Photo: Sheila Pree Bright
#1960Now
Who is Crystal E. Monds?
I work to merge my education in both fine arts and traditional Eastern healing arts. These two paths may be seemingly unrelated, but they very often cross paths and encourage innovation within each practice.
Cultural education is injected into each project, and healing work is inserted into the creative process, primarily through working with individuals in very introspective artworks.Having received education in 2 very intrinsically cultural fields, I also recognize that my identities within these worlds are widely minimized in the American South. Creole sometimes conflicts with Blackness, and Black has a difficult place in art history. Blackness has no visible place within Western healing, and being queer certainly still comes with obstacles across the board.
These all come in addition to being a woman.
Because of this, it is imperative that these identities are the same ones I center and make visible in my creative work.Previous Work
2016 CHROMA: Spring | Arketype/ Axess Stones Gallery | Atlanta, GA
CHROMA: Red | Elevate: Microcosm | Gallery 72
2014 Nneka: My Mother is Supreme | Premier Premiere | Eyedrum | Atlanta, GA
#GenocideLooksLike | Re-imagining Ferguson: Art As Resistance | Georgia State UniversityEsoteric Lore: Rights of Passage, Africa-Atlanta 2014 | Whitespace Gallery | Atlanta, GA
Beware the Respectability | Dance Chance | Atlanta Ballet | Atlanta, GA
Black Magic | Dance Change | Atlanta Ballet | Atlanta, GA
2013 Putting the U.S. Southeast on the Map, France Atlanta 2013, Stubbins Gallery | Atlanta, GATrois, Neighborhood Gallery | Atlanta, GA
2012 Mnemonic Archive, Atlanta Photography Group Gallery | Atlanta, GAMultifarious, StudioPlex | Atlanta, GA
2011 Esoteric Lore: Visual Storytelling, Auburn Avenue Research Library | Atlanta, GAVision in the Void, Youngblood Art Gallery | Atlanta, GA
Guest Speaker at Why Do We Give a Sh!t | Living Walls | Atlanta, GA
2010 Esoteric Lore, Toni Cade Bambara Conference, Spelman College | Atlanta, GAArt is Queer x2, Worthmore Jewelers/1st Existentialists | Atlanta, GA
2009 SCAD-Atlanta Open Studio Exhibition, Savannah College of Art and Design | Atlanta, GASCAD-Atlanta Juried Photography Exhibition, Atlantic Station | Atlanta, GA
2007 SCAD-Atlanta Open Studio Exhibition, Savannah College of Art and Design | Atlanta, GAFeatured in:
Mambu Badu Photography Collective: “Open Call”, Mambu Badu, issue 2, vol. 1, winter 2013, p. 20Lopez, Carla Aaron: “Esoteric Lore, a New Collective for Art and Empowerment”, Burnaway, April 22, 2011
