T.J. Dedeaux-Norris
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Biography
T.J. Dedeaux-Norris (aka Tameka Jenean Norris or Meka Jean) was born in Guam and received her undergraduate degree at the University of California, Los Angeles before graduating with an MFA from Yale University School of Art in 2012. Whilst at UCLA,
Norris transposed the language and aesthetic of hip-hop onto the backdrop of her college campus. In the video Licker (2010), Tameka Norris, in a bikini and fur coat raps, ‘I’m that black Cindy Sherman and that little Kara Walker, Basquiat resurrected from the dead…’
In her 2012 video series she tracked her progression through the Yale School of Art in a savvy update on Alex Bag’s classic Untitled Fall’95. In another gesture of appropriation, Tameka Norris pairs Janis Joplin and Drake for Mercedes Benz-Successful (2011).
Exhibitions
2018 The Embedded Message: Quilting in Contemporary Art, Visual Art Center of Richmond, VA
2017 Black & Brown People / White Problems , Samson Projects, Boston, USA
2016, Meka Jean, Michelle Joan Papillon Institute Los Angeles, CA
Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham
2015, Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art, Yerba Buena Museum, San Francisco, CA
Art Brussels, Ronchini Gallery, Brussels
2014, Almost Acquaintances, Ronchini Gallery, London (solo)
Prospect.3 New Orleans Biennial, New Orleans, LA
2013-15, Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art, The Studio Museum, Harlem, NY; The Walker Museum, Minneapolis, MN; and Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX
