L. Kasimu Harris
Lives and works in New Orleans
EDUCATION
Master of Arts • University of Mississippi − May 2008
Journalism (concentration in Southern Studies)
Bachelor of Business Administration • Middle Tennessee State University − August 2004 Entrepreneurship
(concentrations in Business Administration & Mass Communication)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Vanishing Black Bars & Lounges
Hilliard Art Museum, University of Louisiana Lafayette (February 11 to July 30, 2022)
Curated by Benjamin Hickey, Ph.D.
Lafayette, La.
Meet Me on the Route
Virtual (2021)
Since the Last Time We Met
Antenna Gallery (2020)
New Orleans
Vanishing Black Bars & Lounges: Photographs by L. Kasimu Harris
August Wilson African American Cultural Center (2020)
Curated by Kilolo Luckett
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Truth, By Any Means Necessary
Dunbar Gallery at Grambling State University (2019)
Grambling, La.
"L. Kasimu" curated by Kamau Ware
Warehouse Gallery (2016)
Brooklyn, New York
The 10 Year Journey: Reflections of Family, Identity & New Orleans Curated by Jennifer M. Williams
George & Leah McKenna Museum of African American Art (2015)
New Orleans
Dreams Do Come True
Bellocq in The Hotel Modern (2013)
New Orleans
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021
2021 Atlanta Biennial
Of Care and Destruction
Curated by Dr. Jordan Amirkhani
Atlanta
Vanishing Black Bars, Celestials, + Louisiana Trail Riders
Jeremiah Ariaz, Jill Frank, L. Kasimu Harris
Southeastern Louisiana University Contemporary Art Gallery
Curated by Cristina Molina
Hammond, La
2020
State of the Art 2020
Crystal Bridges Museum of Art
Curated by Lauren Haynes, Alejo Benedetti and Allison Glenn
Bentonville, Ark.
(Per)Sister: Incarcerated Women of Louisiana
Ford Foundation Gallery
New York
Revelations: Recent Photography Acquisitions
Curated by Richard McCabe
Ogden Museum of Southern Art
New Orleans
A Picture Gallery of the Soul
September 2020
Katherine E. Nash Gallery
University of Minnesota
2019
L. Kasimu Harris and Vitus Shell
Southside Gallery
Oxford, Miss.
[Un]Common Collections: Selections from Fifteen Collectors
The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora
University of Maryland, College Park
2018
(Per)Sister: Incarcerated Women of Louisiana
Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University
Changing Course: Reflections on New Orleans Histories
June 2018
New Orleans Museum of Art
2017
Race and Revolution: Still Separate - Still Unequal curated by Kathryn Fuller & Larry Ossei-Mensah Smack Mellon
Brooklyn, New York
Songs of My People: 25 Years Later curated by Dr. Imani Cheers
Gallery 102
The University of George Washington, Washington D.C.
