KATRINA ANDRY
When I Grow Up: The Ascribed Black American Dream, 2009
color woodcut reduction
40 x 84 inches
If you pay attention to the news or black movies and television, you’d be lead to believe that out of all of the things in life a person can be when they grow up, there are just a few things that black people can be. This is mainly due to what or how little society expects of them due to the stereotypes placed against them. This piece counters MLK’s famous speech “I have a dream”. He dreamt that blacks and whites would be equal and interchangeable in society. What society actually had in store for black people was to keep them marginalized and on the outer skirts of society (the keeping them away from us concept), living up to society’s stereotypical expectations of them.
KATRINA ANDRY
Mammy Complex: Unfit Mommies Make for Fit Nannies, 2011
digital media and color woodcut reduction
60 x 40 inches
Edition of 6
This is a stereotype of the Mammy. The Mammy is a natural caregiver. She’s happy serving others. She’s especially happy watching other people’s children. While the Mammy is seen as being a natural caregiver, on the other side of that coin - as a black woman, she is also seen as needing instruction or being incapable of raising her own children. This piece is all about the stereotype that black women in black communities are incapable of raising their own children, and that they are faulted for the crime and poverty that often run rampant in urban black communities. It is thought that incapable, single black moms are the reason there are poorly behaved black children that turn into poorly behaved black adults. This sentiment is felt throughout the black community by black women. When I was in NYC in 2009, and even here in New Orleans, most of the nannies I would see were black or brown minorities. It’s funny how these women are seen as perfectly capable of watching and caring for other people’s children, but not their own. To put it in historical context, black slave women were often separated from their children on the auction block, though some were often called to be nursing maids and nannies to the white children that lived in the “big house.” Separating the black woman’s children from her was seen as not cruel because it was believed that black women were callus towards their own children, and held a different set of feelings than white people had towards theirs.
KATRINA ANDRY
The Jungle Bunny Gave You Fever. The Only Cure is to Fuck the Bunny. She Wants It., 2011
digital media and color woodcut reduction
60 x 40 inches
Edition of 6
This is a stereotype of the Jungle Bunny; the hypersexual, exotic creature from another land. The aspect of being hypersexual was often used from the 1400-1940s as a reason as to why raping women of color wasn’t seen as a crime against humanity. They wanted it obviously. The term “jungle fever”, as if being involved with a person of color implies that you’ve been stricken with some sort of disease because it’s not natural for two people from different ethnic backgrounds to “love” one another. There can only be a feverish lust between the two of them, no true actual feelings of love. How could you love a Jungle Bunny? This piece confronts the stereotype of women of color being lascivious, hypersexual, animalistic, exotic beings.
KATRINA ANDRY
Genetic Inferiority: Darwin's Theory of White Superiority and Black Unintelligence, 2009
digital media and color woodcut reduction
58 x 42
Edition of 7
There was a book written in the mid 90s called “The Bell Curve” by Charles Murray (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve). In it he used eugenics to explain the capacity for learning between different races. Asians had the highest capacity for learning, and then whites, and then latinos, and then blacks. He argued that there was a difference in IQ levels between different ethnic groups that is genetic, and that couldn’t ultimately be overcome by hard work. Many black children in schools are treated like they’re less capable of learning, and are more likely to be sent to special ED or remedial classrooms, and more likely to be seen as troublemakers rather than students and so expelled and suspended at a much higher rate than white students. Students of color are often seen as not nearly as capable of higher learning and development as their white and asian peers.
KATRINA ANDRY
Congratulations You Made It!: Working Your Way Up the American Caste System, 2009
digital media and color woodcut reduction
58 x 42 inches
Edition of 5
This pieces strays a bit from the overarching theme of the rest of my work, which really focuses on how stereotyping influences social justice issues. The idea surrounding this piece is that the colonized want to be like the colonizer in style, in achievements and in life. This self-loathing notion runs pervasive in the black community. One of the ways it’s seen most strongly is an educated or well-to-do black man having a preference for white women. White women are the prize that awaits all of his efforts at being successful. White men, the powerful colonizer, marry white women. A white woman is seen as the ideal representation of femininity and beauty. She’s a well-deserved prize for a man of color that beat the odds, got his degree, and has many achievements under his belt. He stands on the totem poll of black women (presumably his mom or relatives) and sees himself as “better” than them because of his achievements and so worthy of his white prize. He’s ejaculating on his prize. This represents the obsession with having mixed children, children that “aren’t as black as your children”, and are therefore more beautiful as they are closer to whiteness.
