By: Alina Fang

Tiona Nekkia McClodden is an interdisciplinary visual artist, curator, and filmmaker whose work spans experimental video, photography, sculpture, and sound installations. Her work explores shared concepts, values, and viewpoints among people of the African Diaspora, or what she refers to as “Black mentifact.” She analyzes these topics in relation to race, gender, sexuality, and social commentary.

McCormick grew up in the American South. She experimented with cinematography in Georgia after leaving Clark Atlanta University, specializing primarily on punk and nightlife, before relocating to North Philadelphia in 2006. Her ground-breaking piece Brad Johnson Tapes, X-On Subjugation was featured in Meg Onli’s talk/performance at the ICA Philadelphia in 2017 and will remain in the holdings of the Museum of Modern Art. Before evaluating Julius Eastman’s work for the Slought Foundation in 2018, McClaughter got the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award in the same year.

Significant exhibits have featured her work, most recently Prospect 2021 in New Orleans, New Grit: Art & Philly Now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Owkui Enwezor’s Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America at the New Museum in New York. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin, and MoMA PS1 in New York have all included exhibitions of her work in the past. The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Rennie Museum in Vancouver both have McClodden’s work in their permanent collections.

During the past few years, McClodden has run Conceptual Fade, a project gallery and library. She founded in 2020 that hosts micro-exhibitions focused on Black art and conceptual practice, winning prestigious grants and fellowships like a 2021 Warhol Foundation Arts Writer Grant, Princeton Arts Fellowship, and Pew Arts Grant. Her writing has appeared in numerous journals, including Artforum, Cultured, ART 21 Magazine, and the Triple Canopy platform.