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Home – Cayla B. Mims

Cayla B Mims is a visual artist from Illinois. Influenced by her studies in Sociology and Studio Art, she uses painting, portraiture, autobiographical text and ephemera to synthesize sociological frameworks, her intersectional identity, and a passion for activism and positive representation of Black and Brown people. She will receive her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art from Vanderbilt University in May 2021.


Home is an installation of 4 large-scale multimedia collages centered around unearthing family narratives embedded in a piece of land outside Jackson, Mississippi. The work addresses the complex legacy of struggle, both historical and contemporary, on land held in my family for three generations. While Home features my family, the injustice, corruption, and power struggle it relates is the story of many Black American families. Using figurative painting and drawing, portraiture, and text, I convey the sociopolitical nuances that define the layered history of this land and the emotive ways I am navigating this narrative as both artist and inheritor.

 

Exhibition Work: