Christa Blackwood is a photo, text and installation artist working with themes related to identity, history, and popular culture. Her works employ multiple techniques and methods, fusing traditional, historical and alternative photographic processes with contemporary concepts.

Her visual voice was developed while a student at New York University in the 1990’s, when she began producing street installation art such as Butcherknives (1991), a work that addressed issues of sexual violence. A chilling juxtaposition of billboard-like close-ups and text from poet Michelle Kotler, Butcherknives, was plastered all over the streets of lower Manhattan on the evening the William Kennedy Smith verdict was announced. The poster’s timely and provocative appearance resulted in heightened critical attention for Blackwood, including an invitation to join the Women’s Action Coalition (WAC) from renowned artists and scholars, Kiki Smith and Lucy Lippard.

Blackwood received her MA in Studio Art from New York University and BA in Classics from The University of Oklahoma. Her work has been featured in several publications including The New York Times, ArtDesk Magazine, New York Newsday, The Village Voice and The Chicago Sun Times and has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Image credit: Christa Blackwood, Santa Elena, dot red landscapes, 2014, Hand pulled photogravure with encaustic, printed on kit kata paper, 17 x 24 inches