April 20, Carrie Mae Weems is born in Portland, Oregon
She is the second child born to Carrie Polk and Myrlie Weems.
1965
Becomes interested in the arts
Meets Tom Vinters and lifelong friend, Catherine Jelski.
Begins participating in street theatre and dance.
1968
Assassination of Martin Luther King
1969
December 11, 1969, gives birth to only child
Gives birth to only child and names her Faith C. Weems
1970
Moves to San Francisco
Invited to join Anna Halprin’s San Francisco Dancer’s Workshop.
1971
Packs a cardboard suitcase and moves to New York
Moves to New York with baby in tow, seeks but does not find work, returns to
San Francisco.
1972
Meets Raymond Marshall
Introduced to Marxism as a social philosophy, joins Marxist organization, and
works as organizer for the next 8-10 years.
1973
First Camera
Receives first camera as a birthday gift, immediately begins taking
pictures.
1974
Education
Studies photography and design at San Francisco City College, 1974-1976.
1975
Travels
Travels to Europe and East Berlin for the first time.
1976
Meets Dawoud Bey
1978
Lives bi-coastally
Lives bi-coastally between New York and San Francisco 1978-1981. Works as a
Kelly Girl to maintain the lifestyle to which she has now grown
accustomed.
Returns to New York
Meets the men associated with The Black Photographers Annual, becomes
assistant to Anthony Barboza.
1980
1980
Exhibit
Researches and organizes exhibition on women in photography
Receives BFA from the California Institute of the Arts.
Ulysses Jenkins persuades her to consider graduate school, enrolls
at University of California, San Diego.
Exhibits
Multi-Cultural Focus, Barnsdall Art Gallery, Los Angeles.
Women in Photography, Cityscape Photo Gallery, Pasadena, CA.
1982
Engages in serious studies, begins research on black artists, travels and meets them and
records the conversations. Meets PH Polk who sells her two photographs for $25.
First Video
Makes first major video work, on black photographers, highlighting
Roy DeCarava.
1984
Exhibit
Family Pictures and Stories, Multi-Cultural Gallery,
San Diego.
Education
Receives MFA from the University of California, San Diego.
Enrolled in the graduate program in folklore, University of California, Berkeley,
1984-1987.
1986
Meets Jeff Hoone
In a darkroom at Visual Studies Workshop, she meets Jeff Hoone. She sees the future and
knows that they will be married. He sees nothing.
Exhibits
People Close Up, Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California,
Los Angeles.
Social Concerns, Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore.
Behind the Scenes, television program for PBS in association
with Learning Designs, New York, NY.
Exhibits
Disclosing the Myth of Family, curated by Barbara Berber, The School of the
Art Institute of Chicago.
Schwarze Kunst: Konzepte zur Politik und Identitat, curated by Frank Wagner,
Neue Gesellschaft fur bildende Kunst, Berlin, Germany.
Dirt and Domesticity: Constructions of the Feminine, Whitney Museum of
American Art at Equitable Center, New York.
Art, Politics and Community, curated by Don Desmett, William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut; traveled to Tyler School of Art, Temple University.
Meets Terry Adkins
1992-1994
Exhibits
Mis/Taken Identities, curated by Abigail Solomon–Godeau and Constance
Lewallen, University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara; traveled to Museum
Folkwang, Essen, Germany; Forum Stadtpark, Graz, Austria; Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen im
Forum Langenstraße, Germany; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark; Western
Gallery, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA.
Photography: Expanding the Collection, Whitney Museum of American Art,
New York.
Receives first major commission, from Weston Naef and the Getty Museum.
Publication
Carrie Mae Weems
Published by the National Museum of Women in the Arts
Exhibits
Sea Islands, The Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia.
Carrie Mae Weems traveling exhibition, curated by Andrea Kirsh
and Susan Fisher Sterling, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C.
And 22 Million Very Tired and Very Angry People, Walter/McBean Gallery,
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco.
Enlightenment, Revolution, A Gallery Project, Ferndale, MI.
1993-1994
Exhibits
Fictions of the Self: The Portrait in Contemporary Photography,
Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, and Herter Art Gallery,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
The Theater of Refusal: Black Art and the Mainstream Criticism, curated
by Charles Gaines, Fine Arts Gallery, University of California, Irvine; traveled to University
of California, Davis; University of California, Riverside.
1994
Publication
Carrie Mae Weems
Published by The Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia, PA. Introduction by Mary Jane Jacob.
Exhibits
Women’s Representation of Women, curated by Dana Friis-Hansen and
Yuko Hayashi, Sapporo American Center Gallery, Sapporo, Japan. Traveled to Aka Renga
Cultural Center, Fukuoka City, Japan; Kyoto International Community House, Kyoto,
Japan; Aichi Prefectural Arts Center, Nagoya, Japan; Osaka Prefectural Contemporary
Arts Center, Japan; Spiral Arts Center, Tokyo, Japan.
