Bio

Christa Blackwood is a photo, text, and installation artist working with themes related to identity, gender and representation. Raised in Oklahoma City and New Orleans, Blackwood now lives and works in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Blackwood’s artistic voice developed while a stu- dent at New York University, when she began producing street art, such the poster Butcherknives (1991), a work that addressed issues of sexual violence. A chilling juxtaposition of billboard-like close-ups and featuring text by poet Michelle Kotler, Butcherknives was plastered all over the streets of lower Manhattan on the evening the William Kennedy Smith verdict was announced. The posters’ timely and provocative appearance resulted in heightened critical attention for Blackwood, including an invitation to join The Woman’s Action Coalition (WAC) from renowned artisits and scholars, Kiki Smith and Lucy Lippard. She received a Master of Arts from New York University, after receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Classics and Filmmaking from The University of Oklahoma. Blackwood has exhibited her work since the early 1990s, most notably at The Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Ogden Museum, The Houston Center for Photography, The Institute of Fine Arts NYU, San Francisco City Hall and the Contemporary Austin. She has held residencies at Anderson Ranch and The Austin Museum of Art and participated in The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Artist in the Marketplace program as well as The Crit Group at The Contemporary in Austin, Texas. Blackwood’s work has been featured in many publications, including The New York Times, The Chicago Sun Times, The Village Voice, Lenscratch and Art Desk Magazine. Blackwood has been a visiting professor of art at Colorado College since 2022. She is the founder of The Children’s Photographic Collective, which provided free photography and media literacy workshops to elementary through high school students in New York City and Austin, Texas