Born in Kentucky and raised in Florida, Hamilton also spent time at her maternal family’s farm and in western Tennessee. Her relationship with these places forms the cornerstone of her practice, particularly her interest in landscape. In Hamilton’s treatment of land, the natural environment is the central protagonist in the unfolding of historic and contemporary narratives. Blending land-based folklore with personal family histories, Hamilton draws on haunting yet vital mythologies that address the social and political concerns of today’s changing southern terrain. This includes land loss, environmental justice, climate change, and sustainability.

In Garden Mask III, Allison Janae Hamilton fuses the natural and the fabricated to conjure a portrait of survival, memory, and transformation. A vintage fencing mask—once a tool of defense—is adorned with dyed wood and botanical elements, merging armor with ritual. The result is a talismanic object, at once protective and vulnerable, evoking Southern Gothic sensibilities and ancestral inheritance.

Allison’s work has been exhibited widely across the USA and internationally, with shows at the Georgia Museum of Art, MASS MoCA, Indicators: Artists on Climate Change at Storm King Art Center, or More, More, More at TANK Shanghai, among others. Some significant public collections include the Menil Collection, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Nasher Museum of Art etc. Hamilton is a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program and the Studio Museum in Harlem residency, and she is a recipient of both the Creative Capital Award and the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Grant.

Provenance
The artist