april banks, b. USA
interdisciplinary art + social practice
Public Art
Belmar History + Art, Permanent Sculpture, Santa Monica, CA, 2021
Forest Signs, Cal Shakes Bruns Amphitheater, Orinda, CA, 2012
Solo Exhibitions
“La Vida del Chocolate” MUUA Lab, Museo de Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia, 2013
“Crushed” Paper and Thread Installation, Guerilla Gallery, Berkeley, CA, 2008
”Free Chocolate” Installation, Photography and Video, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, 2006
Group Shows / Performances
“Photo Flux: Unshuttering L.A” photo exhibition, The Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA 2021
”Ambiguities of Blackness” Minnesota Street Projects, San Francisco, CA 2021
“Breaking Bread in LA” group exhibition, OxyArts, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA 2019
“Collapse” group exhibition, Quotidian Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2019
Addis Foto Fest 2018, photography biennale, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2018
"ICONIC: Black Panther" group exhibition, Gregorio Escalante Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2017
"Dak'art OFF" Art Biennale, Mauritanian Governor's Mansion, Saint-Louis, Senegal 2016
“Manifest Justice” Arts for Amnesty pop-up group exhibition, Los Angeles, CA 2015
“The House on Mango Street” traveling group exhibition, National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL 2015
Artist-in-Residence exhibition, photography, Abu Dhabi Art Hub, Abu Dhabi, UAE 2015
“Orquesta de Arroz” public music session w/ rice & pots, el Mercado, La Otra Bienal de Arte, Bogotá, Colombia, 2013
“The Rise of Rice” performance w/ rice & dancer Anani Sanouvi, Sacatar Institute, Open Studios, Itaparica, Brazil, 2013
“Rocks or Rice” The Raw Feed Project, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, 2012
“West is More” City Market Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2012
“re-FABLE” two-person collaborative installation on ancestral DNA, SWARM Gallery, Oakland, CA, 2011
“Double Exposure” David Driskell Center, University of Maryland, College Park, 2011
“Learn to Play” Euphrat Museum of Art, DeAnza College, Cupertino, CA, 2010
“Provisions” Food and Social Justice, Nathan Cummings Foundation, NY, NY, 2010
“Double Exposure” Thorne-Sagendorph Gallery, Keene State College, New Hampshire, 2010
“Let’s Talk of a System” Intersection for the Arts 5M, San Francisco, CA, 2010
“100 Performances for the Hole: Take 2” SomArts Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 2010
“Double Exposure” Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, FL, 2010
“Double Exposure” DePaul University Art Museum, Chicago, IL, 2009
“Female Focus” Group Photography Exhibition, June Steingart Gallery, Oakland, CA, 2009
“Mass Nausea : 2” Project Space: ProArts Gallery, Oakland, CA, 2009
“Double Exposure” Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA, 2008
“Hopeless and Otherwise” Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA, 2008
“To From Subject” Shedhalle Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland, 2008
“Close Calls” Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA, 2008
“Blacks In & Out of the Box” California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA, 2007
“Black and Blue” Soul Salon 10, Steele Life Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2007
Soul Salon 10 Recent Works, Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland, CA, 2006
“Oakland: East Side Stories” Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, 2006
“Swap Meat” Soul Salon 10, Oakland, CA, 2006
“AfroFuturism” SPACES Gallery, Cleveland, OH, 2006
“Black Panther Rank and File” Soul Salon 10, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, 2006
“Black Creativity” Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL, 2006
“AfroFuturism” Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN, 2005
“Here and Now” de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA, 2005
“Trouble Man” Soul Salon 10, Del Sol Gallery, Sacramento, CA, 2005
“Trouble Man” Soul Salon 10, African American Museum & Library of Oakland, Oakland, CA, 2005
“word: my definition is this” African American Historical & Cultural Society, San Francisco, CA, 2003
Collections
Getty Museum
City of Santa Monica
Private Collections, Los Angeles
Residencies / Grants / Recognition
Residency: Art Hub, Abu Dhabi, UAE, 2015
Residency: Sacatar Foundation, Itaparica, Brazil, 2013
Artist-in-Residence: MUUA Lab, Medellin, Colombia, 2013
Residency and Grant: Visions from the New California Award; 18th St. Art Center, Santa Monica, CA, 2009
Selected Artist for Museum of the African Diaspora’s Vanguard Artist Preview, San Francisco, CA, 2006
Selected Artist for Creative Capital Professional Development Program, San Francisco, CA, 2006
Honorable Mention Photo: “Tools of an Artist” Museum of Science & Industry, Chicago, IL, 2006
Selected writing: “For the Love of Chocolate” San Francisco Museum of the African Diaspora, 2005
Conferences / Panels / Teaching
Presenter, Visiting Artist Portfolios, Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia, Salvador Brazil, 2013
Photography Workshop with EC Reems Middle School and the Triangle Lab, Oakland, CA, 2012
Stop Motion Photography Workshop, Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, San Francisco, CA, 2011
“Project Souarna” Photography Workshop for Refugee Youth, Amman, Jordan, 2009
Pecha Kucha Oakland, Eastside Arts Alliance, Oakland, CA, 2009
Presenter, San Francisco International Chocolate Salon, San Francisco, CA, 2007, 2008
Visiting Artist, California State University Monterey Bay, Seaside, CA, 2007
Member of Soul Salon 10, Community Visual Arts Collective, Oakland, CA, 2005 - 2010
Arts Advisory Committee, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francsico, CA, 2003 - 2005
Lecture: “From Art to War” Department of Design & Industry, San Francisco State University, 2003
Catalogs / Publications
“Afro-Nostaglia: Feeling Good in Contemporary Black Culture”, Badia Ahad-Legardy, 2021
“Visions from the New California” artist-in-residence catalog, pub. Alliance of Artists Communities, RI, 2010
“Exposure: No. 2” exhibition catalog, pub. Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 2008
“Blacks In & Out of the Box” exhibition catalog, pub. CA African American Musuem, Los Angeles, CA, 2007
“BLACK & BLUE” exhibition catalog, pub. Soul Salon 10 Collective, 2007
Trouble Man : 14 Artists Interpret Marvin Gaye. pub. Soul Salon 10 Collective, 2005
Articles / Reviews
Al-Khatib, Sulafa; “Photography for Refugee Youth” Dar Al Hayat newspaper, August 2009
Badday, Yara; “Project Souarna” thirdSPACEmagazine.com, September 2009
Caruth, Nicole; “Feast For The Eyes” GASTRONOMICA Magazine, May 2008
Whiteside, Amber; “April Banks at Intersection for the Arts” ARTWEEK MAGAZINE, March, p13, 2007
Moskowitz, Gary; “Free Chocolate’s Bitter Journey” POP+POLITICS.com, February 15, 2007
Jenkins, Steven; “Free Chocolate” SF GUARDIAN, Jan. 24-30, p. 49, 2007
Litt, Steven; “Today’s Rage is Eclipsing. . .” THE PLAIN DEALER, Wed May 24, sect E, 2006
Bly, Lyz; “Culture Crash” CLEVELAND FREE TIMES, April 26 – May 2, p. 21, 2006
Downs, David. “Mercy Mercy Me: Soul Salon 10 Finds Inspiration...” EASTBAY EXPRESS, May 18, 2005
Payton, Brenda. Mercy, Mercy: Exhibit Probes Gaye's Pain, OAKLAND TRIBUNE, April 8, 2005
Zamora, Jim Herron. Gaye's Influence Transcends Music, SF CHRONICLE, April 2, p. B1, B7, 2005
Education
Master of Science in Environmental Design, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, 1999
Bachelor of Architecture, Hampton University, Hampton, VA, 1996