Fan Lee Warren is a contemporary African American artist. She lives, works, and teaches drawing, painting, and art history at Lane Community College in Oakland, CA. Born in Birmingham, AL, and raised in Chicago, Warren’s art pays homage to historical memories, such as the great migration, the insightful wisdom of her elders, and constant civil strife. She has been exhibiting works on paper, sculptures, and installations for over three decades. Her work is in several public collections, such as the New Harold Washington Library Center in Chicago and the Alameda County Art Commission in Oakland, CA, as well as private collections.
Warren has received numerous grants, awards, and art commissions, including a Western States Arts Federation/National Endowment for the Arts. Her art has been featured and reviewed in various publications and catalogs such as American Vision, The New Art Examiner, The International Review of African American Art. A Contemporary History and Anthology of Contemporary African American Women Artist.
Artist Statement:
My work explores various perceptions of Black American culture, and it's reflected historical interpretations. I compose visual narratives questioning societal opinions, with layered images, fragments of symbols, and current events, simultaneously depicting information from the past and present.
The overlapping, collaged images of children, adults, and symbols are drawn and painted using a mixture of acrylics, watercolors, inks, pastels, and charcoal, displayed on paper in antiqued colonial frames. I often stress the paper's surface using fire, earth, and cooked herbs.
To further convey the history and its impacts upon present society, I habitually use the ancient universal spiral because of its timeless movement and flow. I believe the transformative pattern of the spiral connects me to ancestral memories; each spiral loop brings one back to the same place.
