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Lorraine O’Grady

Lorraine O’Grady was truly a one of a kind artist! Born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1934, O’Grady was a late artistic bloomer, as she did not make her debut into the art world until 1980. That is not to say, however, that she did not burst into the art scene with a big splash! O’Grady made a name for herself by displacing and embodying controversial art pieces that tackled her perception on such controversial issues as diaspora, hybridity, and Black female subjectivity. Needless to say, she quickly became a highly acclaimed conceptual artist in the 80’s. Never one to shy away from controversy, she created the persona of “Mlle Bourgeoise Noire” and attended art openings as the character. As Mlle, she wore a gown made of 180 gloves and beat herself with a white cat-o-nine-tails while shouting out poems that criticized the still segregated art world that she felt so passionately about.

O’Grady’s strongly feminist work has been widely exhibited, namely in New York and Europe. In 2008, she received an Anonymous Was A Woman award and, in 2011, she was named United States Artists Rockefeller Fellow in Visual Art.