ABOUT    WORKS    WRITING    SERVICE

b. 1985, Buena Park, CA
Pronouns: they/them/theirs





Afrikana Artist Talk: dana washington-queen & Leila Weefur

“The Logic of Poetry and Dreams” guest poet at The Broad

INFO


dana washington-queen is a photographer, filmmaker and creative writer working in poetic, experimental and documentary forms to render and celebrate black life, culture, and queerness.

In 2020, they received a MFA in Visual Arts from UC San Diego as a SEED Fellow. In 2016, they received a BA in English: Rhetoric and Composition from California State University-Long Beach.

Their work has been exhibited and screened throughout North America, including the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, Visible Records, Jeffrey Dietch in Los Angeles, Art + Practice, San Diego Art Institute, 98 Orchard, Black Radical Imagination Film Tour, BlackStar Film Festival, OUTFEST Fusion LGBT People of Color Film Festival, Afrikana Independent Film Festival, and DTLA Film Festival.

In 2022, washington-queen was named the Artadia Los Angeles Marciano Art Foundation award recipient. In 2020, they received the Foundation for Contemporary Art Ellsworth Kelly award.

Current interests and research: kinship and community, barbershops as social institutions, queer relationships and fellowship, care and pleasure.


PROJECTS


Top Surgery Fund︎︎︎
BLACK & KIN Barber Studio (2024)
Resume at the Point of Interruption︎︎︎
Black Farm Studio House Co.︎︎︎

EXHIBITIONS


2022
  • Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Visible Records

2021
  • Springsteen Gallery
  • Calit2
  • Jeffrey Dietch

2020
  • Anonymous Gallery

2019
  • 98 Orchard
  • New Wight Gallery
  • San Diego Art Institute
  • Art + Practice

FESTIVALS


2020
  • Afrikana Independent Film Festival

2019
  • DTLA Film Festival

2018
  • Smithsonian African American Film Festival
  • Afrikana Film Festival
  • BlackStar Film Festival
  • OUTFEST Fusion LGBT People of Color Film Festival
  • Toronto Short Film Festival
  • Los Angeles Diversity Film Festival

PROGRAMS


2020
  • 1708 Gallery: “In Light Richmond”
  • Emerson College: “The Afrofuture is Female”

2019
  • Fondation d’enterprise Galeries Lafayette: “Lafayette Anticipations x KALEIDOSCOPE”

2018
  • Black Cinema House: “Vol. 4”
  • Black Radical Imagination: “Fugitive Trajectories”
  • USC: “Cinematheque 108: Open Letter, Recent Work from California Filmmakers”
  • MOCA Los Angeles: “Familiar Unknown: Mysticism in the Present Future”

AWARDS


 2022
  • Artadia Los Angeles Awardee (Marciano Art Foundation Award)

2020
  • Foundation for Contemporary Arts Ellsworth Kelly Award
  • University of California San Diego Ennalls Berl ’12 and Waggaman Berl ’17 Senior Thesis Award

2019
  • Best Experimental Film & Best Social Justice Short Film, DTLA Film Festival
  • University of California San Diego Russell Grant
  • University of California San Diego Black Studies Project Grant

2018
  • Bortsch Corp. Short Film Grant

2017
  • University of California San Diego Strategic Enhancement of Excellence through Diversity Fellowship

TEACHING


  • 2020-2021: Teaching Artist, The AjA Project

  • 2019-2020: Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of Visual Arts, University of California San Diego

PUBLICATION AS AUTHOR


Black Archives
Impulse to Collect Vol. 1 “An Entry Point Between Spaces: Concerning Permission,” November 2020.

PRESS


Bomb Magazine
Jessica Lanay, “Don’t Sweat the Technique: dana washington-queen interviewed by Jessica Lanay,” December 2022.

Hyperallergic
Jasmine Weber, “Week in Review: Awards & Accolades,” October 2020.

San Diego Union-Tribune
Lisa Deaderick, “In New Forging Territories Exhibition, Artist Places Herself in Center of Work and Center of Questioning and Reckoning,” July 2019.

Hyperallergic
Erica Rawles, “The LA Rebellion Filmmakers and Their Continued Relevance 50 Years Later,” April 2019.

Smithsonian African American Film Festival
Jheanelle Brown and Darol Olu Kae. “Notes on a Radical Elsewhere, Black Radical Imagination: Fugitive Trajectories,” 2018.

BlackStar Film Festival
Daniella Rose-King, “Stories Beneath Our Rib Cages: A Review of UNDER BONE and Two Parts Black,” 2018.
            Solo Exhibition at ICA VCU  Sep 2022 - Jan 2023                    2022 Artadia Los Angeles Marciano Award                    2020 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Ellsworth Kelly Award                 BLACK & KIN Barber Studio (TBA)