Dandy Lion (Re) Articulating Black Masculinity Identity curated by Shantrelle P. Lewis
Lowe Art Museum
The University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida
Louisiana Contemporary at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art (also in 2014 & 2015)
New Orleans
2016
Dandy Lion (Re) Articulating Black Masculinity Identity curated by Shantrelle P. Lewis
Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD)
San Francisco
Brighton Photo Biennial
The Dandy Lion Project curated by Shantrelle P. Lewis
University of Brighton Galleries--Edwards Street
United Kingdom
What's Going On (an Homage to Black Lives Matter)
Boyd Satellite Gallery
New Orleans
2015
Dandy Lion (Re)Articulating Black Masculinity,
Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago curated by Shantrelle P. Lewis
The Rising curated by Richard McCabe
Ogden Museum of Southern Art
New Orleans
2014
Reparations, Contemporary Artist From New Orleans, Prospect.3+ (an international biennial art show) New Orleans Museum of Arts Above Canal: CANO’s Creative Spaces in Central City
Rights and Revival, Prospect.3+ (an international biennial art show)
Myrtle Banks Building, New Orleans Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series National Juried Exhibition at the
Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans For Whom It Stands, Too A companion exhibit by the Reginald F. Lewis Museum at The Star Spangled Banner Flag House
Baltimore, Maryland
Freedom 2014: Through the Lens curated by Myesha Francis
Isaac Delgado Fine Arts Gallery on the City Park Campus of Delgado Community College
New Orleans New Orleans in Photographs curated by Frank Relle at the Multi-Media Museum—Moscow House of Photography and sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
2011
The Invisible Man Exhibit: A Prospect.2 Satellite site
George & Leah McKenna Museum of African American Art in New Orleans
2009 & 2010
Dr. Martin Luther King Tribute
New Orleans African-American Museum of Art & Culture
2007
Summer Group Show
Southside Gallery
Oxford, Mississippi
NOTABLE
• Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Board of Trustees, (2018 to - present)
• New Orleans Photo Alliance, Board of Directors, (2017 to - present)
• Photographed Leah Chase for the cover of the Spring 2018 issue of Louisiana Cultural Vistas
• Photographed the cover of the Spring 2017 and 2019 issues of Gravy, a publication from the Southern Foodways Alliance
• Photographed the cover and a photo essay for the Summer 2016 issue of Louisiana Cultural Vistas
• Documented the Mississippi Gulf Coast with the Mississippi Arts Commission for the state’s bicentennial, 2017
• Featured in the The New York Times and NPR for work in The Rising, at the Ogden's
• Licensed a photograph to HBO’s Treme for the opening credits of the fourth and final season, 2013
• Work is in the Wedge Collection in Toronto and private collections in Alabama, Louisiana and New York
PRESENTATIONS/READINGS
“Using Arts and Culture to Combat the Fear Narrative,” The Opportunity Agenda’s Creative Change Retreat in Sundance, Utah, July 2017
ROOM 220 presents Dr. Jerry Ward and L. Kasimu Harris, Antenna Gallery, February 2017
“Blackness, Photography and Social Responsibility, School of Media, University of Brighton, United Kingdom October 2016
“Folklore + Digital Media, Digital Humanities, and Publishing” American Folklore Society and the International Society for Folk Narrative Research, Miami, Florida, October 2016
“Art, Revolution and Black Lives Matter” Black Arts Movement, Dillard University, September 2016
“Tom Dent Literary Showcase,” Dillard University, November 2016 “Controlling Your Image,” a lecture and exhibition with Vitus Shell, visual artist, at Philander Smith College (Little Rock, Arkansas) in February 2014
PUBLICATIONS
Dandy Lion: The Black Dandy and Street Style, by Shantrelle P. Lewis and published by the Aperture Foundation and contributed several photographs to the book as well as featured and profiled in the book (2017)
New Orleans & The World: The 1718 - 2018 Anthology, by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and contributed several photographs (2017)
PROSPECT.4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swap catalogue, contributed a photograph of Darryl Montana (2017)
Best Food Writing 2016, a book of stories edited by Holly Hughes from Da Capo Lifelong Books; wrote Ya-ka-mein: Old Sober for Edible New Orleans
HONORS
• 2018 Honored Artist at New Orleans Museum of Art’s Love in the Garden
• 2017 Outstanding Artist Award, New Orleans Chapter of the National Collective of Artists
• 2017 Louisianan of the Year, art and culture, from Louisiana Life magazine
• Honorable Mention in the Louisiana Contemporary at Ogden Museum of Southern Art – 2014
• Best Pictorial Series in One Issue, 2nd place, from the Mississippi Press Association; Daily Division C Category Series published in The Daily Star – 2007
FELLOWSHIPS
Inaugural Oxford American Summit for Ambitious Writers – Morrilton, Ark., Summer 2011
Studied with Jay Jennings for a week in creatively intensive workshops and manuscript critiques
The Poynter Institute, Summer Fellowship for Young Journalists – St. Petersburg, Fla., 2008