Danielle Deadwyler American, b. 1982
"My work explores how lines are blurred in the labor of black women, especially domestic and sexual work, and the impacts on the black body."
- Danielle Deadwyler
Danielle Deadwyler is a multidisciplinary performance artist, actor, and filmmaker. An Atlanta native, Deadwyler's practice is rooted in theatre, dance, and creative writing.
"My work explores how lines are blurred in the labor of black women, especially domestic and sexual work, and the impacts on the black body. I’m interested in emboldening black women's subjectivity within live performance engagement in local communities, a framework for navigating what I call Black Americana chaos. Creating spaces for interfacing with black female subjectivity as a daily being in myriad social spheres, as a pedestalized marvel in live performances, film works, sonic/lyrical play, and objects is my daily investment.”
Hometown staples such as Gate City Heritage House, Total Dance Theatre, Gary Harrison Studios, Atlanta Street Theatre, Henry W. Grady High School, and Spelman College cumulatively honed Deadwyler amongst a distinctly Southern landscape. As a graduate student under Dr. Robin D. G. Kelley, she focused her analysis on issues facing women and African Americans while attaining a Master’s of Arts in American Studies from Columbia University.
As a professional actor, Deadwyler has performed in productions with Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre, Horizon Theatre, Synchronicity Theatre, Theatrical Outfit, Aurora Theatre and the Tony Award winning Alliance Theatre. She is the Creative Loafing Atlanta Critics Pick for Best Actress (2013) and Reader’s Pick for Best Performance Artist (2017). In 2015 she was the winning recipient of the Suzi Bass Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a play. Deadwyler has since performed in numerous television and film roles, presented nationally and internationally, including Watchmen (HBO), Atlanta (FX), FBI: Most Wanted (CBS), Being Mary Jane (BET), and as Quita Maxwell on Tyler Perry’s The Haves & The Have Nots (OWN), among a host of independent films and experimental works. As a filmmaker and producer, Deadwyler’s work has been screened in the Creative Loafing Atlanta shorts contest (2011); WonderRoot Local Film night (2013/2015), and Hartsfield International Airport (2016), New Orleans Film Festival, Cucalorus Film Festival, and Oxford Film Fest. The multimedia project MuhfuckaNeva(Luvd)Uhs: Real Live Girl film was the Jury award winner of the WonderRoot Film Night (2015). She also starred in and co-produced the American Black Film Festival 2014 HBO Shorts Official Selection Ir/Reconcilable, a short film starring Jasmine Guy, Dick Gregory and Crystal Fox. Her short film, SuPerHeRoInUh, screened amongst ten finalists as a part of the Airport Shorts 3.0 program, and the Atlanta Film Festival 40th anniversary, at Hartsfield Jackson Airport for the duration of a year. CHOR(E)S, her most recent experimental work, was the jury award winner for experimental film at New Orleans Film Fest (2020) and bustitOpen, an experimental documentary she helmed, was the recipient of the Georgia Film Award at the Atlanta Film Festival.
As performance artist, Deadwyler’s race and gender-centric works have been included in MAMBU BADU collective's exhibition If We Came From Nowhere Here, Why Can't We Go Somewhere There? (D.C.), Mint Gallery (ATL), Whitespace Gallery (ATL), The Luminary (STL), Atlanta Contemporary Museum, Atlanta Film Festival, among others. She presented (dis)possessed: the live mixtape (2013), a one-woman theatrical performance art project, at Spelman College’s Museum of Fine Art as a part of their Black Box series. Numerous grants have supported Deadwyler’s works, from IDEA CAPITAL (2014/2017), ELEVATE Atlanta, Living Walls (2016), Synchronicity Theatre Stripped Bare Lab, WonderRoot Walthall Fellowship, and Artadia. She is a former Atlanta Film Festival Filmmaker-in-Residence and former MINT Leap Year Residency Fellow.
-
In Unity, as in Division
6 Oct - 2 Dec 2023In Unity, as in Division, the fourth exhibition presented by Johnson Lowe Gallery in its inaugural year, unites seven emerging artists from within the Atlanta Metropolitan Area to present seven...Read more -
The Alchemists
Co-Curated by Seph Rodney & Donovan Johnson 3 Mar - 29 Apr 2023“This is the only real concern of the artist: to recreate out of the disorder of life that order which is art.” — James Baldwin How is blackness — as...Read more
-
Atlanta Journal-Constitution | Strength in Numbers in Impressive Show of Seven ATL Artists
by Felicia Feaster November 3, 2023If you had any doubt about Atlanta artists’ ability to hold their own next to national or global talent, “In Unity, as in Division” at...Read more -
Ruckus | Review: "The Alchemists" at Johnson Lowe Gallery
By Danelle Bernsten May 4, 2023Co-curated by Donovan Johnson and Seph Rodney, the Johnson Lowe Gallery’s magnetic group exhibition of twenty-nine Atlanta-based, American, and/or international Black artists such as Renee...Read more -
Burnaway | The Alchemists at Johnson Lowe Gallery
by Folasade Ologundudu May 4, 2023Curated by Donovan Johnson and Seph Rodney at the new Johnson Lowe Gallery in Atlanta, The Alchemists brings together an amalgamation of works that unearths...Read more -
Frieze | Shows to See in the US This April
From a group show of Black artists at Johnson Lowe to Ignacio Gatica’s multi-media sculptures, here are the best shows to see across the US right now April 14, 2023‘The Alchemists’ Johnson Lowe, Atlanta 3 March – 29 April Before we set foot in the gallery, Mark Bradford’s large-scale canvas, Playing Castles (2022), greets...Read more -
Artsy | Why Atlanta's Art Scene is Making Waves
by Ayanna Dozier April 5, 2023The South got something to say.” André Lauren Benjamin (a.k.a. André 3000) uttered these infamous words while accepting the “Best New Artist (Group)” award with...Read more -
Frieze | 'The Alchemists' Ritualizes Black Culture
by Lisa Yin Zhang April 4, 2023Before we set foot in the gallery, Mark Bradford’s large-scale canvas, Playing Castles (2022), greets us through a window. It reads as a tortured aerial...Read more -
ArtsATL | Review: “The Alchemists” at Johnson Lowe is a groundbreaking, must-see show
By Jerry Cullum March 27, 2023The Alchemists, on display through April 29, represents a spectacular new beginning for the renamed and reconceived Johnson Lowe Gallery. At the same time, it...Read more -
Atlanta Journal Constitution | "Art As Transformation is at the heart of an impressive group show"
Felicia Feaster | ‘The Alchemists’ at Johnson Lowe Gallery brings together Atlanta-based artists those outside the city in challenging, rewarding exhibition. March 14, 2023‘The Alchemists’ at Johnson Lowe Gallery brings together Atlanta-based artists those outside the city in challenging, rewarding exhibition | Atlanta Journal Constitution | Felicia FeasterRead more