Sanford Biggers

Sanford Biggers has received international acclaim for creating a diverse body of work in a variety of media revolving around themes of identity, spirituality, and race. In The Floating World, a series of six prints made at the Neiman Center in 2013, Biggers continued his exploration of quilt-based imagery.  Drawn to the idea that quilts made in the mid-19th century  served not merely as bed coverings but often conveyed messages to enslaved African-Americans regarding safe houses and areas of danger along the Underground Railroad, Biggers recreated the feel of handmade quilts in The Floating World using paper collage, stencils, screenprint and spray-paint as a vehicle for his own visual vocabulary. These prints vibrantly convey how historical events can influence and affect contemporary thought and imagery.   

Faye Hirsch reviewed The Floating World in the February 2014 issue of Art in Print.

Sanford Biggers (b. 1970) received an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has received numerous awards and acknowledgements for his work, including the Berlin Prize Fellowship from the American Academy, the Greenfield Prize at the Hermitage Artist Retreat, and the William H. Johnson Prize. He was also one of the three finalists for the inaugural Jack Wolgin International Competition in the Arts, the largest juried prize in the world to go to an individual visual artist. Biggers’s work has been the focus of solo exhibitions in the United States and abroad including at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, FL and MassMoCa in North Adams, MA. 

Learn more about this artist:

Artist's Website
Sanford Biggers: The Floating World