On September 13, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) will open Tiona Nekkia McClodden: Play Me Home, a poignant, genre-defying installation that features a four-channel video, sculptural objects, and a feature-length screenplay. McClodden’s multidisciplinary practice weaves together personal and communal contours of biography and myth-making. Play Me Home is the result of a three-year journey of research and creation during which the artist examined her own family history and funerary traditions in the South. Commissioned for the Prospect 5 Triennial, the work beautifully captures McClodden’s distinct approach and was recently acquired by the BMA as part of the museum’s effort to expand its canon of American art and time-based media. The presentation of Play Me Home also amplifies the BMA’s recent reinstallation of its contemporary art galleries, which emphasizes how artists observe, understand, and engage with the world around them. The installation will remain on view through May 12, 2024.
Tiona Nekkia McClodden: Play Me Home is curated by Jessica Bell Brown, BMA Curator and Department Head of Contemporary Art.
Tiona Nekkia McClodden
Tiona Nekkia McClodden (b. 1981, Blytheville, Arkansas) is a visual artist, filmmaker, and curator. McClodden’s interdisciplinary approach traverses documentary film, experimental video, sculpture, and sound installations. Her works have been included in presentations at the Kunsthalle Basel (Switzerland); The Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 (New York); Whitney Museum of American Art (New York); New Museum (New York); Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW)–Berlin; and MOCA LA. She is the recipient of the 2021-2023 Princeton Arts Fellowship, a Bucksbaum Award for her work in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts (2019), among others. Her writing has been featured on the Triple Canopy platform, in Artforum, Cultured Magazine, ART 21 Magazine, and many other publications. She is the recipient of a 2021 Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant. She lives and works in North Philadelphia and is represented by White Cube Gallery.
More information: https://artbma.org
