Frank Frances (b.1983, Columbia, SC) is a NYC-based artist whose work challenges the everyday perceptions of memories and prejudice rooted in the American South, through painting and close studies of photography.
Frances interrogates his childhood memories of growing up in South Carolina to reinterpret stereotypical symbols of the South. His work incorporates elements that have shaped the black experience since the slave trade, including food—such as watermelon and Kool-Aid and cotton. By exploring these objects, Frances reimagines ways to reveal the beauty within items inherently marked by the trauma of slavery and oppression. While this process carries deep historical and personal pain, it embodies resilience and the enduring beauty of black culture.
Frances received a BFA and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York. He has exhibited in solo and group presentations domestically and internationally at The Studio Museum of Harlem, Sasha Wolf Gallery, Glasshouse, Carriage Trade, and Werkstadt Graz amongst others. Reviews and features of his work have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vice, NPR, ArtInfo, Bomblog, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek.
His first book Remember The South is published by Monolith Editions.