1994-1995
Moves back to New York
Exhibits
Imagining Families: Images and Voices, curated by Deborah Willis,
The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Black Male, Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art,
curated by Thelma Golden, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, and The Armand
Hammer Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA.
1995
Marries
Elopes to Tijuana, Mexico, and marries Jeff Hoone.
Exhibits
Carrie Mae Weems Reacts to Hidden Witness, J. Paul Getty Museum of
Art, Malibu, CA. First artist to be commissioned by the Getty.
Projects 52, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. First significant
solo show at the Museum of Modern Art.
StoryLand: Narrative Vision and Social Space, Walter Phillips
Gallery, The Banff Center for the Arts, Banff, Canada.
Embedded Metaphor, curated by Nina Felshin. Traveling exhibit.
Inside the Visible, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA;
The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., international traveling
exhibition. Gender - Beyond Memory, curated by Michiko Kasahara, Tokyo
Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan.
Bearing Witness: Contemporary Works by African-American Artists,
traveling exhibition. Taboo: Repression and Revolt in Modern Art,
Galerie St. Etienne, New York, NY. Tell Me a Story: Narration in Contemporary
Painting and Photography, Centre National d’Art Contemporain de Grenoble,
Grenoble, France.
1998-99
Exhibits
Recent Work: Carrie Mae Weems 1992-98, Everson Art Museum, Syracuse, NY.
Who, What, When, Where, Whitney Museum of American Art at Phillip Morris,
New York, NY.
Ritual & Revolution, DAK’ART 98: Biennale of Contemporary Art,
Galerie Nationale d’Art, Dakar, Senegal.
1999
Publications
Art in America cover story
Exhibits
It’s Only Rock and Roll, traveling exhibition.
Claustrophobia:
Disturbing the Domestic in Contemporary Art, traveling exhibition.
Histories (Re)membered, The Bronx Museum of Art, New
York, NY.
Carrie Mae Weems: The Hampton Project, commissioned by Williams
College, 2000-2003, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA. Traveling exhibit.
Looking Forward, Looking Back, Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan
University, Middletown, CT. Material and Matter: Loans to and Selections from the
Studio Museum Collection, The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY. The View From
Here: Issues of Cultural Identity and Perspective in Contemporary Russian and American
Art, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia. Strength and Diversity: A Celebration
of African American Artists, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University,
Cambridge, MA. Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the
Present, Smithsonian Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and
Culture, Washington, D.C.
History Now, touring exhibition beginning at the Liljevalchs
Konsthall and Riksutstallningar, Stockholm, Sweden.
Pictures, Patents, Monkeys, and More . . . On Collecting,
traveling exhibition by Independent Curators International, Institute of Contemporary
Art, Philadelphia, PA.
Social Studies Collective formed
Carrie, Deb Willis, Dawoud Bey, and Lonnie Graham form the Social Studies
Collective. They create Embracing Eatonville.
The Louisiana Project, Newcomb Art Gallery, Tulane University,
New Orleans. Traveling exhibit. Cuba on the Verge, International Center
of Photography, New York. Crimes and Misdemeanors: Politics in U.S. Art of
the 1980s, Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art,
Cincinnati.
Opens the Record Shop
Commissioned by David Ross and the Beacon Cultural Foundation, Beacon, NY.
2004
Selling Hopes and Dreams in a Bottle
Film Screening
Coming Up for Air, Meaning & Landscape, MoMA Film at the
Gramercy, New York.
Exhibits
Double Consciousness: Black Conceptual Art Since 1970, Contemporary
Arts Museum, Houston. Beyond Compare: Women Photographers on Beauty, BCE,
Toronto. Traveling exhibit.
Joseph H. Hazen Rome Prize Fellowship, American Academy in Rome, 2005-2006.
Exhibits
African American Art - Photographs from the Collection, Saint Louis Art
Museum, Saint Louis, MO. Figuratively Speaking, Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL.
The Whole World is Rotten, first exhibit with Jack Shainman Gallery,
New York. Common Ground: Discovering Community in 150 Years of Art, Corcoran
Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Out of Time: A Contemporary View, Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Black Alphabet: Contexts of Contemporary African-American Art, Zacheta
National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland.
Teaching
Visiting Professor at Syracuse University.
2007
New Home
Moves to new home with Jeff. Home now in one location.
Awards
Anonymous Was a Woman Foundation, New York
Skowhegan Medal for Photography, Skowhegan School of Painting &
Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME.
Honorary Ph.D., Colgate University, Hamilton, NY.
Exhibits
Hidden in Plain Sight, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Embracing Eatonville, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor.
Essays by Laurie Ann Farrell, Stephanie Hughley, Paula Wallace, Carrie Mae Weems,
Deborah Willis. Published by Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA.
The 21st Century, The Feminine Century, and the Century of Diversity and Hope, 2009 International Incheon
Women Artists’ Biennial, Incheon, South Korea. Colour Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today, Tate Liverpool,
UK. Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic, Tate Liverpool, UK. From Then to Now:
Masterworks of Contemporary African American Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Ohio.
Carrie Mae Weems: Estudios Sociales, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo,
Seville, Spain.
Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography, Museum of Modern
Art, New York.
Slow Fade to Black, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl, Nasher Museum,
Durham, North Carolina.
Myth, Manners and Memory: Photographers of the American South, De La Waar Pavillion, East Sussex, UK.
Off the Wall: Part 1 — Thirty Performative Actions, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Ohio.
Essays by Elvira Dyangani Ose, Annie E. Coombes, and Greg Tate. Published by
Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville, Spain.
2011
Carrie and the Social Studies 101 collective begin anti-violence
public art project,
Operation: Activate.
Exhibits
The Deconstructive Impulse: Women Artists Reconfigure the Signs of
Power, 1973-1991, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchse College, Purchase, New York.
Posing Beauty: African American Images From the 1890s to the Present,
Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey.
Stargazers: Elizabeth Catlett in Conversation with 21 Contemporary Artists,
Bronx Museum of Art, Bronx, New York.
30 Americans, North Carolina Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina.
Unsettled: Photography and Politics in Contemporary Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Featured
Carrie's work greets visitors to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations (USUN) in New York City.
Interviewed by Dream Hampton for Jay Z's Life and Times website.
This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s,
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota. La Triennale: Intense Proximity,
Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba.
Video installation of The Maddening Crowd, at the McNay Art Museum,
San Antonio, Texas
Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video,
edited by Kathryn E. Delmez, with essays by Kathryn E. Delmez,
Henry Louis Gates Jr., Franklin Sirmans, Robert Storr, and
Deborah Willis, published by Yale University Press.
Also recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation
and the Gordon Parks Foundation Award.
Exhibits
Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video, Portland Art
Museum, Cleveland Art Museum, Cantor Center for the Visual Arts. Feminist And . . . ,
The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. DuBois in Our Time, University
of Massachusetts, Amherst. Seven Sisters, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Franciasco.
Carrie creates the Du Bois Peony of Hope which will anchor the Du Bois Memorial Garden at
the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Carrie turns 60.
2014
Carrie at the Guggenheim
This year the Guggenheim Museum presented Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video,
Carrie Mae Weems LIVE: Past Tense/Future Perfect, and honored Carrie at the Guggenheim
International Gala.
Awards and Honors
Carrie is honored by Russell Simmons's Rush Foundation
and receives the Lucie Foundation Award and the
BET Award.
Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video, Guggenheim Museum.
P.3 Prospect New Orleans, The McKenna Museum, New Orleans. Color: Real and
Imagined, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London. Carrie Mae Weems: The Museum Series,
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. Wide Angle: American Photographs, University
of Kentucky, Lexington.
Carrie reads at the Academy of American Poets along with Meryl Streep,
Rosie Perez, Patrick Stewart, Julianna Margulies, Tina Fey
The Memory of Time, The National Gallery of Art. Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy. Winter in America, The School. An Exhibition of African American Photographers from the Daguerreian to the Digital Eras, Marshall Fine Arts Center at Haverford College. Represent: 200 Years of African American Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Under Color of Law, The Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College. 30 Americans, Detroit Institute of Arts.
2015
Awards and Honors
Carrie receives the WEB DuBois Medal, the ICP Spotlight Award,
and is the honoree at the American Academy in Rome Gala.
Carrie receives an honorary doctorate from the School of Visual Arts, awards from Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Roy and Edna Disney Cal Arts Theater, College Arts Association, and DeFINE ART, and is named a Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow.
Carrie is named one of the 100 most influential woman of all time by Ebony magazine and shares the page with Octavia Butler and Gwendolyn Brooks.
Performances
Directs and produces Grace Notes: Reflections for Now at the Kennedy Center and Yale Univeristy.
Exhibitions
We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85, at the California African American Museum, Carrie Mae Weems: Ritual and Revolution at the Block Museum of Art, . . . And the People at Maruani Mercer, Carrie Mae Weems: Beacon at the Edward Hopper House
Awards and Honors
Honored at Museum of Modern Art, UC San Diego, Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Abraham.In.Motion, MOMA Party in the Garden, and receives honorary doctorate from Syracuse University and Edward Hopper Citation of Merit in the Visual Arts