Artists

Artists

Abigail DeVille

B. 1981, New York, NY
Works in Bronx NY

Venue

New Orleans African American Museum (NOAAM)

1418 Governor Nicholls Street
New Orleans, LA 70116

Monday – Tuesday, Closed

Wednesday – Sunday, 11am – 5pm

Neighborhood

Additional Venues: New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) and Press Street Railroad Yards, Music Box Village, Algiers Point

About the Artist

Maintaining a long-standing interest in marginalized people and places, Abigail DeVille creates site-specific immersive installations designed to bring attention to these forgotten stories. 

DeVille received a BFA from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2007, and an MFA from Yale University in 2011. Recent solo exhibitions include In the Fullness of Time, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME; In the fullness of time, the heart speaks truths too deep for utterance, but a star remembers, JTT, New York, NY; Original Night, Eric Firestone Gallery, NY; Bronx Heavens, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY; Light of Freedom, organized by Madison Square Park Conservancy, NY exhibited at the Momentary, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR and Hirshhorn Museum Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; The American Future, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, OR; and Empire State Works in Progress, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY. DeVille is a 2024-25 Hodder Fellow at Princeton; 2017-2018 Rome Prize fellow at the American Academy in Rome; 2015 Obie Award for Design recipient; 2014-15 fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard; 2013-14 AIR at The Studio Museum in Harlem; and a 2012 Joan Mitchell Foundation grant recipient.

Abigail DeVille's activation at Algiers Point will viewable to the public during Closing Weekend.

Previous Works

Abigail DeVille, The Observatory, 2021.

Welded steel, chicken wire, burnt wood panels, 7 video
monitors, 18’ diameter suspended cosmos, 13 burnt trees, blue wash painted walls, cosmic black plastic tarps, mannequin legs, Baltimore Social Security office trash cans, antique glass, mirror shards, sand, accumulated debris, ceramics; 50 x 40 x 27 ft. Installation view in Brand New Heavies at Pioneer Works, curated by Racquel Chervremont and Mickalene Thomas (Deux Femmes Noires). Photo credit: Olympia Shannon / Dan Bradica Studio. Image courtesy of the artist.

Abigail DeVille, Dark Matter, No Matter, 2020.

Shopping cart, dolly, rope, bungee cords, zip ties, aluminum foil, costume jewelry, glass TV monitor, antique glass bottles, dinner bell, record rack, deflated inner tubes, 1950s metal child space helmet, painted plastic helmet, light bulbs, mirror shards, deconstructed mannequin, child's mannequin head; 77 1⁄4 x 64 x 34 in. Photo credit: Pierre Le Hors. Image courtesy of the artist.

Abigail DeVille, 2022-2023.

Installation view of Abigail DeVille: Bronx Heavens (Oct 12, 2022 - Jun 18, 2023) at the Bronx Museum of Arts. Image courtesy of the artist. (Center) Azul, 2022. Wood, MDF, paint, wrapping plastic sheeting, light bulbs; 144 x 204 x 214 in. (Right) Cosmos Gates, 2022. Reclaimed TVs, found footage, historical footage, Bronx locations in 2022, lightbulbs; 84 x 143 x 23 in. (Left) All Seeing (surveillance), 2022. Steel, chicken wire, paper, charcoal, graphite; approximately 72 x 120 in. (diameter).

Abigail DeVille, 2022-2023.

Installation view of Abigail DeVille: Bronx Heavens (Oct 12, 2022 - Jun 18, 2023) at the Bronx Museum of Arts. Image courtesy of the artist. Azul, 2022. Wood, MDF, paint, wrapping plastic sheeting, light bulbs; 144 x 204 x 214 in. (Center) Lunar Capsule, 2022. Steel, aluminum, gold fabric, gold leaf, found chair, voice recorder, gold paint, LED lights; 75 x 82 in.

Abigail DeVille, Light of Freedom, 2020.

Welded steel, cabling, rusted metal bell, painted mannequin arms, painted metal scaffolding, wood; 156 x 96 x 96 in. Installation view at Madison Sq Park Conservancy, New York, NY. Image courtesy of the artist.