Quinn Alexandria Hunter joins Stamps as Assistant Professor
The Stamps School of Art & Design is excited to introduce Assistant Professor Quinn Alexandria Hunter, a sculptor and performance artist from Charlotte, North Carolina, to its faculty. Hunter brings a wealth of experience, a passion for interdisciplinary art, and a commitment to amplifying underrepresented narratives to the Stamps community.
Hunter received her BFA in New Media and Design from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2016 and her MFA in Sculpture and Expanded Practice from Ohio University in 2020. Hunter examines how erased or forgotten histories and cultural memories impact how the world sees, digests, and ultimately consumes Black female bodies and the spaces around them through object-making and performance.
Hunter’s journey to Stamps began with a passion for art and storytelling from a young age. During her undergraduate years, Hunter discovered her love of teaching and sharing her artistic knowledge with peers.
“I would help to teach my peers in study sessions, and I just really loved that dynamic, which continued in different ways,” Hunter said. “It felt like a natural fit for becoming a teacher.”
Her artistic journey has been marked by a dedication to uncovering hidden stories, particularly those related to African-American history. She describes her art practice as bringing history and the Black female body into the present, exploring stories lost or deliberately erased over time. Her work skillfully weaves together materiality and conceptual thought.
“My art practice is about making history and the Black female body present in space. It is about uncovering truths and beauty and pain and laying them next to each other in a way that is real and uncomfortable,” Hunter said.
Hunter’s work in progress, Paradise: The Myth of a Liberal North, layers Detroit’s history, geography, and social relations through art. Hunter uncovered two Detroit neighborhoods and archived images. The project involves digitally woven images using a jacquard loom and physically removing “signs of life” from the piece.
Hunter’s work has often focused on connecting people to history, a passion that led her to a remarkable endeavor during her early years as a graduate student. While studying in Ohio, she uncovered the history of Christopher Davis, a black man lynched in Athens, Ohio, in the 19th century. Driven by her passion for telling his story, she guerrilla-installed a plaque near the site of his lynching, sparking a movement that ultimately led to the installation of an officially recognized plaque at Ohio University’s campus and another at the Equal Justice Initiatives Memorial Museum in Birmingham, Alabama.
“I grew up in the South, so I grew up around stories that were buried – that people didn’t want to be told,” Hunter said. “For me, my art practice becomes this way of telling those stories and getting that information out into communities. The communities can see where they’ve been, where they’re coming from, and how that history affects the space they’re living in today.”
Hunter’s contributions to the art world have garnered recognition and accolades. She received the prestigious Hollis Parry/Ann Parry Billman Fine Arts Award from Ohio University in 2019. Additionally, her talent was acknowledged with the 2020 artist-in-residence at the Chautauqua School of Art and the 2020 – 2021 artist-in-residence at Wayne State University. Hunter is a 2023 Gilda Award Recipient through The Kresge Foundation in Detroit.
Hunter says Stamps was an excellent fit for her career because of its interdisciplinary nature. As an artist combining sculpture, weaving, ceramics, and more, Hunter appreciates the “completely interdisciplinary practice” at Stamps. She also plans to utilize U‑M’s identity as a research institution, as research informs much of her art practice.
“Stamps has that sort of materiality and conceptuality tied together. I’m excited to be able to teach in a program connected to how I make,” Hunter said.
Looking ahead to her role at Stamps, Hunter expressed a passionate commitment to guiding students in discovering their unique voices and stories.
“I hope students find their story in their voice, the voice they want to speak with, and the lens they want to speak through,” Hunter said. “Once you figure out the lens that you’re seeing through the world and how to make through that lens, your artistic voice is unique.”
To learn more about Hunter’s practice, visit her portfolio at www.quinnahunter.com.