Harmony Hammond
Personal Information
Born: 1944
Country of Birth: USA
Nationality: USA
Ethnicity: White
Education
Millikin University 1961-63 then transferred to University of Minnesota BA (some sources say BFA) 1967
"“…if we want to talk about what was the radical thing that feminism brought to art, or what did feminist art do that was radical, it was that it insisted upon content and meaning, and it validated the life experiences of women as subject matter and sources for the making, viewing, and critiquing of art. In the early 70’s this was radical — a tremendous breakthrough. Western art hasn’t been the same since.” (airgalley.org); "I see art-making, especially that which comes from the margins of the mainstream, as a sit of resistence, a way of interrupting & intervening in those historical & cultural fields that continually exclude me, a sort of gathering of forces on the border." (shahgargfoundation.org); "I have two separate bodies of work that inform each other. Mostly I make large near-monochrome oil paintings that incorporate materials ranging from fabrics, rusted roofing tin, linoleum, latex rubber, burlap coffee sacks, and grommets to “natural” materials including straw, leaves, roots, hair, and blood in layers of thick pigment. The materials and the way they are physically manipulated and juxtaposed bring content into the painting field, what I call “material engagement” as a means to “social abstraction.” It’s a way of participating in the narrative of modernist painting and at the same time interrupting and revising that narrative to include voices of difference—those on the fringes, those who have been marginalized or silenced, to make work about agency. Like queer identity, abstract painting is indeterminate. Most of my work occupies a space between painting and sculpture, what we might call a third or queer space. I’m interested in “edges” and what goes on there. It’s where I hang out and am most comfortable." (hyperallergic.com); "
— Harmony Hammond
Professional Life
Field of Study: Art
Institution/Corporation: A.I.R. Gallery;
Degrees & Memberships: Member: National College Art Association; Queer Caucus for Art; International Association of Art Critics; Women's Caucus for Art; A.I.R. Gallery;
Awards & Achievements
Awards: 2017 Inducted into the National Academy, NYC; 2014 Anonymous Was A Woman Award; 2014 Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award, Women’s Caucus for Art; 2013 College Art Association Distinguished Feminist Award; 2013 University of Minnesota, College of Liberal Arts, Distinguished Alumni Award; 2008 National Women’s History Month Honoree; 2007 Through the Flower Award for Significant Contributions to the Feminist Art Movement; 2004 Veteran Feminist of America Award; 2001 Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Studies for Lesbian Art in America; 1996 Provost’s Author Support Award, University of Arizona;
Achievements: co-founded A.I.R., the first women’s cooperative art gallery in New York, (1972) & Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art & Politics (1976); authored her first book, Wrappings: Essays on Feminism, Art, and the Martial Arts, a corpus of her writings from 1973 to 1983 published by TSL Press, in 1984; 2000 published Lesbian Art in America: A Contemporary History; organized one of the first exhibitions by lesbian artists titled “The Lesbian Show” in 1978;
taught at the University of Arizona, Tucson from 1989–2006
was a prominent figure in the founding of the feminist art movement in 1970s New York
was an instructor at the New York Feminist Art Institute
has been living in New Mexico since 1984
created sculptures in the early 1970s featuring swaths of fabric, a traditionally feminine material, as a primary material
her paintings show how they were made and are almost all abstract
in the 1990s primarily made mixed-media installations that incorporated a range of traditionally non-art materials (such as human hair and corrugated roofing) with traditional oil painting, and in the first decade of the 2000s, her focus was on making monochrome abstract paintings
has had more than 40 solo exhibitions internationally
The Harmony Hammond Papers were acquired by the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles in 2016
is often labeled a queer abstractionist, and her work focuses primarily on questioning the signifiers of traditionally feminine materials and practices
practiced & taught the Japanese martial art of aikido