Katherine Simóne Reynolds: A different kind of tender and the practice of overhealing

In her first solo exhibition in Chicago, Graham Foundation Fellow, Katherine Simóne Reynolds continues her exploration of overhealing from trauma in a new body of work including photographs, a two-channel film, sculptures, and other works produced throughout her residency at the Madlener House. A different kind of tender and the practice of overhealing includes multidisciplinary works that reference the creation of a keloid—a raised scar-like skin growth that continues to grow beyond the original site of a wound—as an outward representation of healing and a site sensitive to recovery and repair in tandem. The work centers on two towns in southern Illinois, Cairo and Brooklyn. Cairo was established as a port on the Mississippi River in the nineteenth century, and Brooklyn—also known as Lovejoy—was founded by Priscilla “Mother” Baltimore in 1829 after buying her own freedom, and later became the first town incorporated by African Americans in the United States in 1873. By considering the historic and current conditions—as well as potential futures—of these Midwest communities, the exhibition addresses relationships between perceptions of abandonment and fertility, Black female imagination, and different manifestations of healing as Reynolds looks at the Rust Belt as a kind of keloidal landscape.

Katherine Simóne Reynolds practice investigates emotional dialects and psychogeographies of Blackness, and the importance of “anti-excellence.” Her work physicalizes emotions and experiences by constructing pieces that include portrait photography, video works, choreography, sculpture, and installation. Taking cues from the midwestern post-industrial melancholic landscape having grown up in the metro east area of Saint Louis, she formed an obsessive curiosity around the practices of healing as well as around a societal notion of progress spurning from a time of industrial success. Utilizing Black embodiment and affect alongside her own personal narrative as a place of departure has made her question her own navigation of ownership, inclusion, and authenticity within a contemporary gaze. She draws inspiration from Black glamour and beauty while interrogating the notion of “authentic care.” Her practice generally deals in Blackness from her own perspective, and she continuously searches for what it means to produce “Black Work.”

Reynolds has exhibited and performed at Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and SculptureCenter, Long Island City, NY, among other spaces. Alongside her visual art practice, she has embarked on curatorial projects at SculptureCenter; Stanley Museum of Art, Iowa City; and Clyfford Still Museum, Denver. She is the 2022–23 Graham Foundation Fellow.

Related events
Thursday, April 27, 6pm
Alicia Olushola Ajayi and Kelley Lemon in conversation with Katherine Simóne Reynolds

Thursday, May 11, 6pm
Artist talk by Katherine Simóne Reynolds

Saturday, May 13, 3pm
Reading by Jacqui Germain

Saturday, June 10, 2pm
Performance by Jared Brown and Regina Martinez

About the fellowship
Katherine Simóne Reynolds was selected in 2022 for the Graham Foundation Fellowship—a program that provides support for an individual for the development and production of original and challenging works and the opportunity to present these projects in an exhibition at the Graham’s galleries in Chicago. The Fellowship program extends the legacy of the Foundation’s first awards, made in 1957, and continues the tradition of support to individuals to explore innovative perspectives on spatial practices in design culture. 

About the Graham Foundation 
Founded in 1956, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts fosters the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society. The Graham realizes this vision through making project-based grants to individuals and organizations and by producing exhibitions, events, and publications.