Daphne Burgess was born and raised in Sacramento, CA. For the past twenty-five years, she has blended her passion for art with her desire for community building. Burgess is committed to increasing access to experiences that encourage interaction and learning. Her background as an arts educator allowed her to teach art through non-profit service organizations, libraries, community centers, and schools. She believes that art plays an intentional role in the development of both people and communities by fostering relationships that transform spaces, promote advocacy, and encourage cross-sector partnerships. As the former Community Engagement Coordinator for Crocker Art Museum, she focused on participatory experiences that brought the museum and communities together to increase access to art.
Daphne Burgess
As a professional fine artist, her artwork primarily consists of paintings, sculptures, ceramics, mixed media, and installations, as she lets storytelling guide the media that she integrates into her art practice. Her early work showed a more traditional style, focused on representational figures. Her series of portraits and personified musical instruments indicate a shift to more abstract figures using bold colors and whimsical imagery. Her more recent work shows influences of her time in the South, highlighting African American culture through a mix of materials and cultural artifacts to show connections to people and places of the past and how those relationships continue to influence the present. Her most recent collections include Kitchen Cathedral: A Black Girl Testifies which explores the connections between food, faith, hair stories and daily rituals of Black family life, and Class, Caste, and the Good China: Deconstructing the Black Domestic in which she address race, culture, gender, and hierarchies based on the caste system. These collections have been on exhibit at Alabama State University, Florida Atlantic University and the Coleman Center for the Arts in York, AL.
Burgess incorporates unique combinations of materials and imagery such as quilt fabrics, recipes, and kitchen and hair “tools” to encourage reflection, spark conversation, and add nostalgia to her storytelling. Through this, she hopes to inspire others to find a piece of themselves.
Since moving to Alabama in 2019 and opening Gallery 157 in 2020, her goal has been to explore her own artistic development while continuing to support equitable access to art-making in rural communities through free resources that support creativity. Burgess is currently a consultant for the Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum to support youth programming and placemaking through the arts.
Website: www.dburgessart.com Instagram: @dburgessart
Facebook: daphne.burgess.1 X: @daphneburgess11