Northeast Chapter ConferenceSpeakers

"Nona Faustine is an award-winning photographer and visual artist whose conceptual photography evokes a critical understanding of history, identity, and representation by revealing underrepresented narratives throughout past and present history.

Faustine's White Shoes is renowned throughout the fine art field and the culture at large. The series of nude self-portrait photographs, which confronts New York's history with chattel slavery and visualizes the stories and identities of underrepresented communities, has been the subject of numerous exhibitions, news segments, and a monograph, titled White Shoes, published by Mack Books in 2022. Art critic Jonathan Jones wrote that, "The artistic nude was not just about beauty; it ached with pathos. Statues such as the Farnese Hercules and Michelangelo's Slaves, somewhat appropriately, are monuments to strength and suffering. Faustine echoes such art as she stands with strong, silent dignity."

Another notable series is My Country, which exposes popular monuments in the United States as sites and sources of colonialism and white supremacy. Faustine's technical rendering of these monuments provides viewers with a new perspective to question who and what these icons serve. My Country was exhibited in Fantasy America at the Andy Warhol Museum in 2021.

Faustine has been the recipient of many distinguished awards and honors. In 2019 she earned the New York Foundation Arts award in Photography, BRIC Colene Brown Art Prize, Anonymous Was A Woman Award, and was a finalist in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery Outwin Boochever Competition. Her work has been exhibited widely to include exhibitions at the KunstMuseum Wolfsburg Germany, National Portrait Gallery, and National Gallery of Art Harvard University, Studio Museum of Harlem, Brooklyn Museum, Saint John's Divine Cathedral, Tomie Ohtake Institute in Brazil.

In addition to exhibitions, Faustine frequently serves as a public speaker both independently and on panels. She travels around the country to colleges, universities, and museums giving lectures about her work.