KATRINA ANDRY
The Unfit Mommy and Her Spawn Will Wreck Your Comfortable Suburban Existence, 2010
digital media and color woodcut reduction
58 x 42 inches
Edition of 7
This piece relates to the “Mammy Complex” in that it implies that black women are careless with their own children, and ineffective at raising contributing members of society. Her children are not as “precious” as the children of her white peers. They aren’t cherished, and they will grow up to be menaces that need to be kept away from us. This enforces the idea of the “Super-predator”. Children that will inevitably grow up to be menaces of society and the only solution to keeping them away from us is to lock them up. They were born menaces, from a menacing mother, and we want nothing to do with them. We’d rather not live around them in our suburbia. They’ll ruin it for us. Seeing black children in this light, as the “Super-predator” paves the way for mass incarceration of black males (adults and children) and for situations we now find ourselves in like the shooting of Trayvon Martin and many others that have been killed based on fear alone.
KATRINA ANDRY
Western Interpretation of the Other, 2008
color woodcut reduction
44 x 32 inches
Both of these pieces (man and woman) are my earlier works and my first dive into the idea of how stereotypes shape our ideas of black people, and how they also shape laws, the media, and interactions that we have with one another. Both hold the idea of seeing the Other as the exotic, the lascivious temptress. This was also a time when I was still doing black face, which I don’t do anymore. I was also still using women sometimes in my prints to caricature the stereotype, which I don’t anymore. I only use men, and I’ve moved on to using watermelon face because it’s more interesting, and is representative of the “sambo” character, and less likely to be mistaken as a mask.
KATRINA ANDRY
Western Interpretation of the Other, 2009
color woodcut reduction
44 x 30 inches
Edition of 9
Both of these pieces (man and woman) are my earlier works and my first dive into the idea of how stereotypes shape our ideas of black people, and how they also shape laws, the media, and interactions that we have with one another. Both hold the idea of seeing the Other as the exotic, the lascivious temptress. This was also a time when I was still doing black face, which I don’t do anymore. I was also still using women sometimes in my prints to caricature the stereotype, which I don’t anymore. I only use men, and I’ve moved on to using watermelon face because it’s more interesting, and is representative of the “sambo” character, and less likely to be mistaken as a mask.
KATRINA ANDRY
Self-Portrait of a Black Woman I, 2008-2010
stone lithograph
19 x 14 inches
Edition of 4
These pieces are all self-portraits drawn in a different way every time. The viewer may think they’re portraits of different people, but then reads the title and realizes that they’re all self-portraits of a “black woman.” I put the words “black woman” in there to get across the point that these are representative of all black women, not just of me. They are black and white, because the world around us is more black and white than it seems. When you’re a person of color with so many stereotypes pinned against you, you get lumped into a group. You aren’t seen as an individual. You’re seen as your group’s stereotypes no matter how hard you are constantly proving yourself to be an individual. You are told things like “you are very articulate,” “you’re well-read,” “you don’t speak ghetto like so many other people from here that I know (this comes from within the black community mostly),” etc. To be black is to be constantly proving your worthiness to your non-black peers, and them being constantly surprised that you are at the very least a normal human being with a normal education and normal feelings about the world and normal hopes and dreams.
