic traditions and has participated in residencies at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Greenwich House Pottery, Judson Studios, the Hambidge Center, and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. In 2024, Malene released her first book, “Crafted Kinship: Inside the Creative Practice of Contemporary Black Caribbean Makers” (Hachette), which includes interviews with over 60 artists of Caribbean heritage, taking readers on an important journey through the world of Black Caribbean creativity. This groundbreaking collection is the first to feature Caribbean makers’ intimate stories of their artmaking processes, and how their countries of origin—the “land” —influences and informs how and what they create.

Malene is also the founder of the Black Artists + Designers Guild, which supports independent Black makers globally. When she’s not traveling the world researching Black diasporic aesthetics, Malene resides in Brooklyn, New York.

See more: Malene Barnett website + Malene Barnett IG @malene.barnett

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