Aperture Conversations: Sheila Pree Bright and Kiche Griffin

This event is free for students with ID and Aperture Members at the $50 level and above.

Aperture Foundation, in collaboration with the Photography Program at Parsons School of Design of The New School, is pleased to present a conversation between artist Sheila Pree Bright and creative consultant Likisha “Kiche” Griffin. Join us for a night filled with insight and discussion between Bright and Griffin, both of whom have been working together to lead the path toward racial progress in America. Bright, an Atlanta-based photographer, combines compelling portraits of social justice activists from the past and the present with images of today’s most recent protests surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement in her new book, #1960Now. After the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012, Bright traveled the country attending protests to create images that represent a timeless history. The past and present work in conjunction with one another to not only remind us that the battle we are fighting is far from over, but also to raise awareness of millennial standpoints on issues of civil rights. Creative producer Griffin has worked with Bright on branding strategies for the #1960Now digital campaigns, contributed an essay to the book #1960Now, and is coproducer of Bright’s related art film.

Copies of Bright’s book #1960Now will be available for purchase. A book signing will follow the talk.

Image by Sheila Pree Bright, National March on Ferguson, “We Can’t Stop Now,” protesting police violence and the murder of Mike Brown, 2015.

 Sheila Pree Bright is an acclaimed fine-art photographer known for her photographic series #1960Now, 1960Who, Young Americans, Plastic Bodies, and Suburbia.  She received national attention shortly after earning her MFA in photography from Georgia State University, and describes herself as a visual cultural producer portraying large-scale works that combine a wide range of contemporary culture. Bright’s work is included in books, exhibitions, and numerous private and public collections, and she is the recipient of several awards, including the Santa Fe Prize (2006). Her current and most ambitious project to date, #1960Now, is now in the collections at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, DC; Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; and Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta.

Kiche Griffin is a creative producer and consultant who has worked with various museums and art organizations. She is an essay contributor to Prospect.4 New Orleans, a citywide triennial of contemporary art curated by artistic director Trevor Schoonmaker; her contribution to the exhibition catalogue honors the legacy work of MacArthur Fellow John T. Scott. She was the community engagement curator of Devin Allen: Awakenings, in a New Light and a curatorial assistant of Ruth Starr Rose (1887–1965): Revelations of African American Life in Maryland and the World, curated by art historian Barbara Paca (both at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum, Baltimore, 2015–16). Currently, Griffin is director of L. Griffin Creative, an Atlanta-based boutique studio that produces digital content for art professionals and independent filmmakers.

Aperture Foundation’s public programs are supported, in part, by generous donations from our Board of Trustees, our members and other individuals, and from corporate foundations and private foundations including: Grace Jones Richardson Trust, the William Talbott Hillman Foundation, and public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.