Noel W Anderson

Noel W Anderson employs image-based mediums to explore the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Focusing primarily on Jacquard tapestries, printmaking, and film, his work draws from archives specific to African American history—such as Ebony magazine and FBI records—to critically examine representations of Black masculinity. By utilizing technological methods of image reproduction, he engages with ongoing debates about Black representation while connecting historical practices across painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, and weaving. The historical relationship between tapestry weaving and both traditional and contemporary art allows him to investigate how historical materials influence portrayals of Black male identity. His tapestries are entirely woven, not digitally printed. Central to Anderson’s process is the manipulation of archival images, which skilled weavers then translate into tapestries. These woven works are further altered by hand—through dyeing, distressing, and dissolving—blurring the images and emphasizing their physicality. This approach raises important questions about how contemporary production methods might democratize representations of Blackness and how weaving can conceptually and materially disrupt archival narratives. By embedding images of Black experience within luxury objects like tapestries and reworking them, Anderson’s work introduces discourses of Black materiality into both traditional and contemporary art conversations. ...