faith j. mckinnie is a critic + curator practicing on the unceded land of the Nisenan.
her practice is multidimensional but remains rooted in the prioritization and care of artists who find their work outside the imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchal margins of the art historical canon. through curatorial intervention and critical discourse, she interrogates visual culture and its relationship to post-colonialism, feminist & race theories, migration, land degradation, and the historicity of the personal narrative.
She is the recipient of:
- Sacramento Bee + Nehemiah Emerging Leadership Program's 2022 Top 25 Black Change Maker award.
- Sacramento Kings + Crown Royal's 2022 Culture Creator Award.
- National Endowment for the Arts + City of Sacramento's 2022 Seeding Creativity Award.
- 18th Street Arts Center's 2023 California Creative Corps Finalist
- Center for Cultural Innovation's 2023 CALI Catalyst Award
she has lectured on curatorial activism at the University of Chicago, the University of California Davis, Sierra College, the University of Nevada Reno, and both California State Universities, Sacramento and Stanislaus. she serves as a curatorial mentor for the City of Sacramento's inaugural Emerging Curator's Program and Community Consultant for the Sacramento Public Library's Parks and Tranquility Project, she is the founder of the Sacramento Curatorial Collective, the DEIA board chair at Capital Creative Alliance, and a founding board member of the Sacramento Alliance for Regional Art. She holds a B.A. in Art History.
she is the founding director of the
- Profile 9/23/2023 - 10/22/2023
- When We See Us 8/19/2023 - 9/10/2023
- Are You In The Middle? 4/29/2023 - 4/30/2023
- Changing The Landscape, 9/2/2022 - 10/2/2022
- Black Creativity at the Heart of Sacramento, 4/8/2022 - 5/7/2022
- Sacramento Black Art History Timeline v.I, 4/8/2022 - 6/19/2022
- Coordinates: Ice Pac, 3/4/2022 - 3/26/2022
- Remainders, 1/7/2022 - 3/26/2022
- From The Original, 2/19/2022 - 4/9/2022
- Su Presencia 1/29/2022 - 2/27/2022
- N.G.G.R 11/20/2021 - 1/2/2022
- Gastinell's 10/15/2021 - 11/14/2021
- Predictions 9/3/2021 - 9/26/2021
- Gather Together In Our Name 8/14/2021 - 8/29/2021
- State of the City of Sacramento Mayoral Address 2021
- San Joaquin Delta College Juried Exhibition 2021
- Pence Gallery Juried Exhibition 2021
- Axis Gallery Juried Exhibition 2021
- The Distance Between Black & White 1/2020 - 8/2020
from August 2021 to March 2022, she operated Faith J. McKinnie Gallery in downtown Sacramento, providing visibility to the work of several Black, Latinx, AAPI, and Queer identifying artists
Faith J. McKinnie Gallery reopens with a Project Space For Curatorial Intervention.
A deliberate and purposeful action to engage with artworks, exhibitions, or cultural contexts in a way that goes beyond traditional curatorial practices. Involving dynamic and creative approaches to curating that aim to challenge, provoke thought, and reimagine the relationships between artworks, audiences, and the spaces they inhabit. Learn more here.
developed + co-curated a thirty-five artist site-specific installation at 38.56858818026328, -121.48851783164906
studio manager to Wangari Mathenge's 'You Are Here' solo exhibition & installation at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London UK
researched + developed vol. 1 of the Sacramento Black Art History timeline on view at the Black Creativity at the Heart of Sacramento exhibition in 2022.
funded by Upper Cloud Media and Arden Fair Mall
In 2021, Faith J. McKinnie consulted California Governor Gavin Newsom and Listos California to leverage partnerships with California-based artists to reach communities with images and messages that resonate with them. Sacramento-based Aliyah Sidqe, San Francisco-based Jocelyn Tsaih, and Creativity Explored Laron Bickerstaff were selected to interpret a new era of disaster preparedness and the steps that communities need to take to get ready.
for more information
Faith J. McKinnie brings together Black Artist Foundry and Nine Sixteen Luxuries "This is Sac" founder and creative director Dev Anglin for PROOf.
On Saturday, July 29th, 2023 at 5:00 PM in Downtown Sacramento we gathered over sixty Black artists from all disciplines to come together for an unforgettable group photo. Together, we created a visual testament of our region's rich artistic legacy—a captivating image that celebrates and documents our collective brilliance.
for more information www.BlackArtistFoundry.org/proof
on May 18, 2023, at 6:00 PM Hilton Als, Pulitzer Prize-winning essayist and author, and Joan Didion superfan will be in conversation with Sacramento-based curator Faith J. McKinnie. Join us for a riveting conversation covering Als' most recent work on Joan Didion and her lasting impact that will be full of admiration and exploration.
for more information
on March 22, 2024, at 8:30 AM Faith J. McKinnie will speak on Perspective at Creative Mornings Sacramento.
Watch the video here.
On Tuesday April 2, 2024 7:00 PM, Faith J. McKinnie chats about regional (Sacramento, CA) contemporary art issues. As an advocate + critic + curator, she will share her personal experiences and future hopes for the region's art community.
#faithsartnotes are intended to make arts writing and critical discourse accessible to the greater Sacramento region's art community.
these notes contain my thoughts, observations, inquiries, and suggestions that are meant to historically archive and radically interpret contemporary art in Sacramento, California and throughout the world.
funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts City of Sacramento's Office of Arts + Culture's 2022 Seeding Creativity grant
find essays + exhibition statements here
+ other ways to support this work
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