ALANNA FIELDS

The MassArt Graduate Programs and Photography department are pleased to welcome Alanna Fields as the first visiting artist of the Spring 2026 Photography Lecture Series! Please join us in the Tower Auditorium at 2pm on Tuesday, Feb. 10. Alanna Fields (b. 1990, Maryland, USA) is a mixed-media artist and archivist whose work both deconstructs and reconstructs Black queer memory and history through a multidisciplinary engagement with photographic archives. Fields’ work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at Paris Photo, The Armory Show, Art Basel Miami, and Expo Chicago. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at The Brooklyn Museum, The Aldrich Contemporary Museum, The High Museum of Art, The Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling, and The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporic Art. She has presented solo exhibitions at Plug-In Institute of Contemporary Art and Baxter Street Camera Club of NY and participated in gallery exhibitions at Yancey Richardson Gallery, Yossi Milo Gallery, Hannah Traore Gallery, Latchkey Gallery, David Castillo Gallery, and the Silver Eye Center for Photography, among others. Fields has held professorships at Pratt Institute and currently at Howard University, teaching Photography in the Department of Art. In 2025, Fields released her first monograph, Unveiling, which was shortlisted for the Aperture X Paris Photo First Book Prize. All Photography lectures are free and open to the public. image: ©️ Alanna Fields, Sweet Nellie (Composition No. 3), 2024, Archival Pigment prints on coated Hahnemuhle Daguerre canvas and acrylic on piano-hinged wood, 36" x 40" x 2.5" #photographylecture #photography #photolectures #massart

Experiencing SO MUCH gratitude and excitement over the news of “Unveiling” being selected for Paris Photo|Aperture Photobook Awards Shortlist in the category of First Photobook. This is such a full circle moment — a bountiful harvest of hard work, dedication and heartfelt intention to excavate Black Queer history through images of the past, recontextualized for this contemporary moment and toward more expansive queer future(s). I’m proud of me, and immensely grateful for everyone who has support the development my work over the past decade. Thank you to everyone who has supported this publication, with special thanks to @aperturefnd @parisphotofair @lightworkorg @pluginica @pjcohencollection @icp @baxterstccny @contact_pbl as well as @meteoroeditions @brianpaullamotte @sumiajuxun and @goldenthem_ @reanie_beanie for all of your contributions and collaborations. Flowers for us all 💐. Much love, -A

Friends! I have a few book tour/signing dates for “Unveiling” coming up next week in DC at @nedsclubwashingtondc — in NYC at @icp with @goldenthem_ and at @baxterstccny with @reanie_beanie 🤎. I’ll be in conversation with a couple of my favorite artists talking about Unveiling and the intersections of our work through Black Queer images and ancestral archiving. Copies of Unveiling are still up on my website. Hope to see you there ✨ DC - June 25th at Ned’s Club DC 7-8pm NYC - June 26 at ICP 6-8pm (in conversation w/ Golden) NYC - June 28th at Baxter St. CCNY at 12-2pm (in Conversation w/ Irene Antonia Diane Reece)

To consider this celestial season of otherworldly energy, for our October newsletter we looked both beyond and within. Our digital editor Maleke Glee, spoke with interdisciplinary DC based artist @alannafields about the role of spirit in their archival practice. Read and subscribe to our Substack through the link in our bio!

🖤♥️💚 Alanna Fields Kiss Me Make My World Fade Away Archival pigment print and encaustic on Dibond panel 30 x 40 x .625 inches (76.2 x 101.6 x 1.6 cm) 2021 Alanna Fields (b. 1990, Maryland) is a New York–based mixed-media artist and archivist whose practice investigates Black queer memory through photography, text, and archival intervention. Drawing on found photographs, Fields examines how legibility, visibility, redaction, and erasure shape the historical record of Black queer life. In Kiss Me, Make My World Fade Away (2021), Fields engages the archive as a site where memory and history are contested, foregrounding the instability of representation and the limits of photographic visibility. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at the Brooklyn Museum, the High Museum of Art, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Paris Photo, Art Basel Miami, Felix LA, and Expo Chicago. She has presented solo exhibitions at Baxter Street Camera Club of NY and the Plug-In Institute of Contemporary Art. She is a Gordon Parks Foundation Scholar and Pollock-Krasner Foundation grantee. Her first monograph, Unveiling, was published in 2025. @alannafields In the Life: Black Queerness—Looking Back, Moving Forward (September 5–October 11, 2025, at the Carr Center, Detroit) brings together intergenerational artists who explore intimacy, kinship, and historical reinvention through the lens of Black Queerness. Co-curated by patrick burton and Wayne Northcross, the exhibition spans photography, painting, drawing, and archival intervention, reframing community through chosen kinship and familial memory. Exhibiting artists: April Bey, John Edmonds, Alanna Fields, LeRoy Foster, Clifford Prince King, Richard Lewis, Felicita “Felli” Maynard, Zanele Muholi, Vernando Reuben, Tylonn J. Sawyer, Pamela Sneed, Bre’Ann White, and Anthony Peyton Young. #inthelife #artasactivism #blackqueervisibilty #blackqueerhistory #blackqueermemory #queertheory #thedetroitqueerbiennial

