Each of us arrives on this planet the same way: mom. At the outset of this review, we honor the late Nona Faustine (1969–2025) and her enduring legacy as a woman, mother, and fearless artist who captured the power and beauty of these roles through her pioneering photography. In the first-ever retrospective of her work, CPW in Kingston presents “Nona Faustine: What My Mother Gave”(on view through May 10) featuring over 90 photographs with the often nude Faustine at the center of these images, her brave spirit shining on from the beyond as she embodies a contemporary Venus of Willendorf archetype.
The exhibition is organized into three thematic sections, and the first of these is the “Young Mothers” (1992–1994) series. Taken in Brooklyn during her undergraduate years as a student at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Faustine documented seven young mothers in various stages of their pregnancies and early days of motherhood (among these a candid image of a birthing baby). With this series, Faustine gives us a glimpse of the reality check of motherhood, where images of matronly elation and closeness are balanced by images of these same women as fatigued and despondent.
Faustine’s “Mitochondria” (2008–2016) series are lovingly installed in a separate crimson colored room in the center of the gallery. Here a series of photos document three generations of women: Faustine, her mother (Queen Elizabeth Simmons), her sister (Channon Anita), and her daughter (Queen Ming). These richly hued family portraits embody a sense of ancestral acknowledgement and womanhood, among them two photos side-by-side with African American Princess (2012) and a seated Faustine on the left (nude aside from her white shoes and an ebony mask that covers her face) and Queen Elizabeth Simmons (2013) on the right standing quietly in the foyer of her home and looking angelic in a white dress. Other photos within this series include Battle (2011) and Faustine with her daughter on a rooftop, momma in a boxing pose while Queen Ming clutches at her thigh. In this red room installation, we come upon City Kid (2011) and the heart-wrenching vision of Queen Ming tucked into the corner of a window and looking outward with a forlorn face, a poignant foreshadowing of the loss to come.
With the “White Shoes” (2012–2021) series, Faustine’s full power as an unapologetic Black artist comes through in all its confrontational beauty and magnitude. This series also reveals her investigative work concerning underrecognized aspects of Black history in New York State. For this project, Faustine researched and identified various locations with a history of slavery around Brooklyn and Manhattan, and the extended press captions that accompany these photos are equally informative and disturbing.
Venus of Vlacke Bos (2012), for example, we see the nude Faustine seated and wearing a diamond crown. As told by the didactic caption, Vlacke Bos is the Dutch word for Flatbush, the neighborhood of Kings County in Brooklyn where Faustine was born (the same neighborhood that I called home for 20 years of my early career). Founded in 1651 by Dutch colonists, this area was once home to the largest concentration of enslaved people north of the Mason-Dixon line, and a Federal Census taken in 1790 reveals that slaves accounted for one third of the total population there. With From Her Body Came Their Greatest Wealth, Wall St., NYC (2013), Faustine once again unabashedly offers her nude flesh as the supreme symbol, both a commodity and a carcass.
Another jarring image titled Like a Pregnant Corpse The Ship Expelled Her Into the Patriarchy, Atlantic Coast, Brooklyn, NY (2012) features a nude Faustine laying among jagged wet rocks on a sunny day, while 60 Centre Street, Supreme Court, NYC (2013) is a bold image of Faustine on the steps leading up the court, her bare face and body both stoic and stern. Once again, the extended press caption reads like a history book, and here we learn that the New York County Supreme Court stands across from the African Burial Ground situated in Foley Square (built between 1630 and 1795), a cemetery for the first Africans who were brought to New York, enslaved, and died without receiving justice.
In Lobbying The Gods For A Miracle, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY (2016), Faustine hides inside a tree amid a snowy landscape in Brooklyn, holding a smoking gun with four little white shoes tied around her waist, an arresting vision of an armed woman. From the beaches, gardens and graveyards of Brooklyn to concrete streets of Manhattan, Faustine and her white shoes traverse the land with grace and grit, offering an artistic record like no other.
There is no easy way to close out this review: the intensity of Faustine’s tenacious photographic journey and the fact that she is no longer here leave us wishing for a different ending. Let us celebrate Faustine through the directive as titled in the most riveting work in the show: Say Her Name (2016). In this image, the nude Faustine in her pearl slippers is lying flat on her back above an American flag in a darkened room with her mother seated nearby. This photographic tribute to Sandra Bland, a Black woman who died in police custody in 2015, is a haunting, prophetic image of another matriarch gone too soon. And thus, we say her mighty name: Nona Faustine.
