Artist Bio:
Darryl DeAngelo Terrell (B. 1991), is a Brooklyn-based, Detroit-born artist primarily working within lens-based media, performance, and writing; they’re also a curator, DJ, and organizer. Darryl received their Bachelor of Fine Art from Wayne State University in 2015 and their Master of Fine Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2017. Darryl works under the philosophy of F.U.B.U (This Shit Is For Us*). They’re always thinking about how their work can aid a larger conversation about blackness and its many intersections. Currently, Darryl is working across two bodies of work; one work is currently exploring afro-surrealism, thinking of how to get all black people free from the presence of whiteness, getting black people to “elsewhere” where the black diaspora can have complete freedom. Darryl is also exploring queerness and desire by way of a fat black femme non-binary alter-ego named Dion. Both bodies are flushed out through photography, video, activations, sound, and writing.
Darryl is a 2023 Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York Artist in Resident, 2022 Fire Island Artist in Resident, 2022 Lighthouse Work Fellow, 2021 Black Rock Senegal Artist in Resident, 2021 The Black Embodiment Studio Arts Writing Resident, 2020/2021 Red Bull House of Art Resident, 2019/2020 Document Detroit Fellow, 2019 Kresge Arts in Detroit Fellow in Visual Arts. Terrell has Exhibited and/or Performed at the Dakar, Senegal, for the Dak’Art, La Biennale, The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago IL), Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH), Cranbrook Museum of Arts (Bloomfield Hills, MI), The Trout Museum of Art, (Appleton WI), Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, (New York City, NY), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago – (Chicago IL)
Statement:
Worldbuilding is a significant part of my practice; I think about the journey to the worlds I envision, within I prioritize the black queer black femme perspective, I prioritize a type of black liberation that is void in this present space, I Prioritize a land was once ours being our once more. I oftentimes find myself asking questions as they pertain to my intersecting black identities (that being, Black, queer, non-binary, poor, disabled…); they have all existed in context to “Power”; who has it? Who takes it away? Who is it given to? How can I/We gain it?
By way of photography, video, writing, performance, and sound. Currently working on two bodies of work. Both explore how black people are affected by the powers that be, and both confronting the oppositional gaze. I explore what it would be to remove from the now and be placed elsewhere, where possibilities are abundant for black bodies, queer bodies, and bodies considered othered. Looking at rituals and traditions coming from the community, cultural, personal, and historical references. Influenced by my upbringing on the Eastside of Detroit, my family filled with dominating women, a community of femmes with a no-nonsense mentality, the legacy of black queer writers, artists, and performers. by Jazz, Spiritual Jazz, House Music, and the storytelling that is Soul and Hip Hop music. As well as from my observation of my community of bold, radical queer, fighting black people.