KATRINA ANDRY
Self-Portrait of a Black Woman II, 2008-2010
stone lithograph
19 x 14 inches
Edition of 5
These pieces are all self-portraits drawn in a different way every time. The viewer may think they’re portraits of different people, but then reads the title and realizes that they’re all self-portraits of a “black woman.” I put the words “black woman” in there to get across the point that these are representative of all black women, not just of me. They are black and white, because the world around us is more black and white than it seems. When you’re a person of color with so many stereotypes pinned against you, you get lumped into a group. You aren’t seen as an individual. You’re seen as your group’s stereotypes no matter how hard you are constantly proving yourself to be an individual. You are told things like “you are very articulate,” “you’re well-read,” “you don’t speak ghetto like so many other people from here that I know (this comes from within the black community mostly),” etc. To be black is to be constantly proving your worthiness to your non-black peers, and them being constantly surprised that you are at the very least a normal human being with a normal education and normal feelings about the world and normal hopes and dreams.
KATRINA ANDRY
Self-Portrait of a Black Woman IV, 2008-2010
stone lithograph
19 x 14 inches
Edition of 8
These pieces are all self-portraits drawn in a different way every time. The viewer may think they’re portraits of different people, but then reads the title and realizes that they’re all self-portraits of a “black woman.” I put the words “black woman” in there to get across the point that these are representative of all black women, not just of me. They are black and white, because the world around us is more black and white than it seems. When you’re a person of color with so many stereotypes pinned against you, you get lumped into a group. You aren’t seen as an individual. You’re seen as your group’s stereotypes no matter how hard you are constantly proving yourself to be an individual. You are told things like “you are very articulate,” “you’re well-read,” “you don’t speak ghetto like so many other people from here that I know (this comes from within the black community mostly),” etc. To be black is to be constantly proving your worthiness to your non-black peers, and them being constantly surprised that you are at the very least a normal human being with a normal education and normal feelings about the world and normal hopes and dreams.
KATRINA ANDRY
Self-Portrait of a Black Woman V, 2008-2010
stone lithograph
19 x 14 inches
Edition of 7
These pieces are all self-portraits drawn in a different way every time. The viewer may think they’re portraits of different people, but then reads the title and realizes that they’re all self-portraits of a “black woman.” I put the words “black woman” in there to get across the point that these are representative of all black women, not just of me. They are black and white, because the world around us is more black and white than it seems. When you’re a person of color with so many stereotypes pinned against you, you get lumped into a group. You aren’t seen as an individual. You’re seen as your group’s stereotypes no matter how hard you are constantly proving yourself to be an individual. You are told things like “you are very articulate,” “you’re well-read,” “you don’t speak ghetto like so many other people from here that I know (this comes from within the black community mostly),” etc. To be black is to be constantly proving your worthiness to your non-black peers, and them being constantly surprised that you are at the very least a normal human being with a normal education and normal feelings about the world and normal hopes and dreams.
KATRINA ANDRY
Self-Portrait of a Black Woman VI, 2008-2010
stone lithograph
19 x 14 inches
Edition of 8
These pieces are all self-portraits drawn in a different way every time. The viewer may think they’re portraits of different people, but then reads the title and realizes that they’re all self-portraits of a “black woman.” I put the words “black woman” in there to get across the point that these are representative of all black women, not just of me. They are black and white, because the world around us is more black and white than it seems. When you’re a person of color with so many stereotypes pinned against you, you get lumped into a group. You aren’t seen as an individual. You’re seen as your group’s stereotypes no matter how hard you are constantly proving yourself to be an individual. You are told things like “you are very articulate,” “you’re well-read,” “you don’t speak ghetto like so many other people from here that I know (this comes from within the black community mostly),” etc. To be black is to be constantly proving your worthiness to your non-black peers, and them being constantly surprised that you are at the very least a normal human being with a normal education and normal feelings about the world and normal hopes and dreams.
KATRINA ANDRY
Self-Portrait of a Black Woman VII, 2008-2010
stone lithograph
19 x 14 inches
Edition of 4
These pieces are all self-portraits drawn in a different way every time. The viewer may think they’re portraits of different people, but then reads the title and realizes that they’re all self-portraits of a “black woman.” I put the words “black woman” in there to get across the point that these are representative of all black women, not just of me. They are black and white, because the world around us is more black and white than it seems. When you’re a person of color with so many stereotypes pinned against you, you get lumped into a group. You aren’t seen as an individual. You’re seen as your group’s stereotypes no matter how hard you are constantly proving yourself to be an individual. You are told things like “you are very articulate,” “you’re well-read,” “you don’t speak ghetto like so many other people from here that I know (this comes from within the black community mostly),” etc. To be black is to be constantly proving your worthiness to your non-black peers, and them being constantly surprised that you are at the very least a normal human being with a normal education and normal feelings about the world and normal hopes and dreams.
KATRINA ANDRY
Self-Portrait of a Black Woman VIII, 2008-2010
stone lithograph
19 x 14 inches
These pieces are all self-portraits drawn in a different way every time. The viewer may think they’re portraits of different people, but then reads the title and realizes that they’re all self-portraits of a “black woman.” I put the words “black woman” in there to get across the point that these are representative of all black women, not just of me. They are black and white, because the world around us is more black and white than it seems. When you’re a person of color with so many stereotypes pinned against you, you get lumped into a group. You aren’t seen as an individual. You’re seen as your group’s stereotypes no matter how hard you are constantly proving yourself to be an individual. You are told things like “you are very articulate,” “you’re well-read,” “you don’t speak ghetto like so many other people from here that I know (this comes from within the black community mostly),” etc. To be black is to be constantly proving your worthiness to your non-black peers, and them being constantly surprised that you are at the very least a normal human being with a normal education and normal feelings about the world and normal hopes and dreams.
KATRINA ANDRY
Self-Portrait of a Black Woman X, 2008-2010
stone lithograph
19 x 14 inches
These pieces are all self-portraits drawn in a different way every time. The viewer may think they’re portraits of different people, but then reads the title and realizes that they’re all self-portraits of a “black woman.” I put the words “black woman” in there to get across the point that these are representative of all black women, not just of me. They are black and white, because the world around us is more black and white than it seems. When you’re a person of color with so many stereotypes pinned against you, you get lumped into a group. You aren’t seen as an individual. You’re seen as your group’s stereotypes no matter how hard you are constantly proving yourself to be an individual. You are told things like “you are very articulate,” “you’re well-read,” “you don’t speak ghetto like so many other people from here that I know (this comes from within the black community mostly),” etc. To be black is to be constantly proving your worthiness to your non-black peers, and them being constantly surprised that you are at the very least a normal human being with a normal education and normal feelings about the world and normal hopes and dreams.
KATRINA ANDRY
Self-Portrait of a Black Woman XI, 2008-2010
stone lithograph
19 x 14 inches
These pieces are all self-portraits drawn in a different way every time. The viewer may think they’re portraits of different people, but then reads the title and realizes that they’re all self-portraits of a “black woman.” I put the words “black woman” in there to get across the point that these are representative of all black women, not just of me. They are black and white, because the world around us is more black and white than it seems. When you’re a person of color with so many stereotypes pinned against you, you get lumped into a group. You aren’t seen as an individual. You’re seen as your group’s stereotypes no matter how hard you are constantly proving yourself to be an individual. You are told things like “you are very articulate,” “you’re well-read,” “you don’t speak ghetto like so many other people from here that I know (this comes from within the black community mostly),” etc. To be black is to be constantly proving your worthiness to your non-black peers, and them being constantly surprised that you are at the very least a normal human being with a normal education and normal feelings about the world and normal hopes and dreams.
KATRINA ANDRY
Self-Portrait of a Black Woman XII, 2008-2010
stone lithograph
19 x 14 inches
Edition of 3
These pieces are all self-portraits drawn in a different way every time. The viewer may think they’re portraits of different people, but then reads the title and realizes that they’re all self-portraits of a “black woman.” I put the words “black woman” in there to get across the point that these are representative of all black women, not just of me. They are black and white, because the world around us is more black and white than it seems. When you’re a person of color with so many stereotypes pinned against you, you get lumped into a group. You aren’t seen as an individual. You’re seen as your group’s stereotypes no matter how hard you are constantly proving yourself to be an individual. You are told things like “you are very articulate,” “you’re well-read,” “you don’t speak ghetto like so many other people from here that I know (this comes from within the black community mostly),” etc. To be black is to be constantly proving your worthiness to your non-black peers, and them being constantly surprised that you are at the very least a normal human being with a normal education and normal feelings about the world and normal hopes and dreams.
KATRINA ANDRY
The Keys to the Gated Community and White Acceptance, 2010
digital media and color woodcut reduction print on coventry linen rag
48 x 37 inches
Edition of 5
White acceptance is hard to come by for black people. You have to fall within a certain category of perceived norms to be accepted. There are stereotypes that exist that most if not all black people can sing or perform, are fast runners, can cook, are good storytellers, and have an affinity for sports. When you fall into those categories, you’re more likely to be accepted because you’re doing what’s expected of you. The person in this piece is singing as a white audience is clapping for her on the other side of the white picket fence that she’s crossing. Whitney Houston, Michael Jordan, Jay-Z, Cam Newton, etc are widely accepted due to their exceptional yet expected talent. Black people that are exceptionally smart, or exceptional violin players, or Nobel-prize winning scientists are not seen in the same light. Black people that are seen as reaching a higher intelligence are not praised like those that entertain us through music or sports because of a stereotype that black people are natural entertainers and our ease with categorizing them as such.
KATRINA ANDRY
Corporations Pay in Peanuts and Sheriffs Make Out Like Fat Cats, 2012
digital media and color woodcut reduction print on coventry linen rag
31 x 24 inches
Edition of 2
KATRINA ANDRY
Stop Them. Arrest Them. Charge Them. We Don't Want Them to Vote, 2012
digital media and color woodcut reduction print on coventry linen rag
25 x 41 inches
Edition of 2
JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY is proud to announce Initiating Cause and Effect, the premiere solo exhibition of artist KATRINA ANDRY. The exhibition will be on view from 5 June through 25 July 2015 with an opening reception on Saturday, 6 June from 6-9pm. For her debut at the gallery, Andry has created 11 color woodcut reduction prints looking at the historical aspect of stereotypes perpetuated against black people; how they came to be, what they are based on, and in what ways they are harmful to African Americans. She depicts white males, seen as figures of authority, in black face acting out what people generally perceive to be stereotypes of black culture. This masquerade suspends reality and denotes the importance of perception and offers the lense through which the West perceives the Other.
Andry says of her work . . .
Stereotypes are deeply ingrained in Western culture and are used almost instinctively in order to deal with our differences. Stereotypes are reiterated in our culture on a daily basis by the Media in all forms and it’s hard to deny that the source of information has much to do with how one perceives the world. The media plays a heavy role in the propagation, perpetuation and continuation of stereotypes in our society.
The byproduct of these stereotypes is that they also create differences between people, and stereotyping establishes an arbitrary set of societal norms/rules that benefit the majority while it disenfranchises other groups of people. My work challenges ideas about black people (Other) that once ago had scientific research qualifying them, and how these ideas or stereotypes have become a part of how we see each other whether consciously or unconsciously.
A native of New Orleans, LA, KATRINA ANDRY received an MFA in Printmaking from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA in 2010. Her work explores the negative effect stereotypes have on people of color. In her practice, Andry often creates large scale, color reduction wood cuts portraying white men in black face, or more recently watermelon face, acting out a stereotype that is most often placed upon people of color. She currently works and lives in New Orleans and is represented by JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY.
Andry was listed in the January-February 2012 issue of Art in Print as one of the top 50 printmakers and most recently is featured in the forthcoming New American Paintings, #118. She is an active member of the Staple Goods Collective in the St. Roch neighborhood of New Orleans and has been awarded several residencies including: the Joan Mitchell Center of New Orleans, Anchor Graphics in Chicago, and Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, CA.
Her work is in numerous collections including C.C.H. Pounder, Neil Barclay (Director and CEO, Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans), Stella Jones Gallery Collection, The Saratoga Collection, Drive By Press Permanent Collection, Dirty Printmakers of America State to State Relief Portfolio, Ladies of the Letterpress Old Maid Card Exchange, and Bridges Portfolio Exchange.
For more information, press or sales inquiries please contact the gallery director Matthew Weldon Showman at 504.522.5471 or email matthew@jonathanferraragallery.com.
