About LaTonia Shanee Allen

Based in New York, NY, LaTonia Allen is a multidisciplinary artist creating work investigating the definition of black self-liberation. After earning a BFA studying fine arts and graphic design from Texas Southern University, she was accepted into the MFA Fine Arts program at the School of Visual Arts where her interdisciplinary studies allowed her the opportunity to further explore her interest in literature, textile, and performance.

“I think about how societal structures have policed and politicized the African-American woman’s body and I work to reposition the gaze by creating future realities instrumenting objects and text as symbolism amongst the negative spaces.” By the process of splashing and washing oils with charcoal, she redacts the materials to document relational stories told between the body and time with a focus on portraiture and figuration. She positions herself between Kerry James Marshall, Torkwase Dyson and Franz Fanon when thinking about history and autonomy over the black body, prioritizing the black women in contexts to permit dialogue of both grace and reflection, thinking about generational conditioning and trauma.

She’s exhibited work at The Painting Center, Project for Empty Space, Revelation Gallery, Slag Gallery, and the Wassaic Project’s Maxon Mills with solo exhibitions at Houston’s District Art Gallery, The Bert Long Jr. Gallery at the Houston Museum of African American Culture, and Wallworks Gallery in Bronx, NY. She is the 2020, and 2025 recipient of the Wassaic Projects Family Residency.