Tianna Bracey is an emerging artist employing portraiture to explore the subtleties of the painterly and figurative form. Her most recent series of work reimagined space as connection to ancestry. This included oil paintings that transformed portraits into whimsical dreamscapes to amplify the presence of generational storytelling by repurposing and reinventing elements from daily surroundings. Each work aimed to consider the ways in which familial ties, nostalgia, and memory could be woven into the fabric of daily life as an invitation to find purpose, strength and solace through heritage.

Tianna received a Bachelors of Art in Art History from the University of Missouri (Columbia, MO). Her work has been exhibited at The Chicago Athletic Association (Chicago, IL), Happy Gallery (Chicago, IL), The Martin (Chicago, IL) and Zhou B Art Center (Chicago, IL). Outside of her studio practice, she works with the South Side Community Art Center, managing the Public Art & Civic Engagement (PACE) Capacity Building Initiative granted to the organization by Mural Arts Philadelphia. She also serves as Studio Manager to muralist, curator, and educator Dorian Sylvain. In 2021, she was awarded the Curious Creators Grant from curious elixirs (Brooklyn, NY) and the New Futures award from Saatchi Art’s The Other Art Fair (London, UK).

Image: Tianna Bracey, to keep the bees away, 2021, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches.