Chanell Stone

Lot #67
Potted Earth, 2019
Archival pigment print
45 x 32 in.
Edition 1 of 5, plus 2 AP
Courtesy of the artist

About the Artwork

Chanell Stone's practice focuses on challenging insular views of Blackness by expanding on narratives subject to Black erasure. In Potted Earth—an image from Stone's series Natura Negra, photographed in her grandmother's garden in Los Angeles—Stone documents the nuances of the urban landscape through the intervention of patio gardens and green spaces. In an interview with NPR, Stone notes, "Early landscape photography perpetuates a cultural amnesia. There is another kind of forgetting and erasure happening now with gentrification in these Black communities where I am making pictures. That is why I put myself in these places and photos. It is important to see a Black body in this space before gentrification erases the history and aesthetics of these neighborhoods.” She continues, "I want Black people to understand our connections to nature, both urban and rural. I want to destroy the notion that it isn't for us." Stone’s work was recently exhibited in a solo show at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. She was a shortlisted finalist for the 2020 San Francisco Artadia Award, and W Magazine featured her as one of “8 Young Photographers to Follow in 2020.”

Retail Value: $6,000