Sharon Norwood
The Root of the Matter Series, 2016.
About:
My work often deals with issues of identity where I use hair as a medium to explore complex relationships. “The Root Of The Matter” investigates past stories, spaces and histories, in order to challenge passive notions of looking.
The work is realized as digital collage prints on paper. Imagery is sourced from the MET 1840’s digital collection and aims to question historical constructed identity and explore the intersection of race and beauty. I really enjoy the shift between hair and line, how at one moment the work is read as hair while at other times it is simply a decorative mark. The line serves dually as simple gestural mark making and as racial markers for curly kinky hair.
Ultimately the work aims to investigate my own thoughts and insecurities about my hair, and pose questions about the right to exist in a place. It is meant to be multi-layered in it’s meaning, and to speak in nuanced ways about gender, beauty, race and class.
Sharon Norwood is an artist of Jamaican ancestry who’s work spans several media including painting and ceramic. Norwood attended the University Of South Florida where she obtained a BFA in painting. She has exhibited internationally, in Canada, the United States and Jamaica.
Noted achievements include artist presentation at the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg Florida, participation at the National Gallery of Jamaica’s 2012 Biennial, invitation to NCECA’s 2016 juried Student competition, and emerging artist recognition at the 2016 Raymond James Gasparilla Festival of the arts. Sharon is currently a 2018 MFA candidate at Florida State University (text website artist)