Notes From Ella: Barriane Franks: Visual Artist and Emerging Scholar

By Veronica Cross

Barriane Franks is a visual artist from New Orleans who started exhibiting her artwork in museums, institutions, and schools while she was still in high school at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA). She received her bachelor’s degree from Xavier University of Louisiana in 2020 with a major in Visual Arts and a minor in History and is currently working toward her Art History of the Italian Renaissance MA at Columbia University in New York, NY. Her resume and exhibition history reveal a driven and purposeful trajectory in preparation for a career of dual roles as artist and scholar, focusing on African and African American histories and representation, with an emphasis on social justice.

   In early childhood Barriane already knew that she was an artist, describing herself as self-taught prior to kindergarten. Relying on YouTube tutorials and art books gifted by her supportive parents, Barriane became acquainted with drawing. Primary education focused on academics, and she later explored painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, and media arts at NOCCA. Barriane’s ongoing Social Injustice Series was initiated during this time in response to a personal incident of racist aggression that exposed the persistence of racism in America.

Barriane Franks
Ascending Suppression, 2020
Acrylic on Canvas
48” x 60” x 1.5”

   By merging iconography and historical figures from the current moment, the conditions that activated the civil rights movement, and the antebellum era that embraced slavery, Barriane draws parallels between these periods, thereby collapsing time to demonstrate the urgency of social justice initiatives. She uses acrylic paints and employs Italian Renaissance techniques such as chiaroscuro in her spatial modeling, even utilizing pieta compositions that indicate divinity and emotion. Her graphic compositions also hearken back to the Social Realism movement of the mid 20th century. Works from this series have been viewed widely and early as the series developed. At NOCCA, Social Injustice Series was included in a showcase of Black History and a commission for their graduation ceremony, for which she produced the program’s cover art and received the Helen A. Mervis Award.  Barriane also exhibited this series at Cornerstone United Methodist Church Black History Program (as solo shows in 2016, 2017, 2018, with an award in 2020), the Teen Art Exhibition at Contemporary Arts Center (2016, 2017), and LUNA Fête in 2017, where she was the first African American and youngest artist selected.

Barriane Franks

13, 2020
Acrylic on canvas
48” x 60” x 1.5”

   When Ashlye Keaton, co-founder of The Ella Project, came to NOCCA to present information about protecting intellectual property, Barriane approached Ashlye to have her artworks copyrighted. This is a service that The Ella Project provides pro bono to artists, musicians, and culture bearers as the creators of original works. Ashlye is an intellectual property and entertainment lawyer and continues to work with Barriane for each new piece to safeguard her intellectual property from unauthorized use. For a period, Barriane had sold authorized editions of her artworks at festivals at Armstrong Park and others. As Barriane continues to share her work in public realms, copyrighting is a key authorship measure and demonstrates her professionalism.

While at Xavier, Barriane studied with esteemed artists such as Ron Bechet, and exhibited extensively. A project carried over from NOCCA featured an enlarged model of a slave ship that she originally fabricated in bronze, and ultimately re-created in wood at 120.0” x 84.0” x 72.0”, now permanently installed at Xavier’s library. Inspired to learn more about the Artworld and exploring the many possibilities for her place within it, Barriane interned at both the non-profit Antenna Works Gallery and as a curatorial assistant at the New Orleans Museum of Art. During this time, Barriane also started presenting scholarly lectures and papers on her research into various African aesthetics, understanding her academic work to be an extension of her spirituality.

   After college, Barriane has held internships with arts triennial Prospect 5 (P5), and research/intern positions at Yale, Princeton, and the University of Delaware. As she researches historical texts of the Italian Renaissance, she connects the visual motifs. Barriane envisions herself holding a museum or academic position ultimately, thereby aligning herself with a growing number of visual artists who seek scholarly work. For the summer of 2022, Barriane Franks is on a fellowship from Columbia University at Bard Graduate Center researching Italian Renaissance depictions of African and African-descent persons. Additional information on Barriane Franks can be found at https://www.princessbarrianeartistry.com/barrianefranks