Bethany Collins is a multidisciplinary artist whose conceptual practice examines the relationship between race and language. Centering language—its biases, contradictions, and ability to simultaneously forge connections and foster violence—her works illuminate America’s past and offer insight into the development of racial and national identities. Drawing on a wide variety of documents, ranging from nineteenth-century musical scores to US Department of Justice reports, she erases, obscures, excerpts, and rewrites portions of text to bring to the fore issues revolving around race, power, and histories of violence.
Collins earned a BA from the University of Alabama in 2007, and an MFA from Georgia State University in 2012. Her artwork has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationwide, including at the Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL; Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, CO; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; and the Birmingham Museum of Art, AL. Collins has been recognized as an Artist-in-Residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2013-14, was awarded the Hudgens Prize in 2015, and received a Joan Mitchell Fellowship in 2022.
