Houston-based artist Nathaniel Donnett has a newly commissioned public art installation called Acknowledgement: The Historic Polyrhythm of Being(s) on view outside CAMH (on the corner of Montrose and Bissonnet). In this CAMH Connects Donnett shares his inspiration, process, and the questions he asks as he creates new work. Donnett focuses on Black social life and the everyday aesthetic and in this project worked with local organizations and youth in the Houston neighborhoods of Third, Fourth, and Fifth Ward to initiate backpack exchanges that became a part of the final installation.
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About the Series
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, we’re doing everything we can to flatten the curve — but even though the museum is closed, and we’re working from home, we still talk to artists around the world every day. Here in Houston, in Italy, in China, in San Francisco … artists, like all of us, are weathering the coronavirus personally and professionally.
We will bring these conversations with artists — wherever they are — to wherever you are.
About Nathaniel Donnett
Nathaniel Donnett lives and works in Houston, Texas. Donnett received his BA in Fine Arts from Texas Southern University and is a 2021 MFA Candidate in Painting at the Yale University School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut. Donnett is a current recipient of a 2020 Dean’s Critical Practice Research Grant and a 2020 Art and Social Justice Initiative Grant. Donnett is a recipient of a 2019 (Fresh Arts Houston) and 2018 (Project Row Houses) community-based art project commission for his ongoing What’s The New News project and a 2015 Houston Downtown Vehicular Wayfinding Signs Project public art commission. Donnett has also received the 2017/2011 Houston Arts Alliance Individual Artist Grant, a 2014 Harpo Foundation Grant, 2015/2011 Idea Fund/Andy Warhol Foundation Grant, and a 2010 Artadia Award. His work has been shown widely, including at Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach; Mennello Museum of American Art, Orlando, Florida; Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, Kansas; McColl Center for Art + Innovation, Charlotte, North Carolina; American University Museum at The Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri; Hotel Theresa, Harlem, New York; Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, Charlotte, North Carolina; Community Artist’s Collective, Houston, Texas; Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, Connecticut; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Texas; Project Row Houses, Houston, Texas; The University Museum, Houston, Texas, and The New Museum, New York, New York.