DeLuce Gallery: Robin North Lecture & Reception

“An Archive of Care: Reframing Our Understanding of Family, Place, and Identity” features the work of Robin North, an interdisciplinary visual artist and educator who grew up along the Gulf Coast in the deep south of Texas. The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, opens Thursday, Jan. 23, with a lecture by North and a reception. The exhibit will be displayed through Friday, Feb. 21.

North employs Grounded Theory and Visual Anthropological research methods, placing himself in local cultures and taking a visual storytelling approach to educate and decolonize knowledge free of Western narratives and aesthetics.

His work focuses on African Diaspora and African American historical narratives with an emphasis on how photography has been historically used to diminish Black representation and perpetuate racial inferiority. Through visual storytelling, North transforms archival materials into works that challenge dominant historical frameworks and offer alternative interpretations. His artistic practice reinterprets the silenced histories of Black Southern families, creating pieces that connect past struggles to contemporary social dynamics and generate new visual dialogues that invite audiences to question historical assumptions and explore the resilience embedded in African diasporic experiences.

North earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography and digital media from the University of Houston and a Master of Fine Arts in art with a concentration in photography and multimedia from San Diego State University. He is recognized for his innovative approach to 19th-century photographic print processes, analog and digital photo-based image-making, multimedia, emerging technologies.

North’s visit and exhibition are co-sponsored by Northwest’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion as part of the University’s Black History Month activities. Funding support for the exhibit also comes from the Missouri Arts Council.

Lectures and artist receptions are free and open to the public. For more information call 660.562.1326.