Erica Deeman

Erica Deeman is a visual artist whose work delves into the intersections of race, gender, and the complex dynamics of Black identity.

Biography of Erica Deeman

Erica Deeman was born in Nottingham, UK, in 1977. She earned a BA in Public Relations from Leeds Beckett University, UK, in 2000, followed by a BFA in Photography from the Academy of Art in San Francisco, CA, in 2014. Recently, she completed her MFA in Art Practice at UC Berkeley, CA, in 2022.

In 2019, she was an Artist in Residence at Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin County, CA. She also received several grants, including Working Artists Grant: November (2015), Berkeley Center for New Media Summer Research Grant (2021), and Black Studies Collaboratory Small Grants Program (2022).

Erica Deeman has also received numerous awards, including the Cadogan Award (2021) and Threshold Fellowship: Headlands Center for the Arts (2022/2023). 

Her solo exhibitions include "Emerging States" at Anthony Meier Fine Arts in San Francisco (2023), "Familiar Stranger" at Anthony Meier Fine Arts in San Francisco (2020), "The Artist Talks: Erica Deeman" at the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego (2018), "Erica Deeman" at Laurence Miller Gallery in New York (2017), and many more.

Currently, the artist lives and works between Seattle, WA & San Francisco, CA.

Erica Deeman's Art Style

Deeman explores the diverse expressions of selfhood through queer, transnational, and hybrid perspectives, investigating how migratory patterns, memory, personal history, and ancestral heritage shape our sense of belonging and 'home.' Her multidisciplinary practice reflects the nuanced and transformative dimensions of Black identity. Deeman focuses on the liminal and transient spaces where Black identities evolve. Her work spans across interdisciplinary realms, encompassing both physical and virtual environments.

The artist explores social constructs of identity, gender, and race through portraiture. Her "Silhouette" series involves women from the African diaspora, many of whom were strangers to her. Drawing from the 18th-century pseudoscience of physiognomy, which used silhouettes to link facial features to character traits, Deeman's portraits aim to intricately depict identity. This process mirrors her own journey of self-discovery as a woman of English and Jamaican heritage.

In her latest series, "Familiar Stranger," Deeman takes a new direction by featuring herself in front of the camera for the first time. This collection blurs the lines between photography and sculpture, presenting 15 intimate self-portraits crafted from Cassius Obsidian clay. Through Familiar Stranger, Deeman explores themes of diasporic and transnational experiences, Black identity's enduring significance, and the complexity of cultural identity nuances.