About

Renée Stout (b. 1958, Junction City, KS) lives and works in Washington, D.C. As a mixed media artist, Stout draws inspiration from current social and political events, the African diaspora, everyday urban life, and the spiritual realm. Stout's objects and paintings often emerge from her decades of research into the art history and spiritual traditions of Hoodoo, which have evolved from African roots through American slavery to the present.

 

Small, handmade sculptures are an essential part of Stout's practice. These fabricated, machine-like objects are meant to connect us to the spiritual realm and otherworldly powers. More broadly, they represent the hopes and desires that faiths and religions around the world seek to fulfill. Universal desires for health, love, survival and happiness.

 

Stout's work has recently been exhibited at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, NY (2024); the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (2022); the Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, TX (2022); the African American Museum in Philadelphia, PA (2023); and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA (2023).

 

Her work is included in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Nasher Museum of Art, the High Museum in Atlanta, the Hirshhorn Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Saint Louis Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and many others.

 

Stout has a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University. She is the recipient of the Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation Award and the Virginia A. Groot Foundation Award (2nd place) in 2020, and the Women's Caucus for Art, Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018. She is the recipient of the Anonymous Was a Woman Award, the Pollock Krasner Foundation Award, the Joan Mitchell Painter and Sculptor's Grant Award, and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, among others.

Artwork
  • Renée Stout, Sketches on Old Paper, 2025
    Sketches on Old Paper, 2025
  • Renée Stout, Three Resisters, 2025
    Three Resisters, 2025
  • Renée Stout, Journal Entry #7 (After the Reading), 2025
    Journal Entry #7 (After the Reading), 2025
  • Renée Stout, 3 Secret Society Passports, 2025
    3 Secret Society Passports, 2025
  • Renée Stout, Resister One, 2025
    Resister One, 2025
  • Renée Stout, Sun Ra Returns (with Friends), 2022
    Sun Ra Returns (with Friends), 2022
  • Renée Stout, Elixir Eleven, 2018
    Elixir Eleven, 2018
  • Renée Stout, When 6 IS 9 (for Jimi Hendrix), 2018
    When 6 IS 9 (for Jimi Hendrix), 2018
  • Renée Stout, Blood Beast vs. Haint Blue, 2017
    Blood Beast vs. Haint Blue, 2017
  • Renée Stout, Spirit Selector, 2014
    Spirit Selector, 2014
  • Renée Stout, Truth Telling Kit (2nd Version), 2008
    Truth Telling Kit (2nd Version), 2008
  • Renée Stout, Ikenga (If You Come for the Queen, You Better Not Miss), 2022
    Ikenga (If You Come for the Queen, You Better Not Miss), 2022
  • Renée Stout, Lotus Root, 2018
    Lotus Root, 2018
  • Renée Stout, Spirit Detector, 2014
    Spirit Detector, 2014
  • Renée Stout, Armored Heart/Caged Heart, 2005
    Armored Heart/Caged Heart, 2005
Exhibitions
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