Early Black Queer Images is a 6-week online course that explores Black queer life, identity and history through an intimate engagement with artist and archivist, @AlannaFields ' ever-growing archive of found and sourced vernacular photographs spanning the 1900s-1990s. ⁠ ⁠ Through photographic excavation, the class will examine early self-portraiture, photo booth portraits, playbill images, military portraits, and scenes depicting Black queer everyday life and love. Each class explores another layer of history untold and unseen as participants traverse through the archive and contextualize these images as a means of cultural analysis on Black queering in front of and behind the camera. The course will culminate in the creation of original pieces utilizing the source material in the format of each participant's choosing. Participants will leave the course with a deeper, visceral picture of early Black queer life in the U.S.⁠ ⁠ Wednesdays | October 15 - November 19⁠ ⁠ Register at the link in bio. ⁠ ⁠ Images courtesy of Alanna Fields

Another one around the sun 💫♊️ WOW. What a year…so many “firsts!” It feels extra special to celebrate this birthday, Gemini & Pride season with the release of my first book/monograph. To honor #pridemonth and this milestone with each of you, I have released a limited edition of 200, signed copies of “Unveiling” on my website [ alannafields.com ] through June. Each copy comes with a wet signature and personal note from me (bc sentimentalism is my thing). Go and get you one! Special thanks l to everyone who has supported the book with a share, repost or purchase so far! LOVE Y’ALL SO MUCH 🥲❤️

Mirages of Dreams Past, Unveiling in the sky ☁️ Alanna Fields, Unveiling, 2025, installation view, billboards at Strachan Ave & King St W. Courtesy of the artist and CONTACT Photography Festival. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid

✨PRESALE BOOK: “Unveiling” by @alannafields ✨ Consider supporting this amazing project that delves into black queer archival practices. #meteoroeditions #presale #alannafields #blackqueer #queerarchives #photobook

Excited to share that this work, “Edye in Bloom (Fan No. 1)” will be featured in the Brooklyn Artists exhibition at the @brooklynmuseum opening this weekend. Trust me, you’ll want to see this piece in person ✨ “Edye in Bloom (Fan No. 1)” features a 1977 archival portrait of Edye Gregory, one of Kansas City’s first Black drag queens. This artwork highlights Edye emerging from behind a fan, symbolizing both protection and cultural significance in queer performance. This work is the premiere piece in an ongoing series of sculptural works focusing on queer icons from small towns, exploring queer life beyond major east coast cities into the Midwest and South. Driven by the complex politics of the gaze, my practice continues to investigate ideas of concealment, fragmentation, and representation, through remixing and reactivating archival images of 20th-century Black queer figures. “Edye in Bloom (Fan No. 1), 2024” Varnished Archival pigment print on Daguerre canvas, acrylic and constructed wood. 47 3/4” x 26” x 1 1/2” Unique

The Queen Leigh Angelique will be on view and looking back at you at @thearmoryshow with @yanceyrichardsongallery at Booth 324 ✨ Dorothy Dandridge Eyes (Leigh Angelique, 1961) 2022 Dye sublimation prints on aluminum, plexiglass and mahogany frame.

Excited to finally unveil this new series at @thearmoryshow with @yossimilo Come lay your eyes on Sweet Nellie today at Booth 125✨ Sweet Nellie (Composition No. 3) 2024 Archival pigment print on coated Hahnemühle Daguerre canvas and acrylic on piano-hinged wood paneling.